9.8.0 / 2026-07-20

• feat(schema): add strictRead option to filter or throw on unknown fields during document hydration #16345 #4279 GourabSingha
• feat: upgrade MongoDB Node.js driver to 7.5 #16391
• fix(subdocument): don't minimize empty document array elements to null #16393 #15336 #7322 WaleedAshraf
• fix(model): correctly handle version keys when bulkSave() inserts new documents #16386 #15800 AbdelrahmanHafez
• fix(cast): correctly cast object-shaped geo query values #16380 #16376 rajkumar0932
• fix(schema): avoid mutating shared setters when casting array query values #16372 #16364 yakubka
• fix(document): correctly handle excluded parent paths with optimistic concurrency #16367 #16054 AbdelrahmanHafez
• types(model): add pathsToSave to SaveOptions #16375 AbdelrahmanHafez
• types(model): support extra fields in hydrate() with strict: false #16374 #15940 AbdelrahmanHafez
• docs(populate): document missing options and perDocumentLimit for populate() #16371 Wnayar
• docs: expand sample() example to show sampling from a filtered subset #16369 Wnayar
• docs: fix typos, grammar, and documentation links #16389 LakshyaTyagi15