Databricks releases, every cloud
- Data Classification now scans Unity Catalog views (Beta)
Scans Unity Catalog views in addition to tables, using the same detection engine, and is currently in Beta.
- Standard performance mode is now available for one-time runs in the Jobs API
Sets performance_target to STANDARD. Supports Apache Airflow's DatabricksSubmitRunOperator.
- Environment version 6 is now available
Supports serverless and standard classic compute.
- Unity Catalog Skills (Beta)
Publishes and governs agent skills, controlling access with Unity Catalog permissions.
- Context attributes in ABAC column mask and row filter policies (Beta)
Targets request context, such as OAuth client ID and on-behalf-of status, in Unity Catalog policies.
- Identity attributes in ABAC column mask policies (Beta)
Targets users by attributes like department or country, using has_identity_attribute_value and has_identity_attribute_tag_match functions.
- Run the change, do not just read it. Hands-on labs in your own Databricks workspace, graded when you submit. Browse labs
- Tags page in Governance Hub (Beta)
Provides a centralized view of tag usage, summarizes governed tags, and offers recommendations for invalid values. Requires account admins to enable from Previews page.
- Define business concepts with Pages (Beta)
Gives business terms a single governed definition, part of Unity Catalog semantics.
- READ METADATA privilege is GA
Provides read-only visibility into security-sensitive metadata, including privilege grants and ABAC policies.
- Tag automations (Beta)
Assigns or removes governed tags on Unity Catalog tables or volumes based on defined conditions.
- Refresh materialized views and streaming tables without exempting the pipeline owner from ABAC policies
Pipeline owners are now subject to ABAC policies when refreshing views and tables. Policies are evaluated using the pipeline owner's identity.
- Secrets in Unity Catalog is GA
Stores secrets as securable objects with Unity Catalog privileges. Uses catalog.schema.secret namespace.
- Upcoming general availability of Unity Gateway Coming soon
Extends Unity Catalog governance to runtime interactions, controls AI service usage, and monitors traffic. Available by default for workspaces with compliance security profile in mid-September.
AWS, read it on their docsAzure, read it on their docsGCP, read it on their docsSAP(not on this cloud) - Databricks-hosted sample datasets available in the samples catalog
Available in Unity Catalog-enabled workspaces through OpenSharing as samples.databricks.datasets.
AWS, read it on their docsAzure, read it on their docsGCP, read it on their docsSAP(not on this cloud) - July 6, 2026
Updates from Databricks Runtime 18, adds Spark Declarative Pipelines and IP address functions.
AWS, read it on their docsAzure, read it on their docsGCP, read it on their docsSAP(not on this cloud) - Govern LLMs in Unity Catalog with model services (Beta)
Represents a governed LLM endpoint, sharable across workspaces via Unity Catalog privileges.
AWS, read it on their docsAzure, read it on their docsGCP, read it on their docsSAP(not on this cloud) - Comments on foreign tables (Beta)
Syncs table and column comments from external data sources to Unity Catalog foreign tables.
AWS, read it on their docsAzure, read it on their docsGCP, read it on their docsSAP(not on this cloud) - ABAC GRANT policies for models (Beta)
Grants EXECUTE privilege on models based on governed tags, supporting MLflow and foundation models.
AWS, read it on their docsAzure, read it on their docsGCP, read it on their docsSAP(not on this cloud) - Get this table by email. One Monday mail covering the week, filtered to the clouds and products you run. Weekly digest
- Reorganized Spark Declarative Pipelines on Lakeflow documentation
Conceptual topics are now under Concepts.
AWS, read it on their docsAzure, read it on their docsGCP, read it on their docsSAP(not on this cloud) - Column popularity is now available in the Catalog Explorer
Shows column query count in the Overview tab, determined by read queries.
- Cross-engine attribute-based access controls (Beta)
Enforces row filters and column masks server-side for external engines reading Unity Catalog tables.
AWS, read it on their docsAzure, read it on their docsGCP, read it on their docsSAP(not on this cloud) - Workspace admin setting for serverless notebook execution timeout
Replaces manual override process, defaults to 2.5 hours.
- Version 18.2
Adds CREATE OR REPLACE TEMP TABLE syntax and upgrades Snowflake JDBC driver to 3.28.0.
AWS, read it on their docsAzure, read it on their docsGCP, read it on their docsSAP(not on this cloud) - Faster package installs with %uv pip in serverless notebooks
Requires environment version 5 or above. Replaces %pip for faster installs.
- Tag Unity Catalog functions
Requires Databricks Runtime 18.1 or above. Uses SET TAG and UNSET TAG commands.
AWS, read it on their docsAzure, read it on their docsGCP, read it on their docsSAP(not on this cloud) - Recently Resolved Incidents section in Data Quality Monitoring (Beta)
Shows automatically recovered unhealthy tables, including resolution time.
AWS, read it on their docsAzure, read it on their docsGCP, read it on their docsSAP(not on this cloud) - Version 18.1
Supports DATETIMEOFFSET for Azure Synapse and adds schema evolution with INSERT statements.
AWS, read it on their docsAzure, read it on their docsGCP, read it on their docsSAP(not on this cloud) - Create and write to Unity Catalog tables from external Delta clients (Beta)
Requires catalog-managed commits to be enabled, supports Apache Spark clients.
AWS, read it on their docsAzure, read it on their docsGCP, read it on their docsSAP(not on this cloud) - SQL reference documentation for managing governed tags
Adds 5 SQL statements: CREATE, ALTER, DROP, DESCRIBE, SHOW.
AWS, read it on their docsAzure, read it on their docsGCP, read it on their docsSAP(not on this cloud) - Databricks Documentation site table of contents tabs
Replaces static sidebar with tabbed navigation, includes 6 context tabs.
- Create alerts for anomaly detection in the Data Quality Monitoring UI (Beta)
Creates notifications for unusual data patterns, available in Beta.
AWS, read it on their docsAzure, read it on their docsGCP, read it on their docsSAP(not on this cloud) - ABAC policy functions now use snake_case naming
Replaces camelCase with snake_case, old forms still work but will be deprecated.
- Data quality monitoring documentation moved to Data governance (Unity Catalog)
Moved from Data guides to Data governance chapter.
AWS, read it on their docsAzure, read it on their docsGCP, read it on their docsSAP(not on this cloud) - Customer-managed keys for Unity Catalog (Beta)
Uses own encryption keys for Unity Catalog catalogs. Replaces automatic encryption.
- Version 18.0
Upgrades Redshift JDBC driver to 2.1.0.28, adds SQL window functions to metric views.
- Serverless environment version 5 is now available
Includes CPU and GPU versions.
- Discover page and domains (Beta)
Groups data assets by functional area, built on governed tags.
- New GCP regions support serverless compute
Available in me-central1 and southamerica-east1 regions.
- You can now use custom base environments for Python, Python Wheels, and notebook tasks in serverless jobs
Defined with YAML files, they support Python, Python wheel, and notebook tasks.
- New Databricks accounts will not have access to legacy features
New accounts use Unity Catalog, lack DBFS root access. Applies to accounts created after December 18, 2025.
Headlines, dates and product areas are Databricks' own, from the release notes published for each cloud, and every item links to the note it came from. The one-line summaries are ours. Not a Databricks product and not affiliated with Databricks, Inc.