Cortex Code Desktop v1.17.0 release notes

v1.17.0 brings a refreshed chat experience and Plan Mode, a new Plugins Catalog, clickable file paths in chat, and a range of remote and SSH improvements, along with reliability and stability fixes.

What’s new

  • Refreshed chat experience: A more modern, compact chat. Checkpoint revert and redo now sit inside the request bubble, the prompt stays pinned with a smooth fade as you scroll, and you can click any previous message to view its full text in a read-only view. The last message stays editable.

  • Refreshed Plan Mode: Redesigned task cards with a per-step Todo/Done toggle, a pinned plan widget that stays in view as you scroll, and a cleaner status control.

  • Clickable file paths in chat: When the agent mentions a path like src/foo/bar.ts:707, it’s now a link that opens the file at that line, both locally and over SSH.

  • Universal Navigator in Agent Manager: Global back and forward in the Agent Manager header moves across conversations, the inbox, scheduled tasks, SnowBoard, the agents roster, the cron dashboard, and side panels, restoring the full view.

  • Plugins Catalog: Import a plugin from a shared link, publish your own, and keep them in sync with a one-click refresh. Browse the catalog from Snowsight.

  • “Open in” split button: From the Agent Manager conversation header, open the Editor, Finder, or Terminal, with your preferred destination remembered.

  • Subagent attention indicator: When a subagent needs your approval, the parent session shows a blue dot, and subagent tool calls group cleanly in the transcript.

  • Snowflake Catalog improvements: Loading placeholders, right-click “Add to Chat” on any object, real column types in result grids, and monochrome icons that match Snowsight.

  • Single Settings entry point: Agent view and Editor view now share one Settings gear, with a new “App Settings” tab for deeper VS Code settings.

  • /feedback command: Type /feedback, or use Help > Report Issue, to open the feedback dialog.

  • Admins can block Bypass Approvals: A new managed setting lets administrators disable Bypass Approvals.

  • Global hooks.json: A global ~/.snowflake/cortex/hooks.json is now loaded alongside settings.json.

  • Lossless SQL result compression (opt-in): Smaller tool output with the same data.

  • dbt .env support: dbt now picks up .env from your workspace and project roots, so env_var(...) works.

  • Better SSH reconnect: The terminal and files panels share a clean reconnect placeholder and correctly handle the case where one host is up and another is down.

  • Lower token usage: Cortex Code now honors alwaysApply: false in .cursor/rules/*.mdc files, so rules that don’t apply are no longer added to every prompt.

  • Built-in cortex-code-guide skill: A guide skill now ships with Desktop.

  • Plugin setup instructions on install: Plugin installers now surface a plugin’s setup steps (from SETUP.md or a setup section in README.md) after install.

Reliability and fixes

  • Chat attachment limit raised to 30 MB (up from 10 MB).
  • Key-pair authentication: Now reads private_key_file_pwd as a fallback, matching the Snowflake connector, which fixes silent authentication failures.
  • Model picker: No longer reverts to Auto after a transient network issue.
  • Windows stage transfers: Fixed a doubled-drive path error (for example, C:\c:\Users\...) in stage GET and PUT.
  • Remote-SSH plan creation: Plans now write to the correct host on Remote-SSH and cross-workspace sessions.
  • Local sessions from an SSH window: Local Agent Manager sessions opened from an SSH window no longer use the remote workspace’s storage.
  • Case-insensitive file search across the Explorer filter, the chat # picker, and agent glob and grep.
  • Reveal in Finder in the Agent Files panel now reveals the file you clicked, plus a new Reveal entry on the project menu.
  • Open in External Browser: The untrusted-link confirmation dialog now offers an Open in External Browser option.
  • Chart polish: hover tooltips for truncated axis labels and full ISO dates on temporal x-axes.
  • Chat exports now label assistant messages as CoCo.

This release also includes additional reliability improvements, including Changes panel status colors aligned with Source Control (with new Discard and Reveal actions) and faster App Gallery loading on large workspaces.