Releasesby GlyphNote : Your clusters might not have these versions available
Note : Your clusters might not have these versions available. Rollouts are already in progress when we publish the release notes, and can take multiple days to complete across all Google Cloud zones. Version 1.36.3-gke.1640000 is now the default version for cluster creation in the Rapid channel.
Also shipped Aug 26, 2026Google Cloud in August 2026 →
Cortex Extension references in agent skills (General availability)
Referencing a Cortex Extension from an agent skill is now generally available. Set the skill source type to CORTEX_EXTENSION and path to the extension's fully qualified name, and Snowflake expands the reference into the extension's member skills at request time, so you don't list each skill individually.
Cortex Agents Coding Agent (General availability)
The Cortex Agents Coding Agent is now generally available. Add the code_toolset_all tool type to a Cortex Agent, and Snowflake provisions and manages a sandbox backed by the same runtime that powers Snowflake CoCo: bash, file read/write/edit, grep, glob, web search, SQL execution, and skills.
Organization user types (General availability)
With this release, you can specify whether an organization user represents a person or a service. Set the TYPE property to SERVICE for a service or application that interacts with Snowflake without human interaction. If you don't specify a type, the organization user is a PERSON user, which matches the previous behavior.
Semantic Studio (Preview)
Semantic Studio is now available in public preview for all accounts. Semantic Studio is the authoring environment for semantic views in Workspaces, combining conversational authoring with CoCo, direct YAML editing, and deployment to the live Snowflake object in a single surface.
Zerobus Ingest into streaming tables is now generally available
Ingesting into streaming tables with Zerobus Ingest in Lakeflow Connect is now generally available. Writing to a streaming table works the same way as writing to a managed Delta table, with the same limits and quotas. See Create or identify the target table .
Genie Agents enhancements
- Chat mode in Genie One : You can now submit prompts to a Genie Agent in Chat mode from Genie One. Cancel Agent mode responses through the API : You can now cancel in-progress Agent mode responses through the API. See the Cancel Genie agent response API .
More from Google Kubernetes EngineEvery Google Kubernetes Engine release →
(2026-R36) Version updates
GKE cluster versions have been updated. New versions available for upgrades and new clusters. The following versions are now available for new GKE clusters, and for manual control plane upgrades and node upgrades for existing clusters. For more information about versioning and upgrades, see GKE versioning and support and About GKE cluster upgrades .
In GKE version 1.36 and later, GCPAuthzPolicy and GCPAuthzExtension resources for GKE Gateway are now...
In GKE version 1.36 and later, GCPAuthzPolicy and GCPAuthzExtension resources for GKE Gateway are now available in Preview. You can use these resources to enforce identity-based access control and zero-trust authorization on incoming traffic at the Gateway layer.
Network Endpoint Group (NEG) pre-provisioning is now available in Preview
Network Endpoint Group (NEG) pre-provisioning is now available in Preview. With this feature, you can force the creation of empty zonal GCE_VM_IP_PORT NEGs in specified zones (or all zones within a region) during Service creation, regardless of whether the cluster has nodes in those zones.
Session affinity support using GCPTrafficDistributionPolicy for GKE Gateway is generally available
Session affinity support using GCPTrafficDistributionPolicy for GKE Gateway is generally available. This release currently supports single-cluster GKE Gateway load balancers using the following GatewayClasses: gke-l7-rilb gke-l7-regional-external-managed gke-l7-global-external-managed In addition to the session affinity types available in Preview, you can...
Per the June 10, 2026 release note , the configuration option to not enroll your cluster in a release channel...
Per the June 10, 2026 release note , the configuration option to not enroll your cluster in a release channel is deprecated, and will be removed on June 14, 2027. In alignment with this deprecation, creating new clusters not enrolled in a release channel is now only allowed for existing customers.
The Windows Server 2019 (LTSC) GKE node image doesn't receive updates after the December 2025 version
The Windows Server 2019 (LTSC) GKE node image doesn't receive updates after the December 2025 version. Windows Server 2019 (LTSC) is in the Extended Support period of the Microsoft fixed lifecycle policy and receives only security updates. To prevent stability issues, the GKE node image for Windows Server 2019 (LTSC) is pinned to the December 2025 version.
GKE version 1.35.1-gke.1031000 and later include the following changes to automatically created firewall...
GKE version 1.35.1-gke.1031000 and later include the following changes to automatically created firewall rules for Services : Changes the priority of multiple existing firewall rules for Services from 1000 to 999 . Creates additional firewall rules to deny traffic that is not explicitly allowed by other auto-created firewall rules.
The bare metal machine types from the C3 machine series are now generally available with GKE clusters
The bare metal machine types from the C3 machine series are now generally available with GKE clusters. You can now provision machine types such as c3-standard-192-metal in Standard mode with any available GKE version.