diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index bbef5ff..a1548fc 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -8,6 +8,25 @@ To our knowledge this is the **first pure-socket Informix driver in any language
 pip install informix-db
 ```
 
+Requires Python ≥ 3.10.
+
+## Status
+
+**Production ready.** Every finding from a system-wide failure-mode audit (data correctness, wire safety, resource leaks, concurrency, async cancellation) has been addressed:
+
+| Severity | Finding | Status |
+|---|---|---|
+| Critical | Pool returns connections with open transactions | Fixed (Phase 26) |
+| Critical | Unsynchronized wire path → PDU interleaving | Fixed (Phase 27) — per-connection wire lock |
+| High | Async cancellation leaks running workers onto recycled connections | Fixed (Phase 27) |
+| High | `_raise_sq_err` bare-except masks wire desync | Fixed (Phase 28) |
+| High | Cursor finalizers — server-side resources leak on mid-fetch raise | Fixed (Phase 28+29) |
+| Medium | 5 hardening items | Fixed (Phase 28+30) |
+
+**0 critical, 0 high, 0 medium audit findings remain.** Every architectural change went through a Margaret Hamilton-style review focused on silent-failure modes, recovery paths, and documented invariants. Each documented invariant is paired with either a runtime guard or a CI tripwire test.
+
+**Test coverage:** 300+ tests across unit / integration / benchmark suites. Integration tests run against the official IBM Informix Developer Edition Docker image (15.0.1.0.3DE).
+
 ## Quick start
 
 ```python
@@ -112,7 +131,7 @@ cur.write_blob_column(
 )
 ```
 
-Both work end-to-end in pure Python via the `lotofile` / `filetoblob` server functions intercepted at the `SQ_FILE` (98) wire-protocol level — no thread of native machinery. See [`docs/DECISION_LOG.md`](docs/DECISION_LOG.md) §10–11 for the architecture pivot that made this possible.
+Both work end-to-end in pure Python via the `lotofile` / `filetoblob` server functions intercepted at the `SQ_FILE` (98) wire-protocol level — no native machinery anywhere in the thread of execution. See [`docs/DECISION_LOG.md`](docs/DECISION_LOG.md) §10–11 for the architecture pivot that made this possible.
 
 ## Direct stored-procedure invocation (fast-path)
 
@@ -135,34 +154,41 @@ For features that need server-side configuration (smart-LOBs, logged transaction
 - Phase 8 — BYTE/TEXT (needs blobspace)
 - Phase 10/11 — BLOB/CLOB (needs sbspace + `SBSPACENAME` config + level-0 archive)
 
+## Performance
+
+Single-connection benchmarks against the dev container on loopback:
+
+| Operation | Mean | Throughput |
+|---|---:|---:|
+| `decode(int)` per cell | 139 ns | 7.2M ops/sec |
+| `parse_tuple_payload` per row (5 cols) | 1.4 µs | 715K rows/sec |
+| `SELECT 1` round-trip | ~140 µs | ~7K queries/sec |
+| 1000-row SELECT | ~1.0 ms | ~990K rows/sec sustained |
+| `executemany(1000)` in transaction | 32 ms | **~31,000 rows/sec** |
+| Pool acquire + query + release | 295 µs | ~3.4K queries/sec |
+| Cold connect (login handshake) | 11 ms | ~90 connections/sec |
+
+**Performance gotcha**: `executemany(...)` under `autocommit=True` is **53× slower** than the same call inside a single transaction (server flushes the transaction log per row). For bulk loads, `autocommit=False` (default) + `conn.commit()` at the end. See [`docs/USAGE.md`](docs/USAGE.md) for the full performance tips section.
+
 ## Standards & guarantees
 
 * **PEP 249** (DB-API 2.0): `connect()`, `Connection`, `Cursor`, `description`, `rowcount`, exception hierarchy
 * **`paramstyle = "numeric"`** (Informix's native ESQL/C convention; `?` and `:1` both work)
-* **Threadsafety = 1**: threads may share the module but not connections; the pool gives per-thread connection access
+* **Threadsafety = 1**: threads may share the module but not connections; the pool gives per-thread connection access. Phase 27 added a per-connection wire lock that makes accidental sharing safe (interleaved PDUs serialize correctly), but PEP 249 advice still holds — give each thread its own connection.
 * **CalVer versioning**: `YYYY.MM.DD` releases. PEP 440 post-releases (`.1`, `.2`) for same-day fixes.
 
 ## Development
 
-```bash
-# Set up the dev environment
-uv sync --dev
-
-# Run the test suite (unit-only by default; no Docker needed)
-uv run pytest                       # 69 unit tests
-uv run pytest -m integration        # 163 integration tests (needs Docker)
-
-# Lint
-uv run ruff check src/ tests/
-```
-
-The integration suite expects an Informix Developer Edition container on `localhost:9088`:
+The full test + lint workflow is in the [Makefile](Makefile). Quick summary:
 
 ```bash
-docker compose -f tests/docker-compose.yml up -d
+make test                     # 77 unit tests (no Docker)
+make ifx-up && make test-integration   # 231 integration tests
+make bench                    # benchmark suite
+make lint                     # ruff
 ```
 
-For the smart-LOB tests specifically, the dev container needs additional one-time setup (blobspace + sbspace + level-0 archive). See [`docs/DECISION_LOG.md`](docs/DECISION_LOG.md) §10 for the exact `onspaces` / `onmode` / `ontape` commands.
+For the smart-LOB tests specifically, the dev container needs additional one-time setup (blobspace + sbspace + level-0 archive). See [`docs/DECISION_LOG.md`](docs/DECISION_LOG.md) §10 for the `onspaces` / `onmode` / `ontape` commands.
 
 ## Documentation
 
@@ -172,7 +198,7 @@ For the smart-LOB tests specifically, the dev container needs additional one-tim
 
 ## Project history & design rationale
 
-This driver was built incrementally across 22+ phases, each with a focused scope and decision log. The reasoning trail lives in:
+This driver was built incrementally across 30 phases, each with a focused scope and decision log. The reasoning trail lives in:
 
 - [`docs/PROTOCOL_NOTES.md`](docs/PROTOCOL_NOTES.md) — byte-level SQLI wire-format reference
 - [`docs/JDBC_NOTES.md`](docs/JDBC_NOTES.md) — index into the decompiled IBM JDBC driver, used as a clean-room reference
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 978d769..340a044 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ authors = [{ name = "Ryan Malloy", email = "ryan@supported.systems" }]
 requires-python = ">=3.10"
 keywords = ["informix", "database", "sqli", "db-api", "pep-249", "asyncio", "async"]
 classifiers = [
-    "Development Status :: 4 - Beta",
+    "Development Status :: 5 - Production/Stable",
     "Framework :: AsyncIO",
     "Intended Audience :: Developers",
     "License :: OSI Approved :: MIT License",