Summary

Bump version to 1.16.0 and add the 1.16.0 section to CHANGELOG.md. This is the first GA exposing the opt-in kernel backend (useKernel: true); the default backend remains Thrift.

Notable changes since 1.15.0

• New: optional kernel backend (useKernel: true) — Rust core via napi-rs, shipped as prebuilt per-platform packages, over the SEA HTTP transport. Requires Node >= 18; opt in per connection. ([SEA-NodeJS] (1/8) Backend abstraction — IBackend / ISessionBackend / IOperationBackend #378, [SEA-NodeJS] (2/8) napi-rs binding consumer — TS loader + build script #380, [SEA-NodeJS] (1/3) SEA connect + auth (PAT + OAuth M2M/U2M) #409–[SEA-NodeJS] SEA query parameters, metadata & getInfo #412, [SEA-NodeJS] Kernel backend: connection/statement options, TLS & configurable sync/async execution #416, [SEA-NodeJS] Rename SEA → kernel across the driver (useSEA → useKernel) #428, feat(kernel): consume published @databricks/databricks-sql-kernel napi packages (0.2.0) #434)
• Kernel/Thrift behavior parity: params, metadata, TLS/mTLS, custom headers/UA, proxy + socketTimeout, retry/backoff, query tags, async + cancel, INTERVAL parity; unified logging. ([SEA-NodeJS] Unify kernel + driver logging into one DBSQLLogger sink #417, [SEA-NodeJS] Kernel-parity batch: mTLS + custom headers/UA + retry/backoff + operation-status fields #420, [SEA-NodeJS] Thrift-parity fixes: SQL error class + INTERVAL type code #421, [SEA-NodeJS] Sync execute via directResults (executeStatementDirect): fix CREATE, drop close-drives, keep cancel #426, feat(kernel): query-tags parity + Thrift-parity OAuth (scopes/routing/U2M id) + no-op unsupported options + KERNEL_REV bump #430, [SEA-NodeJS] feat(kernel): proxy + socketTimeout ConnectionOptions on the kernel backend #431)
• Configurable retry-policy knobs via connect() for both backends. (feat: make retry-policy knobs configurable via connect() (both backends) #433)
• Retry transient network errors + CloudFetch prefetch-rejection leak fix. (Retry transient network errors + fix CloudFetch prefetch-rejection leak #424)
• Telemetry: emit sql_operation, auth_type, driver_connection_params. ([telemetry improvement]: emit sql_operation, auth_type, driver_connection_params - ship even if null #396)

Test plan

• npm install --package-lock-only changes only the version field in the lockfile
• CI green
• Kernel cross-OS/arch validation (kernel-rc-cross-os workflow): green on Node 18/20/22 across linux gnu+musl, arm64 gnu+musl, darwin-arm64, win32-x64

Notes

• Tarball will gain the kernel files (dist/kernel/*, native/kernel/index.{js,d.ts}) vs 1.15.0 — additive, expected. The .node binaries are NOT in the tarball (they ship via optionalDependencies).
• Node 16 support is a planned follow-up (1.16.1), gated on republishing databricks-sql-kernel with engines >=16.

This pull request was AI-assisted by Isaac.