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.
Also shipped Sep 3, 2026GitHub in September 2026 →
Conversational analytics now supports questions about market basket analysis
Conversational analytics now supports questions about market basket analysis . This feature is generally available (GA).
External lineage (General availability)
External lineage is now generally available and is no longer in Preview .
Restricted Session Scope for agents (General availability)
With this release, Restricted Session Scope (RSS) is generally available. An RSS is a privilege ceiling that limits what an agent can do on behalf of a user. It intersects with RBAC and never grants privileges the user doesn't already have through their roles.
Share metric views with OpenSharing (Beta)
You can now share metric views with Databricks users in other metastores or accounts using OpenSharing. See Add metric views to a share and Read shared metric views .
Genie One enhancements
- Ask Genie button hidden when unsupported : In embedded dashboards, the Ask Genie button is now hidden when it isn't supported. See Ask Genie in embedded dashboards . Push notifications for scheduled tasks (Public Preview) : The Genie mobile app can now send push notifications for scheduled tasks to iOS devices. See Push notifications .
Web search in Genie One (Beta)
Genie One can now search the public web to answer questions that need current information, such as recent releases, third-party documentation, or news. Genie One decides when to search and cites the sources it uses, showing each as a link you can open. See Search the web .
More from GitHub ActionsEvery GitHub Actions release →
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.
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.
Actions 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.
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.
Workflow execution protections in GitHub Actions generally available
Workflow execution protections for GitHub Actions, previously in public preview, are now generally available for GitHub Enterprise, organizations, and repositories. Execution protections let you define an allowlist that controls who can trigger an Actions workflow and what events can start it.
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.