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...
Also shipped Jul 24, 2026Databricks in July 2026 →
Skill and plugin sharing in CoCo (Public Preview)
Skill and plugin sharing is now available in public preview. Share, discover, and govern CoCo skills and plugins across your Snowflake account. Publish them as Cortex Extension objects that teammates can find and install, with administrator certification, access control, and usage telemetry. For more information, see Share skills and plugins .
Knowledge Catalog governance workflows for data product access in preview
Governance workflows add automated controls for data product access management through a request-review mechanism.
Claude Opus 5 launches with a 1M token context window at $5 / $25 per MTok
Claude Opus 5 improves on Opus 4.8 with a 1M token context window, 128k max output and thinking on by default, at the same $5 / $25 per MTok price. It is available on the Claude API, Bedrock, Google Cloud and Microsoft Foundry.
Mid-conversation tool changes enter beta on the Claude API
Add or remove tools between turns while preserving the prompt cache on Claude Fable 5, Mythos 5, Opus 4.8 and Opus 5, using the mid-conversation-tool-changes-2026-07-01 beta header.
Claude API fallbacks parameter adds a default mode for recommended fallbacks
The default mode applies Anthropic's recommended fallback models by refusal category. Server-side fallback is in beta and this mode requires the server-side-fallback-2026-07-01 header.
Fast mode removed for Claude Opus 4.7
Requests to claude-opus-4-7 with speed fast now return an error rather than falling back to standard speed. The model stays available at standard speed; migrate to Opus 5 or Opus 4.8 to keep fast mode.
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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 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 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 .
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.
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.