Cortex Code Desktop v1.15.0 release notes

The Glow-Up: UI/UX overhaul

This is the biggest UX release yet — the entire app layout and experience got overhauled. From the moment you open Cortex Code Desktop to every interaction in between: new welcome screen, redesigned onboarding, refreshed composer, updated themes, and new panel layouts throughout. It looks and feels like a different (better) app.

  • New layouts throughout: Apps gallery, SQL playground, and agent settings panels are consistent. The Apps view splits into “Deployed” and “Local” sections. The Agent Manager files panel now has breadcrumb navigation.

  • Welcome screen redesigned: Cleaner layout, prompt chips above the composer, and the conversation header is hidden until you send a message.

  • Composer gradient background: A subtle gradient makes the input area feel more distinct.

  • 4-step onboarding flow: welcome → connect → mode → theme, with a live status dot on the connection step.

  • VS Code Dark/Light themes removed: Cortex Code Desktop auto-migrates you to the closest matching theme on first launch.

  • All 8 themes pass accessibility contrast checks.

Highlights

  • Remote-SSH overhaul: Skills, plugins, hooks, MCP, and AGENTS.md all load correctly in SSH windows without requiring Agent Settings to be opened first. Bypass Approvals now sticks in SSH windows.

  • Hierarchical SQL permissions: The snowflake_sql_execute tool now uses a real SQL trust analyzer. SELECT-only queries auto-approve; DDL, DML writes, and GRANT/REVOKE get per-statement approval dialogs.

  • Agent Terminal Sandbox: Enable via chat.agent.sandbox.enabled = "on". Terminal commands run by the agent are wrapped in a sandbox for safer agentic use.

  • Queued message UX: While a request is in flight, you can now edit or copy any queued message. Also fixes a race condition that caused duplicate sends.

  • dbt Cloud Mode: Run dbt directly in Snowflake without a local dbt install. Enable via dbt.executionMode = "cloud". Includes workspace file sync, a Snowsight-style execution popover, EAI picker, and project/profile picker chips.

  • Mermaid diagrams: Mermaid code blocks now render as actual diagrams in the Plan Editor and Agent Manager (Plan and Markdown viewers). Diagrams theme-sync with your workbench colors.

  • Shared Skills Catalog: Browse, import, and publish skills from the Agent Manager sidebar. Feature-flag gated — reach out if you want early access.

  • Default Warehouse picker: New “Default Warehouse” item in the Snowflake connection context menu. Persists server-side and updates connections.toml locally. No more setting your warehouse on every new session.

  • Tool quality improvements: New kill_agent tool to terminate background subagents mid-flight. GPT/OpenAI models now get apply_patch for better editing accuracy. ask_user_question gets a v2 schema with text input and prefill support.

  • SSO auto-dismiss: The SSO notification now auto-closes after successful auth instead of requiring manual dismissal.

  • SQL performance: A configurable row cap prevents out-of-memory crashes on very large query results.

Notable fixes

  • OAuth token_file_path connections no longer fail with “Invalid OAuth access token”.
  • Duplicate Rename/Delete entries in the session context menu — fixed.
  • Model picker shows human-friendly names (for example, “Claude Opus 4.6”) instead of raw IDs, persists selection to disk, and retries on session expiry.
  • Context-aware right-click: “Copy selected text” and “Copy link” in the chat panel.
  • Project plugins, skills, subagents, and hooks now load when Agent Settings is closed at window launch.
  • MCP list no longer shows a stale filter after clearing; refreshes after save.
  • Workspace trust coupled to Agent Manager membership — adding a folder trusts it, removing revokes it, both with consent dialogs.
  • SQL queries carry QUERY_TAG attribution (manual, agent, or background) for security auditing.
  • Streaming animation no longer replays when you navigate back to a chat.
  • dbt lineage graph edge/arrow alignment fixed; improved dbt preview error cards no longer show raw ANSI stderr dumps.
  • Extension signature verification enabled (Open VSX).