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AWS Databricks release notes · May 2026

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May 2026#

  • Databricks Runtime 18: May 29, 2026 — May 29 · AWS · Runtime Structured Streaming deduplication with NaN keys: Structured Streaming deduplication now treats NaN (Not-a-Number) values that have different bit patterns as duplicates when a double or float column is used as a deduplication key. Previously, NaN values with different internal re
  • Query-based connectors for Lakeflow Connect are now generally available — May 29 · AWS · Product Query-based connectors in Lakeflow Connect are now generally available. Query-based connectors ingest data from databases by querying the source directly using a cursor column, without requiring change data capture (CDC) configuration or an ingestion gateway. Supported sources in
  • Databricks Apps horizontal scaling (Beta) — May 29 · AWS · Product You can now run a Databricks app across multiple instances behind a single app URL. Horizontal scaling provides higher availability, zero-downtime deployments, and session affinity, which routes every request from a given user to the same instance so the app can keep per-user dat
  • Lakeflow Designer updates for May 29, 2026 — May 29 · AWS · Product The following updates were made to Lakeflow Designer: Bidirectional AI-generated descriptions: Each operator now displays an AI-generated description of what it does. Editing the description reconfigures the operator. N-way Combine: The Combine operator now accepts any number of
  • Dashboard enhancements and bug fixes — May 28 · AWS · AI/BI Banded rows in tables: Tables can now display banded rows. Custom geographies in maps: Custom geographies are now available in choropleth and point maps. See Custom geographic data. Genie Code for dashboard authoring: Genie Code for dashboard authoring is now generally available.
  • Genie Agent (formerly Genie Space) enhancements and bug fixes — May 28 · AWS · AI/BI Agent mode thinking traces (Public Preview): Agent mode thinking traces now cite the definitions applied to answer questions. For example, "best selling product" is defined as the product with the most total sales. MCP conversation sharing bug fix (Beta): Fixed a bug where conver
  • Genie One enhancements — May 28 · AWS · AI/BI Genie One now has a Managed MCP Server (Beta). Any agent can ask natural-language data questions across Genie Agents (formerly Genie Spaces) and Unity Catalog data and receive grounded answers. See Available managed servers.
  • Anthropic Claude Opus 4.8 now available as a Databricks-hosted model — May 28 · AWS · Product Databricks Model Serving now supports Anthropic Claude Opus 4.8 as a Databricks-hosted model. To access this model, use: Foundation Model APIs pay-per-token Query reasoning models Query vision models
  • Cross-engine attribute-based access controls (Beta) — May 28 · AWS · Product External engines can now read Unity Catalog managed tables (Delta and Iceberg) with attribute-based access controls (ABAC), row filters, and column masks enforced server-side. See Cross-engine attribute-based access controls (ABAC).
  • Real-time mode in Spark Declarative Pipelines on Lakeflow, and the update_flow API are now available (Public Preview) — May 27 · AWS · Product Real-time mode in Spark Declarative Pipelines on Lakeflow is now in Public Preview. Achieve end-to-end latency as low as five milliseconds for operational streaming workloads such as fraud detection, real-time personalization, and instant decision-making. Real-time mode uses the
  • Google Drive managed ingestion connector (Beta) — May 27 · AWS · Product The Google Drive connector in Lakeflow Connect is now available in Beta. The connector allows you to ingest files from Google Drive into Databricks. Both unstructured (binary) and structured (CSV, JSON, XML, Excel, Parquet, Avro, ORC) ingestion are supported, as well as file meta
  • Workspace admin setting for serverless notebook execution timeout — May 27 · AWS · Product Workspace admins can now set the default execution timeout for serverless notebooks in the workspace admin settings, replacing the previous manual override process. To configure the timeout, go to Settings > Compute and, under Serverless interactive, update the Serverless interac
  • Refresh policies and EXPLAIN CREATE MATERIALIZED VIEW for materialized views are now generally available — May 27 · AWS · Product Refresh policies and the EXPLAIN CREATE MATERIALIZED VIEW statement are now generally available for materialized views. Use refresh policies to control when Databricks performs incremental or full refresh, optimizing cost and predictability. Use EXPLAIN CREATE MATERIALIZED VIEW t
  • Databricks SQL version 2026.15 is now available in Preview — May 26 · AWS · SQL Databricks SQL version 2026.15 is now available in the Preview channel. Review the following section to learn about new features, behavioral changes, and bug fixes. XPath no longer fetches external DTDs When you evaluate xpath over XML, Databricks no longer loads external Documen
  • Removed legacy Assistant slash commands — May 26 · AWS · Product The /settings and /rename slash commands are no longer available in the notebook Genie Code Assistant chat pane. Adjust notebook settings and rename notebooks from the notebook UI instead. Other slash commands, such as /doc, /explain, /fix, /optimize, and /prettify, are unchanged
  • Automatic identity management with Microsoft Entra ID is now GA — May 26 · AWS · Product Automatic identity management with Microsoft Entra ID is now generally available. Automatic identity management lets you sync users, service principals, and groups from Microsoft Entra ID to Databricks without SCIM provisioning. When enabled, you can search for identities in iden
  • Spark Declarative Pipelines on Lakeflow parameters are now in Beta — May 26 · AWS · Product Pipeline parameters let you define key-value pairs at the pipeline level and reference them from SQL source code using named parameter syntax. See Use parameters with pipelines.
  • Databricks Runtime maintenance updates (05/26) — May 26 · AWS · Product 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 18.2 Databricks Runtime 18.1 Databricks Runtime 18.0 Databricks Runtime 17.3 LTS
  • Genie Code Agent mode is now available by default for workspaces with the compliance security profile enabled — May 25 · AWS · Product Genie Code Agent mode is now available by default for workspaces with the compliance security profile enabled and HIPAA, PCI-DSS, and FedRAMP Moderate controls selected. With Agent mode, Genie Code can automate multiple steps from a single prompt, including retrieving relevant as
  • Account access denylist for automatic identity management (Public Preview) — May 22 · AWS · Product The account access denylist is now available in Public Preview for Databricks accounts on AWS and GCP that use automatic identity management. Account admins can add users, groups, or service principals to the denylist to block their access to the Databricks account. Denylist memb
  • Databricks Runtime 18 and Databricks Runtime 18 for Machine Learning are in Beta — May 22 · AWS · Product Databricks Runtime 18 and Databricks Runtime 18 for Machine Learning are now in Beta, powered by Apache Spark 4.1.0. Databricks Runtime 18 is the first release to use a unified release notes format. Previously, each feature version (18.0, 18.1, 18.2) had its own release notes pag