Week of August 24, 2026
31 releases between August 24, 2026 and August 30, 2026, 4 of them change something you already run.
- Behavior change
- 2
- GA
- 2
- Preview
- 6
- Update
- 21
- On
- AWS 31, Azure 28, GCP 27
- ai_transcribe function (Beta)
Transcribes audio files into text with optional speaker diarization. Returns VARIANT value.
- Restrict service principal OAuth secrets to specific API scopes
Restricts OAuth secrets to specific API scopes like sql or jobs, limiting leaked secret impact.
- Zhipu AI GLM 5.3 now available as a Databricks-hosted model
Supports up to 1,048,576 tokens and 65,536 output tokens. Accessed via Foundation Model APIs.
- Monitor and cap external provider costs
Tracks and caps spend on Amazon Bedrock and Azure AI Foundry models. Requires enabling External Model Spend in Budgets on the account console.
- Unity Catalog Skills (Beta)
Publishes and governs agent skills, controlling access with Unity Catalog permissions.
- AI Functions REST API is now generally available
Includes ai_parse_document, ai_extract, and ai_classify calls.
- Run the change, do not just read it. Hands-on labs in your own Databricks workspace, graded when you submit. Browse labs
- Atlassian Audit Logs connector (Beta)
Ingests Atlassian organization audit log events using an API key.
- Dashboard enhancements and bug fixes
Hides pages from published view, adds path map visualization and customizable table column header alignment.
- Genie Agents enhancements
Agent mode APIs are now generally available, allowing programmatic integration. Unity Catalog functions can be attached as agent tools.
- Genie Code for AI Runtime (Public Preview)
Generates distributed training code and resolves environment issues. Requires AI Runtime.
- Genie Code is now available as a Lakeflow Jobs task (Beta)
Runs prompts autonomously, reading upstream outputs and calling tools as needed, returning a conversation link.
- Genie One enhancements
Opens Unity Catalog tables directly, adds visualizations to scheduled task emails, and includes a native macOS desktop app.
- Lakeflow Designer August Release
Adds Unique operator, expands Aggregate, Select, and Python operators, and improves canvas experience. Requires no setup changes.
- Share foreign Delta tables with OpenSharing (Public Preview)
Allows read-only access to Delta tables in foreign catalogs like OneLake or AWS Glue.
- Genie Agents enhancements
Adds chat mode, cancel API, and visualization download API.
- Query text is now masked by default in system tables and APIs
Masking applies to system.query.history, Query History API, and List Queries API. Account admins can grant access to unmasked text via databricks_pii_access group.
- xAI Grok 4.6 is now available on Unity Gateway
Access through governed API, switch models without changing code.
- Zerobus Ingest into streaming tables is now generally available
Works like writing to a managed Delta table with same limits and quotas.
- Get this table by email. One Monday mail covering the week, filtered to the clouds and products you run. Weekly digest
- Zhipu AI GLM 5.3 Flash is now available on Unity Gateway
Access through the same governed API, with centralized permissions and no code changes required.
- ai_prep_search supports plain text and markdown input (Beta)
Accepts STRING content, no need for ai_parse_document preprocessing.
- Anysphere Audit Logs connector (Beta)
Uses Anysphere Admin API to ingest audit-log events, requires Cursor Admin API key.
- LTAP Direct Writes accelerates synced table loads (Beta)
Requires Postgres 17, enabled from Previews page. Writes directly to storage layer.
- The Genie One desktop app for macOS is in Beta
Replaces in-browser access, allows native macOS use.
- Connect to the Databricks Genie app in Microsoft Teams with your workspace URL (Public Preview)
Replaces server hostname with workspace URL for connection.
- Genie Code is now available in the Lakebase project UI
Lets you run multi-step data and AI tasks with natural language input. Available for all Lakebase projects.
- Postgres minor version updates
Updates to 16.15, 17.11, and 18.6, applied on compute restart.
- Private network gateway is in Private Preview
Connects serverless compute to VPC and on-premises systems through a managed gateway, reusing existing network connectivity configuration.
- Secrets in Unity Catalog will soon be available by default for workspaces with the compliance security profile enabled Coming soon
Replaces manual enablement, uses catalog.schema.secret namespace.
- The INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE privileges are in Beta
Require Databricks Runtime 18.1 or above, alternative to MODIFY privilege.
- Unity Gateway now supports Provisioned Throughput
Adds access controls and usage tracking to Provisioned Throughput models.
- Verkada connector (Beta)
Ingests Verkada organization audit logs and access users using a Verkada API key.