Releasesby GlyphActions retention will cover checks, workflow runs, and statuses
Starting October 1, 2026, checks, workflow runs, and statuses will be governed by the same Actions retention setting that already controls how long artifacts and logs are kept, with a default of 90 days. Until now, checks, workflow runs, and statuses were retained for 400+ days regardless of your retention configuration.
Also shipped Aug 27, 2026GitHub in August 2026 →
You can now train models using XGBoost version 2.1 by using the XGBOOST_VERSION option
You can now train models using XGBoost version 2.1 by using the XGBOOST_VERSION option. BigQuery uses the XGBoost 3.1.0 library to load and make predictions on XGBoost models. This feature is generally available .
CoCo in the Snowflake Extension for Visual Studio Code (General availability)
CoCo in the Snowflake Extension for Visual Studio Code is now generally available. CoCo runs in a side panel next to the extension's existing SQL and Snowpark Python workflows, so you can work locally while you stay connected to your Snowflake account.
Lakeflow Designer August Release
The Lakeflow Designer August release adds the Unique operator, expands the Aggregate, Select, and Python operators, and improves the canvas, preview, and version-history experience.
Genie Code is now available as a Lakeflow Jobs task (Beta)
You can now run prompts with Genie Code as a task in a Lakeflow Job. Genie Code runs your prompt autonomously. It can read upstream task outputs and call tools as needed. The task returns a link to the resulting Genie Code conversation with its response. See Genie Code task for jobs .
Genie Code for AI Runtime (Public Preview)
Use Genie Code to develop and troubleshoot deep learning workloads in notebooks connected to AI Runtime. Now in Public Preview , it generates distributed training code, resolves environment and dependency issues, and debugs GPU and distributed workload failures. See Use Genie Code with AI Runtime .
Share foreign Delta tables with OpenSharing (Public Preview)
You can now use OpenSharing to share foreign Delta tables, which are Delta-format tables registered in a foreign catalog such as OneLake, a Hive metastore, or AWS Glue. Providers add foreign Delta tables to a share, and recipients access the shared data in read-only format.
More from GitHub ActionsEvery GitHub Actions release →
GitHub Actions: Early September 2026 updates
GitHub Actions now includes three updates that give you clearer visibility and finer-grained control over your workflows. New REST API for runner version deprecations A new REST API returns when registration and runtime support end for a given runner version, so you can plan runner upgrades before a version is deprecated.
CodeQL 2.26.4 improves GitHub actions security detections
CodeQL is the static analysis engine behind GitHub code scanning, which finds and remediates security issues in your code. We’ve recently released CodeQL 2.26.4 , which adds support for Go 1.27, improves alert locations for Rust data flow queries, and includes accuracy improvements across C#, Java/Kotlin, and GitHub Actions.
Windows 11 arm64 VS2026 image generally available
The Windows 11 arm64 image with Visual Studio 2026 is now generally available on standard and larger GitHub-hosted runners. To use it in GitHub Actions, update your workflow file to runs-on: windows-11-vs2026-arm .
Separate GitHub Actions path for GitHub Code Quality
A dedicated workflow path for code quality CodeQL actions workflows is now generally available. Your workflow run history and your Actions usage reports now tell GitHub Code Quality runs apart from GitHub code scanning runs.
CodeQL 2.26.3 improves GitHub Actions queries and JavaScript modeling
CodeQL 2.26.3 adds JavaScript, TypeScript, and Vue source modeling and improves the accuracy of several GitHub Actions queries. CodeQL is the static analysis engine behind GitHub code scanning , which helps you find and remediate security issues in your code.
Control GitHub Actions cache access with cache-mode
You can now use cache-mode to apply least-privilege access to the GitHub Actions cache at the workflow or job level. By granting each workflow or job only the cache access it needs, you can prevent unnecessary restores or saves and help protect trusted workflows from cache poisoning. This capability is now generally available on all plans.
Xcode 27 runner image now runs on macOS 27
You can now validate your Apple apps against macOS 27 using the Xcode 27 runner image for GitHub-hosted macOS runners, available in public preview. The image previously ran on macOS 26. How you target the image stays the same.
Ubuntu 26 generally available and latest migration
The Ubuntu 26.04 runner image for GitHub Actions is now out of public preview and fully supported for production workflows on both x64 and arm64. As part of this release, the ubuntu-latest label will migrate to Ubuntu 26.04, giving you the latest supported Ubuntu release by default.