April 2026
These features and Databricks platform improvements were released in April 2026.
Releases are staged. Your Databricks account might not be updated until a week or more after the initial release date.
New cascade field for deleting Unity Catalog pipelines (Beta)
April 9, 2026
A new cascade field is available in the Pipelines DELETE API for Unity Catalog pipelines. By default, cascade=true, which preserves the existing behavior of deleting all associated materialized views, streaming tables, and views when a pipeline is deleted. Set cascade=false to retain associated tables as inactive after deletion.
See Delete a pipeline.
Databricks Runtime 18.2 and Databricks Runtime 18.2 ML are in Beta
April 8, 2026
Databricks Runtime 18.2 and Databricks Runtime 18.2 ML are now in Beta, powered by Apache Spark 4.1.0.
See Databricks Runtime 18.2 (Beta) and Databricks Runtime 18.2 for Machine Learning (Beta).
Scoped personal access tokens are now generally available
April 8, 2026
You can now scope personal access tokens (PATs) to specific API operations, restricting tokens to only the permissions you specify. For a complete list of available scopes, see API scopes. To learn more, see Authenticate with Databricks personal access tokens (legacy).
ai_prep_search (Beta)
March 27, 2026
ai_prep_search is now available in Beta. This SQL function transforms the structured output of ai_parse_document into search-ready chunks optimized for vector search and RAG pipelines. See ai_prep_search function.
Git-backed app deployments are now generally available
April 7, 2026
You can now deploy Databricks apps directly from Git repositories. Configure a Git reference, specify a source code path within a repository, and optionally enforce Git-only deployments across a workspace. See Deploy from a Git repository.
Databricks Marketplace listing creation wizard
April 6, 2026
The Marketplace provider console now features a step-by-step listing creation wizard that guides you through setting up general information, data assets, attributes, and details on separate pages. See Create a Marketplace listing.
Workspace skills for Genie Code are now available
April 6, 2026
Workspace skills for Genie Code Agent mode are now available. Workspace admins can create shared skills that are available to everyone in the workspace. Use workspace skills for broadly useful workflows across your team, such as machine learning pipelines or domain-specific processes. See Extend Genie Code with agent skills.
SAP semantic metadata syncs automatically into Unity Catalog
April 6, 2026
When you mount an SAP Business Data Cloud (BDC) share to a catalog, semantic metadata (such as table and column comments, primary keys, foreign keys, and governance tags) syncs automatically into Unity Catalog. You can use SAP governance tags in ABAC policies to control access to sensitive data. See SAP BDC semantic metadata.
Databricks Runtime maintenance updates (04/02)
April 2, 2026
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 18.1
- Databricks Runtime 18.0
- Databricks Runtime 17.3 LTS
- Databricks Runtime 16.4 LTS
- Databricks Runtime 15.4 LTS
- Databricks Runtime 14.3 LTS
- Databricks Runtime 13.3 LTS
Governed tags are generally available
April 2, 2026
Governed tags are generally available. Governed tags allow administrators to define a controlled set of tags that can be applied to Unity Catalog objects and workspace objects, helping organizations enforce consistent metadata tagging for access control, data classification, and cost tracking. See Governed tags.