Releasesby GlyphDatabricks Runtime 18 and Databricks Runtime 18 for Machine Learning have transitioned to LTS
With the general availability of Databricks Runtime 19, Databricks Runtime 18 and Databricks Runtime 18 for Machine Learning have transitioned to long-term support (LTS). LTS versions receive three years of stability and security fixes. For release notes, see Databricks Runtime 18 LTS and Databricks Runtime 18 LTS for Machine Learning .
Also shipped Jul 23, 2026Databricks in July 2026 →
SQL environment variable and private Git package support for dbt Projects on Snowflake
Environment variable support for dbt Projects on Snowflake is now generally available. Manage per-developer schemas, dynamic runtime values, secrets, and multiple environments in a single, Git-versioned env.yml file that Snowflake resolves before each run.
SERVICE_AGENT user type (General availability)
With this release, the SERVICE_AGENT user type is generally available. Use this user type for automated AI agents that interact with Snowflake using their own identity and privileges.
SHOW CORTEX BASE MODELS command (General availability)
With this release, we are pleased to announce the general availability of the SHOW CORTEX BASE MODELS command. Use this command to list the Cortex Base Models available in your account, along with each model’s lifecycle status, regional availability, legacy date, and end-of-life date.
Transparent query forwarding is now available in Preview for clusters compatible with PostgreSQL 17 and 18
Transparent query forwarding is now available in Preview for clusters compatible with PostgreSQL 17 and 18. With this feature, the primary node in a cluster intercepts read-only queries and selectively forwards them to read pool instances while maintaining read-your-writes consistency.
Copilot cloud agent for Linear is now generally available
You can now assign issues in Linear to Copilot cloud agent , our asynchronous, autonomous background agent. When you assign a Linear issue to Copilot, it will: Analyze the issue contents and open a draft pull request. Work independently in its own ephemeral development environment, powered by GitHub Actions.
GitHub MCP Server supports the next MCP specification
The MCP protocol is going stateless on 28th July 2026, and the GitHub MCP Server supports the latest spec ahead of the official release. What’s changing The new stateless core means MCP deployments are now easy to scale. Extensions unlock innovation (e.g., MCP apps and Enterprise Managed Auth, both of which are already supported by VS Code).
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Databricks Runtime 19 and Databricks Runtime 19 for Machine Learning are now generally available
Databricks Runtime 19 and Databricks Runtime 19 for Machine Learning are now generally available (GA), powered by Apache Spark 4.2.0. For release notes, see Databricks Runtime 19 and Databricks Runtime 19 for Machine Learning .
Databricks Runtime 19: July 23, 2026
Databricks Runtime 19 is now generally available (GA). For lifecycle details, see Databricks Runtime support lifecycles . Behavioral changes Arrow-optimized Python UDFs enabled by default : Regular Python UDFs now use Arrow-based serialization by default. This can change type-coercion behavior for some UDFs compared to previous releases.
Dedicated group clusters will soon be available by default for workspaces with the compliance security profile enabled
Dedicated group clusters will be available by default for workspaces with the compliance security profile enabled in September 2026. You can assign a compute resource to a group using the Dedicated access mode, letting group members share compute while securely running languages and workloads not supported by standard access mode, such as Databricks Runtime...
Git CLI commands in Git folders are now in Public Preview
Git CLI commands in Git folders are now in Public Preview . Git folders that you create from the UI automatically get Git CLI access when your workspace is eligible, so you can run standard Git commands such as git stash , interactive rebase, pre-commit hooks, Git submodules, and Large File Storage (LFS) directly from a Databricks terminal.
Databricks Runtime maintenance updates (07/24)
New maintenance updates are available for supported Databricks Runtime versions. These updates include bug fixes, security patches, and performance improvements. For details, see: Databricks Runtime 18 LTS Databricks Runtime 18.2 Databricks Runtime 18.1 Databricks Runtime 17.3 LTS Databricks Runtime 16.4 LTS Databricks Runtime 15.4 LTS Databricks Runtime...
Variant will soon be available by default for workspaces with the compliance security profile enabled
Variant will be available by default for workspaces with the compliance security profile enabled in July 2026. Use Variant to ingest semi-structured data from streaming sources (Kinesis, Event Hub), REST APIs, and schemaless databases, while maintaining high-performance query access. See Variant type support for Apache Iceberg and Delta Lake .
Variant and Variant shredding are now generally available
Variant is now generally available . Variant is a flexible data type for semi-structured data that delivers structured-like query performance through Variant shredding, which is also generally available.
Transactions are now generally available
Transactions that write to Unity Catalog managed Delta tables are now generally available. Group multiple SQL statements across one or more tables into a single atomic transaction using BEGIN ATOMIC ... END; or BEGIN TRANSACTION; ... COMMIT; syntax. All changes succeed together or roll back together, ensuring data consistency across your operations.