SQL nodes in canvas now have full AI integration directly within the node. To get started, click on the AI button in the top right hand corner of the SQL node to ask Observable AI to edit queries. You can have AI write new queries or modify existing queries. You’ll have the option to accept or reject changes.
Observable AI has been upgraded to Haiku 4.5.
Canvases now allow for individual editors and viewers. To set canvas permissions, go to your workspace canvas navigation and click on the options next to a canvas to open the share modal. You can select specific team members or groups and assign editor or viewer roles.
Edit mode now pans and zooms to the node selected when you enter edit mode, making it easier to see which node is currently being edited.
Node titles have been moved from within the node itself to outside of the node, improving the readability of titles at varying zoom levels on the canvas.
The ridgeline chart now allows for a bandwidth smoothing option when using a numeric value for the X channel. This is in addition to the time-based intervals available when the X channel is a date or timestamp. Users can select options from “Fine” to “Very smooth.”
Performance & Stability
There was a bug affecting the line chart when the color value was different from the series value, causing the lines to sporadically sort incorrectly. This has been fixed.
Canvas users can now build ridgeline charts, found within the series chart types. Ridgeline charts are an alternative to area charts that use an overlap effect to make it easier to compare values across various segments. They have several customization options color, line interpolation, and opacities.
Edit mode in canvas has been greatly improved, making it easier to enter edit mode and see upstream and downstream dependencies.
Edit mode is activated after “two single clicks” on a node. The first click selects the node, and the second click activates edit mode.
When you enter edit mode, you will zoom closer to your selected node and highlight connected edges, making it easy to find where you are and what other nodes may be affected by changes.
SQL nodes have improved syntax highlighting and table column autocomplete. After specifying the name of a table, the SQL autocomplete will suggest names of available columns that match the characters you type.
In addition, autocomplete can now be used with tab in addition to enter.
Edges and port handles are highlighted when a connected node is in edit mode, making it easier to identify upstream and downstream nodes.
A new node placement algorithm has been introduced that better identifies space for a new node to be placed within the canvas, reducing overlap.
Performance & Stability
SQL nodes names are now automatically updated to work for the SQL dialect being used. For example, if your SQL dialect does not support uppercase table names, your SQL node will be rewritten to have no uppercase characters. This prevents errors when a SQL node is used as a CTE within another SQL node and the node name is not supported.
SQL queries are no longer re-run when a users modifies the width of a column.
Charts and table nodes no longer allow rotation, ensuring the correct angle at all times.
Redundant null patterns have been removed from the donut chart.
Arc map and tiled dot map exports now correctly download the base maps as part of export to PNG.
Dashboards and controls are now available to all canvas users. To learn about how to get started, please refer to our documentation for a step-by-step guide.
SQL nodes now have dialect-specific auto-complete functions so you can quickly find the function you need in the dialect you’re using. When you begin typing in a SQL query, you will see autocomplete options that can be selected by hitting enter/return or navigated using the up and down arrows. Functions can be found alongside table names and SQL keywords.
Edit mode is now easier to use with several quality of life improvements. Now when you enter edit mode, you’ll see additional highlighting of the edited node, transparency for non-edited nodes and highlighting for connected edges. This makes it easier to distinguish which node you are editing and what nodes are either upstream or downstream.
Performance & Stability
Several bugs with density charts have been fixed:
Text was being cropped on the y-axis and now displays correctly.
Max values on the x-axis were missing and now those values are included.
The month interval showed gaps between months and now are handled correctly.
Canvas users can now build radar charts as part of their suite of visualization options. Radar charts are helpful for comparing groups across several quantitative variables. You can find the new chart type within the “Other” section of the chart node.
BigQuery users can add dataset configuration to their database connector, allowing them to pick a subset of datasets to display by default. This can be particularly helpful for users with large BigQuery instances who may not want to view the entire schema on load.
Performance & Stability
A bug related to join nodes has been fixed, which caused errors when joins were missing between two nodes. Now if a user has a missing join, a warning will notify them to fix the join.
A bug with SQL queries referencing named nodes has been fixed. If a user entered a name for the node that was unsupported by their SQL dialect, such as names with spaces or lowercase characters, they would see a SQL error. Now, when users name their cells with an incompatible title, they are warned that doing so may create downstream issues with other nodes.
Private canvases are now available and can be configured when creating a new canvas or on your workspace homepage for existing canvases. Canvases created prior will keep their default to viewable to the entire workspace.
Users can now quickly change variable types within tables to integers, strings or dates. You can find this setting when you hover next to a column name, click on the arrow for options, and select Data Type.
Performance & Stability
A bug with boolean data types for color channels has been fixed. Previously it would convert to 0 or 1 rather than true or false.
Circle packing labels for groups has been fixed, as it was previously hidden.
Users can now specify their own custom chart themes to change the default colors and fonts of chart nodes.
In the Resources section of your canvas homepage, you will find Theme.
You can configure the base color, included color, excluded color, as well as fonts for axes and labels. If a value is not specified, default values will be used.
For custom fonts, you must specify the URL for the font file. For Google Fonts, no URL is required, you only need to enter the font family.
SQL editing has been improved with the release of several auto-complete features. When typing in a SQL cell, you will see autocomplete options of your data schema and for control nodes that are within your canvas page.
Charts now support custom colors channels.
Derive a new column with a literal color value. This can be a hex code or an HTML color string.
Use this new column for the color channel and update the label channel to display the value corresponding to the color.
Performance & Stability
Several behind-the-scenes improvements make things run more smoothly:
Query timeouts have been increased from 25 seconds to 90 seconds.
“Other” and “null” categories in charts now have an updated styling to address a bug where they disappeared at certain zoom levels.
Tiled dot map, a new chart type in Observable Canvases, allows you to create interactive, zoomable tile maps from a set of latitude and longitude coordinates.
We've expanded data source support with some significant additions:
BigQuery support is now available for early access testing. You can connect to BigQuery data sources with full AI integration and support for multiple datasets within a project.
Databricks connections now work better with OAuth authentication using a Service Principal for enhanced security. You can also work across multiple catalogs with catalog-qualified queries and cross-catalog joins. We've also fixed issues with SQL dialect handling when chaining SQL nodes together.
Canvas Interface & User Experience
The canvas interface now works more smoothly:
Node management has been improved with the ability to minimize and maximize nodes while preserving their original sizing. Context menus now include keyboard shortcuts (⌘/Ctrl-M for minimize, ⌘/Ctrl-D for duplicate). When you add new nodes, the camera automatically positions to center them properly.
Canvas titles can now be edited inline with real-time collaborative editing that syncs changes across all clients viewing the canvas.
SQL and JavaScript editing is more responsive. The editor now automatically focuses when you enter edit mode with improved line highlighting. Error messages are clearer and include calculated line numbers for SQL errors. When you add new nodes, the editor automatically gets focus so you can start typing immediately.
Data Analysis & Visualization
We've added new analysis capabilities and improved existing charts:
Group By nodes now support median aggregation for numeric columns alongside the existing sum and mean options.
Chart support has been expanded with support for both 2-letter and 3-letter ISO country codes in world choropleth maps. We've unified how different numeric data types (integer, bigint, number) are handled across charts. Column charts now have proper default heights and bump charts no longer have their x-axis cut off. Line charts now handle color scales correctly.
Map visualizations have improved typography and legends for both cartogram and choropleth maps.
Performance has been optimized by limiting line charts to the top 1,000 lines to prevent memory issues with very large datasets.
Bug Fixes & Improvements
Performance & Stability
Several behind-the-scenes improvements make things run more smoothly:
Memory management for line charts with large datasets has been fixed to prevent performance problems.
Error handling is more robust with better cycle prevention in op graphs and improved error states throughout the interface.
Image exports now preserve global styles correctly, especially for Sankey and beeswarm charts.
User Interface Fixes
We've fixed several interface issues:
Interaction problems have been resolved where clicking on select menus would interfere with node border interactions. Hover states and pointer cursors now work consistently across all interface elements. Icon stroke widths are now visually consistent.
Navigation issues have been fixed including sidebar width problems when page titles are long, improved toolbar pointer states, and corrected tab labeling (the From node's "Tables" tab now has the right name).
Data & Connectivity
Authentication and data handling work more reliably:
Authentication tokens now refresh properly for long-running canvas sessions, preventing connection issues after extended use.
Profile management now works correctly for users with multiple authentication methods when changing email addresses.
Chart encoding issues that prevented numeric columns from being detected properly have been fixed.
SQL error messages are now clearer, especially for statements that don't start with SELECT.