Prepare changelog for v1.18.0 release (#5489)

* Complete changelog for v1.18.0 release
* Improve copilot-instructions.md

Co-authored-by: copilot-swe-agent[bot] <198982749+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: JeffreyCA <9157833+JeffreyCA@users.noreply.github.com>

Author: Copilot

.github/copilot-instructions.md

@@ -205,7 +205,7 @@ Rename any existing `## 1.x.x-beta.1 (Unreleased)` section to the version being
 ```bash
 git --no-pager log --grep="Increment CLI version" --invert-grep -n 3 --follow -p -- cli/azd/CHANGELOG.md
 ```
-Look at the commit messages and diff output to identify the commit that added the previous version's changelog.
+Review the diff output to find the most recent commit that added the previous version's changelog - this is the cutoff commit. Focus on the actual changelog changes in the diff instead of the commit messages themselves.
 
 **Get commits to process**:
 ```bash
@@ -214,18 +214,27 @@ git --no-pager log --oneline --pretty=format:"%h (%ad) %s" --date=short -20 orig
 Increase `-20` if needed to find the cutoff commit. `git log` shows commits in reverse chronological order (newest first). You must identify the cutoff commit and only take commits newer than (above) it.
 
 ### Step 3: Gather context and write changelog entry
-**IMPORTANT: For EACH commit collected, do the following:**
+**CRITICAL INSTRUCTION: Process each commit individually and sequentially. Complete the full workflow (extract PR, fetch details, categorize, write entry, save) one entry at a time. DO NOT batch process multiple commits/PRs, skip PRs, or cut the process short due to time constraints.**
 
 1. **Extract PR number**: Look for `(#XXXX)` pattern in commit message
 2. **Fetch PR details** using GitHub tools: owner: `Azure`, repo: `azure-dev`, pullNumber: `PR#`
     - Get the GitHub handle of the PR owner, and determine whether the owner is outside the core team (handle not in `.github/CODEOWNERS`)
 3. **Identify linked issues**: Scan PR details for GitHub issue references
 4. **Fetch linked issue details** using GitHub tools: owner: `Azure`, repo: `azure-dev`, issue_number: `XXXX`
 5. **Categorize change**: Features Added, Bugs Fixed, Other Changes
-6. **Write changelog entry**:
+6. **Add changelog entry to CHANGELOG.md**:
     - **Format**: `- [[PR#]](https://github.com/Azure/azure-dev/pull/PR#) User-friendly description.`
-    - **Guidelines**: Be brief. Start with action verbs (Add, Fix, Update, etc.) and describe user impact. Follow existing changelog entries for style.
+    - **Process**: Read PR description and linked issue carefully to understand the user impact
+    - **Guidelines**:
+        - Be brief. Start with action verbs (Add, Fix, Update, etc.) and describe user impact. Follow existing changelog entries for style.
+        - For bugs, phrase the changelog entry in terms of the issue that was fixed when possible. Example: "Fix PowerShell 7 suggestion text not showing for service-level hooks."
     - **Attribution**: For PRs from contributors outside the core team, append: " Thanks @handle for the contribution!"
+7. **Exclude the following types of changes** from the changelog:
+    - Test-related changes and test infrastructure updates
+    - Documentation updates (README.md, .md files, CODEOWNERS)
+    - Automated dependency bumps and CVE fixes that are purely dependency updates (updates to tools like Bicep CLI, GitHub CLI should remain in the changelog)
+    - Internal refactoring, code cleanup, and variable renames without user impact
+    - Build/release infrastructure and CI/CD pipeline changes
 
 ### Step 4: Organize and finalize
 1. **Remove empty categories** and **validate formatting**

.vscode/cspell-github-user-aliases.txt

@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@ haoozhang
 isatty
 joho
 karolz
+kitsiosk
 LianwMS
 Lunatico9
 mattn

cli/azd/CHANGELOG.md

@@ -1,15 +1,35 @@
 # Release History
 
-## 1.18.0-beta.1 (Unreleased)
+## 1.18.0
 
 ### Features Added
 
-### Breaking Changes
+- [[5380]](https://github.com/Azure/azure-dev/pull/5380) Improve project name validation to prevent service packaging failures with invalid characters.
+- [[5411]](https://github.com/Azure/azure-dev/pull/5411) Add LLM package for AI functionality with auto-detection of LLM configuration.
+- [[5397]](https://github.com/Azure/azure-dev/pull/5397) Add support for generic OIDC authentication with any CI provider.
+- [[4832]](https://github.com/Azure/azure-dev/pull/4832) Improve user experience by prompting for confirmation before setting a new environment as the default.
+- [[5384]](https://github.com/Azure/azure-dev/pull/5384) Add support for boolean and integer default values in azd metadata fields.
+- [[5383]](https://github.com/Azure/azure-dev/pull/5383) Add support for `.webappignore` and `.funcignore` files in zip deployment packaging.
+- [[5430]](https://github.com/Azure/azure-dev/pull/5430) Update `azd hooks run` to always run hooks in interactive mode and improve schema validation.
 
 ### Bugs Fixed
 
+- [[5478]](https://github.com/Azure/azure-dev/pull/5478) Fix panic when encountering Bicep secure output parameters.
+- [[5468]](https://github.com/Azure/azure-dev/pull/5468) Fix PowerShell 7 suggestion text not showing for service-level hooks.
+- [[5470]](https://github.com/Azure/azure-dev/pull/5470) Fix preflight error handling for deployment stack validation.
+- [[5446]](https://github.com/Azure/azure-dev/pull/5446) Fix Bicep parameter evaluation to properly inject environment variables before deployment.
+- [[5459]](https://github.com/Azure/azure-dev/pull/5459) Fix nil pointer error when checking credentials for Azure DevOps authentication.
+- [[5434]](https://github.com/Azure/azure-dev/pull/5434) Improve handling of unrecognized expressions in Aspire manifest files.
+- [[5372]](https://github.com/Azure/azure-dev/pull/5372) Fix null tags handling in deployment stack operations.
+
 ### Other Changes
 
+- [[5471]](https://github.com/Azure/azure-dev/pull/5471) Cancel CI workflow that becomes obsolete after a new commit is pushed in an open PR. Thanks @kitsiosk for the contribution!
+- [[5420]](https://github.com/Azure/azure-dev/pull/5420) Improve help description for `azd provision --no-state`.
+- [[5378]](https://github.com/Azure/azure-dev/pull/5378) Add Microsoft.Automation/automationAccounts to resources for output.
+- [[5461]](https://github.com/Azure/azure-dev/pull/5461) Update GitHub CLI version to 2.75.1.
+- [[5443]](https://github.com/Azure/azure-dev/pull/5443) Update Bicep CLI version to 0.36.177.
+
 ## 1.17.2 (2025-06-23)
 
 ### Bugs Fixed

cli/version.txt

@@ -1 +1 @@
-1.18.0-beta.1
+1.18.0