Restore CI contracts and release 3.0.0b9

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -1,5 +1,23 @@
 # Changelog
 
+## [3.0.0b9] - 2026-07-16
+
+Beta release over 3.0.0b8 for registry coverage and CI stability.
+
+### Changed
+- Station fulllists generated by scans are stored under `OPENBENCH_HOME`,
+  allowing shared reference roots to remain read-only.
+- Expanded bundled model and reference metadata.
+
+### Fixed
+- Compute validation now accepts keyword arguments such as `isel(lake=0)`.
+- Restored required station-matching metadata and removed incomplete generated
+  station catalog entries.
+- Simulation scanning retains the TE `Albedo` compatibility key.
+- NetCDF evaluation writes no longer retain lazy references to closed source
+  datasets.
+- Ruff formatting for the FFT component metric.
+
 ## [3.0.0b8] - 2026-07-08
 
 Patch release over 3.0.0b7 for model coverage, audit fixes, and CI stability.

README.md

@@ -137,7 +137,7 @@ conda install -c conda-forge colm-openbench
 mamba install -c conda-forge colm-openbench   # or the faster mamba
 ```
 
-> **Note:** the current release is a Beta pre-release (`3.0.0b8`) and is **not on
+> **Note:** the current release is a Beta pre-release (`3.0.0b9`) and is **not on
 > conda-forge yet**. Until it is, use one of the two paths below.
 
 If your platform does not have wheels for geospatial dependencies such as

conda/meta.yaml

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {% set name = "colm-openbench" %}
 {% set dist_name = name|replace("-", "_") %}
-{% set version = "3.0.0b8" %}
+{% set version = "3.0.0b9" %}
 
 package:
   name: {{ name|lower }}

src/openbench/__init__.py

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 """OpenBench: Open Source Land Surface Model Benchmarking System."""
 
-__version__ = "3.0.0b8"
+__version__ = "3.0.0b9"
 __author__ = "Zhongwang Wei, CoLM-SYSU"
 __title__ = "OpenBench"
 __description__ = "Land Surface Model Benchmarking System"

src/openbench/cli/model.py

@@ -125,6 +125,7 @@ def _validate_expression(expr: str, *, label: str, allowed_names: set[str] | Non
         return
     from openbench.data.compute import (
         ComputeError,
+        _split_assignment,
     )
     from openbench.data.compute import (
         _validate_expression as validate_one,
@@ -137,12 +138,11 @@ def _validate_expression(expr: str, *, label: str, allowed_names: set[str] | Non
         # unknown/dangerous identifiers.
         active_allowed_names = {"value", "np", *(allowed_names or set())}
         for part in parts:
-            if "=" in part and not part.startswith("("):
-                target, rhs = part.split("=", 1)
-                validate_one(rhs.strip(), allowed_names=active_allowed_names)
-                target = target.strip()
-                if target.isidentifier():
-                    active_allowed_names.add(target)
+            assignment = _split_assignment(part)
+            if assignment is not None:
+                target, rhs = assignment
+                validate_one(rhs, allowed_names=active_allowed_names)
+                active_allowed_names.add(target)
             else:
                 validate_one(part, allowed_names=active_allowed_names)
     except ComputeError as exc:

src/openbench/core/metrics.py

@@ -1183,7 +1183,7 @@ def FFT_component(sim, obs):
             fft_sim = np.fft.rfft(sim)
 
             # Selects the strongest observed Fourier component representing at least two cycles across the record
-            dominant_freq_idx = np.argmax(np.abs(fft_obs[2 : ])) + 2
+            dominant_freq_idx = np.argmax(np.abs(fft_obs[2:])) + 2
 
             # Calculate phase difference
             phase_obs = np.angle(fft_obs)

src/openbench/data/registry/model_catalog.yaml

@@ -2582,12 +2582,9 @@ TE:
   name: TE
   tim_res: Month
   variables:
-    Surface_Albedo:
-      varname: alb
+    Albedo:
+      varname: ALB
       varunit: percentage
-      fallbacks:
-        - varname: ALB
-          varunit: percentage
     Canopy_Evaporation:
       varname: EIFLX
       varunit: kg m-2 s-1