chore: update changelog, prepare for release

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -6,6 +6,43 @@ The format is based on [Keep a Changelog](http://keepachangelog.com/en/1.0.0/).
 to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org). When adding a new entry, please use the entries below
 as a guide.
 
+## [v25.2.0] - 2026-01-28
+
+[v25.2.0]: https://github.com/dgraph-io/dgraph/compare/v25.1.0...v25.2.0
+
+- **Added**
+
+- **GraphQL**
+  - feat(graphql): Add support for ef and distance_threshold in generated GraphQL queries for
+    similarity search (#9562).
+    > **WARNING** In #9562, the computed distances (automatically returned in the `vector_distance`
+    > field) for cosine and dot product metrics are no longer normalized to [0, 1], but instead
+    > return the raw distance computed by the metric.
+
+- **Vector**
+  - feat(vector/hnsw): add per-query `ef` and `distance_threshold` to `similar_to`, fix early
+    termination (#9514)
+
+- **Fixed**
+
+- **Core**
+  - fix(txn): for lossy indexes, change comparison function to first check the txn cache (#9567)
+  - fix(cmd): store correct CA verification status (#9554)
+  - fix(zero): make zero shutdown cleanly (#9525)
+
+- **Vector**
+  - fix(vector): Fix similarity-based HNSW search for cosine and dot product metrics (#9559)
+    > **WARNING** To benefit from the fix in #9559, you must reindex vector predicates that use
+    > cosine or dot product metrics.
+
+- **Chore**
+  - docs: fix typos in comments (#9569)
+  - chore(ci): update go toolchain version to v1.25.6 (#9568)
+  - fix(ci): update trunk go runtime to match go.mod version (#9575)
+  - chore(test): replace deprecated docker struct types in testing harness (#9549)
+  - chore(test): unskip previously skipped tests (#9537)
+  - chore(core): use Tick() instead of NewTicker() (#9548)
+
 ## [v25.1.0] - 2025-12-04
 
 [v25.1.0]: https://github.com/dgraph-io/dgraph/compare/v25.0.0...v25.1.0

contrib/RELEASE.md

@@ -34,7 +34,12 @@ This document outlines the steps needed to build and push a new release of Dgrap
 1. Verify the push
    1. Ensure the image tags are pushed to
       [https://hub.docker.com/r/dgraph/dgraph/tags](https://hub.docker.com/r/dgraph/dgraph/tags)
-   1. Run this command to verify the version: `docker run dgraph/dgraph:vXX.X.X dgraph version`
+   1. Run these commands to verify the version: 
+      ```
+      docker run --pull always dgraph/dgraph:vXX.X.X dgraph version
+      docker run --pull always dgraph/dgraph:latest dgraph version
+      docker run --pull always dgraph/standalone:latest dgraph version
+      ```
    1. The new CD workflow _should_ copy all artifacts to the release (there should be 10 artifacts
       with the release). If not, at the end of the CD workflow, you'll find the created artifacts
       that you'll need to download and then re-upload to the release, sigh... (click on the 'edit'