chore(main): release 1.18.0

[github-actions]

Ready for new finch release - Please verify the checklist items in the bottom of this PR before merging

1.18.0 (2026-08-13)

Build System or External Dependencies

• deps: bump golang.org/x/image from 0.38.0 to 0.41.0 (#1782) (ab0df60)
• deps: Bump submodules and dependencies (#1783) (2b40269)

Features

• add auto vm init/start on first finch run (#1751) (48c9a8b)
• gate vmnet behind config, use vzNAT for vz and socket_vmnet for qemu (ff1346b)
• use vzNAT for vz networking, gate socket_vmnet behind config for qemu (#1749) (ff1346b)

Bug Fixes

• credhelper fixups (#1785) (2299129)
• macOS: prevent self-referential ~/.aws/.aws symlink (#1778) (01fd081)

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🤖 IMPORTANT Please Read

This PR was generated automatically by release-please.

Please verify the following before merging this PR:

1. The Sync Submodules workflow has completed successfully in the finch-core repo.
2. The Update Dependencies workflow has completed successfully in the finch-core repo and following subsequent PRs (if created) have been merged -
   1. Bump finch dependencies (for example).
   2. Update QEMU (for example)
   3. Update Linux dependencies (for example)
   4. Update Container Runtime full archive (for example)
   5. Update ECR cred helper (for example)
   6. Update SOCI snapshotter (for example)
3. Update fedora OS versions for window and mac (for example)

Note: Based on the requirements, you may want to selectively merge some of them.

3. The Sync Submodules and Dependencies workflow has completed successfully in this repo, the subsequent PR (for example) has been merged and the corresponding run of CI-release has passed.
4. Latest run of samcli-vm tests in the finch-daemon repo are sucessful.

Need to make changes? Push additional commits to main and this PR will be updated automatically.