v26.46.0 release notes - #39690

Release notes for the **v26.47.0** train. One commit was added per
snapshot; the `final` snapshot sets the real dates. **All six snapshots
(`rc.1`–`rc.5`, `final`) are now applied — this branch is complete and
ready for review.**

- **Content**: 2 Feature sections (`TRY_CAST`, `EXCLUDE ALL NOT NULL
CONSTRAINTS`), 7 Improvements, 13 Bug Fixes — `rc.1` contributed all of
it except the top four Bug Fixes: `rc.2` added two, and `rc.3` and
`rc.4` one each. `rc.5` added no new entries; it amended `rc.4`'s
probe-port Bug Fix instead (see below). `final` adds nothing at all —
its tracking issue holds only the unassociated `release: bump to version
v26.47.0` commit
([`bed23494d`](bed2349)),
and the `v26.47.0-rc.5` and `v26.47.0` tags are 14h28m apart with that
bump the only thing between them. Its commit is empty and exists to
record on the branch that the snapshot was applied.
- **Dates (final, no longer provisional)**: Cloud **2026-10-22**,
Self-Managed **2026-10-23**. Every RC estimated this same pair from the
`v26.47.0-rc.1` tag, and the real dates confirmed it — the five RCs
compressed into one week rather than pushing the train out — so no
published date text changed in the `final` commit. ⚠️ One thing worth a
last look before merge: **2026-10-22 is a Wednesday**, one day off the
usual Thursday Cloud date (2026-10-23 is the normal Friday Self-Managed
day). That is the supplied value and it stands, but if the release owner
expected Thursday 2026-10-23 / Friday 2026-10-24, this branch is where
to correct it.
- **Operator compatibility**: row added for `v26.47`, release date
`2026-10-23`.
- **Branch base**: `main`, whose newest section is `## v26.45.1` —
v26.46.0's section is still on its own unmerged branch (#39690). Expect
a top-of-list conflict when both merge; `v26.47.0` goes above
`v26.46.0`.

✅ **Corrections already on this branch** — a `final` verification pass
over the whole assembled section confirmed these and deliberately left
them alone:

- **`rc.1` named a syntax that does not exist.** It published "`CREATE
TABLE ... FROM SOURCE` now accepts an `ALL COLUMNS NULLABLE` option",
taking the name from
[#39680](#39680
title and body. At the `v26.47.0` tag the option is `EXCLUDE ALL NOT
NULL CONSTRAINTS`
(`TableFromSourceOptionName::ExcludeAllNotNullConstraints`), and
`NULLABLE` is not a lexer keyword at all, so the published syntax would
have been a parse error for anyone who copied it. A human editor caught
this and replaced the bullet with the
`{#v26.47-exclude-not-null-constraints}` feature section now on the
branch. The `rc.1` snapshot directory in mz-skills still carries the
wrong wording — snapshot directories are the record of what was reviewed
at the time and are left untouched.
- **`rc.5`'s cross-snapshot rewrite is applied once**, including the
"Deployments using password, SASL, or OIDC authentication have no
separate internal SQL port and continue to be probed on the external
one" clause.
- **PR citations are stripped from all entries** as a deliberate
house-style edit, matching how published sections read. PR links remain
available in the mz-skills snapshot drafts linked below.

⚠️ **Open questions for the release owner** — none of these were
resolved by `final`; this branch is the last place to act on them

- **Was any `rc.4` artifact handed to a customer or used for an upgrade
rehearsal?** This decides a published entry.
[#40036](#40036)
(published as a Bug Fix by `rc.4`) made the operator probe
`environmentd`'s internal SQL port unconditionally, which crashloops
deployments using Password, SASL, or OIDC authentication — they have no
internal SQL port.
[#40046](#40046) fixed
that roughly seven hours later, inside this same unreleased train, so no
shipped build (`v26.46.1` probes the external port unconditionally)
could have hit it. It is therefore recorded as **Borderline** rather
than published as a Bug Fix of its own, and its substance folded into
`rc.4`'s bullet as a scoping clause. If an `rc.4` build did reach
anyone, the crashloop *was* reachable and
[#40046](#40046)
should be published in its own right. Note the author wrote an explicit
positive release-note line for it, which is why this is flagged rather
than quietly dropped.
- **GA announcements — the largest judgment call in this train.** Three
docs PRs remove preview markers:
[#39831](#39831)
(source versioning, `CREATE TABLE ... FROM SOURCE`),
[#39836](#39836)
(replacement materialized views),
[#39830](#39830)
(Kafka sink headers, noted as "GA in v26.47"). None changes code, so all
three were held; drafted wording for each is in `omitted.md`. Which are
actually GA in v26.47.0 and should be announced? Note v26.46.0 published
Kafka sink message attribution as *private preview* — if the header goes
GA here, this release should say so rather than repeat the preview
framing.
- **GCS blob read throughput**
([#39906](#39906),
held in `rc.2`): restores the read throughput GCS deployments lost when
[#39351](#39351) —
already shipped — forced HTTP/2 and collapsed per-request connections
into one. It is selected by `persist_blob_http_pool`, verified to
default to `off` at the `v26.47.0-rc.2` tag, and the author notes "the
default should eventually be 'GCS-only'". **Is `persist_blob_http_pool`
being set to `gcs` for v26.47.0?** If so this is a clear win to publish
for GCP users, who carry the regression today; drafted wording is in
rc.2's `omitted.md`.
- **`SUBSCRIBE` soft assertions**
([#37611](#37611),
[#39764](#39764), both
held): drafted as Bug Fixes, then pulled back. Both failures come from
`soft_assert_or_log!`, which panics only where soft assertions are
enabled and otherwise logs; neither PR says what a release build does.
Are soft assertions on in the environments customers run? If yes, both
are publishable as drafted in `omitted.md`.
- **Console Freshness page**
([#39340](#39340),
held): a complete new Monitoring > Freshness page, gated behind
`freshness-page-CNS164`, off in both Cloud and self-managed, and the
LaunchDarkly flag is not yet created. If it is turned on for v26.47.0,
this likely deserves a Feature heading.
- **PostgreSQL sources ingesting during a snapshot**
([#39419](#39419),
[#39479](#39479),
held): adding a large table to an existing source would no longer stall
the tables already hydrated — but
`storage_persist_sink_description_lookahead` is `Duration::ZERO` at the
tag. Publish if the lookahead is being enabled.
- **Coalesced materialized-view sink batches**
([#37591](#37591),
held): measures ~67% fewer blob writes and ~54% smaller state diffs, at
~10 ms added p50 latency on small writes, but
`compute_mv_sink_shared_batch_max_bytes` is `0` at the tag. Publish
(with the latency cost stated) if the staged rollout reaches customers
in this release.
- **MCP 2026-07-28 conformance checks**
([#39694](#39694),
[#39695](#39695),
held): `enable_mcp_protocol_2026_07_28` is `false` at the tag. If the
revision is being served, these belong together as one Improvement.
- **Refresh strategy columns**
([#39597](#39597),
published as an Improvement): this renames `aligned_to` →
`aligned_to_expression` and `at` → `at_expression` and changes their
type. It is a breaking change for anyone selecting them, in a schema
documented as unstable — it may warrant more prominence than a bullet.
- **Retained input after `ALTER SINK ... SET FROM`** (from `rc.3`'s
[#37653](#37653)): the
PR records a pre-existing gap it does not fix — after `SET FROM`, the
*old* upstream relation stays held, and therefore un-compactable, until
the sink is dropped or `environmentd` restarts. It is not something this
release changed, so it is out of these notes, but it is a real footgun
for the blue/green pattern that `sql/alter-sink.md` recommends `SET
FROM` for. Should the `ALTER SINK` page or the blue/green guide call it
out?
- **Operator upgrade shows pending changes** (from `rc.4`'s
[#40036](#40036)): the
probe-port change alters the generated `environmentd` StatefulSet, so
after upgrading the operator, existing environments report pending
changes and pick up the new port on their next rollout — they are
**not** restarted on their own. That is an upgrade consequence rather
than something the release changed, so it is out of the notes, but a
Self-Managed operator who cannot account for the pending-changes state
may read it as a problem. The v26.47 upgrade guide looks like the right
venue.

Snapshot drafts (with PR links) in mz-skills:
- rc.1:
[release_notes.md](https://github.com/MaterializeInc/mz-skills/blob/main/data/mz-release-notes/v26.47.0/rc.1/release_notes.md)
/
[omitted.md](https://github.com/MaterializeInc/mz-skills/blob/main/data/mz-release-notes/v26.47.0/rc.1/omitted.md)
- rc.2:
[release_notes.md](https://github.com/MaterializeInc/mz-skills/blob/main/data/mz-release-notes/v26.47.0/rc.2/release_notes.md)
/
[omitted.md](https://github.com/MaterializeInc/mz-skills/blob/main/data/mz-release-notes/v26.47.0/rc.2/omitted.md)
- rc.3:
[release_notes.md](https://github.com/MaterializeInc/mz-skills/blob/main/data/mz-release-notes/v26.47.0/rc.3/release_notes.md)
/
[omitted.md](https://github.com/MaterializeInc/mz-skills/blob/main/data/mz-release-notes/v26.47.0/rc.3/omitted.md)
- rc.4:
[release_notes.md](https://github.com/MaterializeInc/mz-skills/blob/main/data/mz-release-notes/v26.47.0/rc.4/release_notes.md)
/
[omitted.md](https://github.com/MaterializeInc/mz-skills/blob/main/data/mz-release-notes/v26.47.0/rc.4/omitted.md)
- rc.5:
[release_notes.md](https://github.com/MaterializeInc/mz-skills/blob/main/data/mz-release-notes/v26.47.0/rc.5/release_notes.md)
/
[omitted.md](https://github.com/MaterializeInc/mz-skills/blob/main/data/mz-release-notes/v26.47.0/rc.5/omitted.md)
- final:
[release_notes.md](https://github.com/MaterializeInc/mz-skills/blob/main/data/mz-release-notes/v26.47.0/final/release_notes.md)
/
[omitted.md](https://github.com/MaterializeInc/mz-skills/blob/main/data/mz-release-notes/v26.47.0/final/omitted.md)

**Borderline PRs omitted:** rc.1: 14 —
[omitted.md#borderline](https://github.com/MaterializeInc/mz-skills/blob/main/data/mz-release-notes/v26.47.0/rc.1/omitted.md#borderline),
rc.2: 2 —
[omitted.md#borderline](https://github.com/MaterializeInc/mz-skills/blob/main/data/mz-release-notes/v26.47.0/rc.2/omitted.md#borderline),
rc.3: 0 —
[omitted.md#borderline](https://github.com/MaterializeInc/mz-skills/blob/main/data/mz-release-notes/v26.47.0/rc.3/omitted.md#borderline),
rc.4: 0 —
[omitted.md#borderline](https://github.com/MaterializeInc/mz-skills/blob/main/data/mz-release-notes/v26.47.0/rc.4/omitted.md#borderline),
rc.5: 1 —
[omitted.md#borderline](https://github.com/MaterializeInc/mz-skills/blob/main/data/mz-release-notes/v26.47.0/rc.5/omitted.md#borderline),
final: 0 —
[omitted.md#borderline](https://github.com/MaterializeInc/mz-skills/blob/main/data/mz-release-notes/v26.47.0/final/omitted.md#borderline)

🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code)

---------

Co-authored-by: Claude <[email protected]>
Co-authored-by: Valerie Chiang <[email protected]>
Co-authored-by: Pranshu Maheshwari <[email protected]>