> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.poolside.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Poolside April 2026

> Release notes for Poolside April 2026 on-premises deployments.

<Update label="May 13, 2026" description="Patch release">
  This patch updates the certified on-premises software stack for the April 2026 release.

  See [April 2026 patch certified stack](/deployment/on-prem/certified-stacks/april-2026-patch1).
</Update>

<Update label="April 27, 2026" description="Initial release">
  Initial April 2026 on-premises release.

  See [April 2026 certified stack](/deployment/on-prem/certified-stacks/april-2026).
</Update>

## Summary

Manage agents with skills, credentials, secrets, and redaction controls, and gain deeper visibility with improved auditing and tracing. Use Poolside Console and Poolside Chat for faster navigation, agent selection, and search. Automate workflows through the CLI and Identity Management API, and deploy Poolside on more supported platforms. Beta features include plan mode, repositories, and support for third-party model providers.

## New features

### Poolside Console

* **Skills**\
  Give agents reusable, task-specific instructions through local skills and organization-managed remote skills. For more information, see [Skills](/skills).

* **Credentials and runtime secrets**\
  Manage shared credentials in Poolside Console and make them available to agents as runtime secrets. For more information, see [Credentials](/credentials) and [Secrets](/secrets).

* **Audit log**\
  Review authentication activity, permission changes, API key usage, and more from the **Audit Log** page, with configurable retention and S3 export. For more information, see [Audit log](/console/audit-log).

* **Redaction patterns**\
  Define pattern-based rules to redact sensitive values that don't come from a managed credential or secret. For more information, see [Redaction patterns](/console/redaction-patterns).

* **Agent debugging and traceability**\
  Export trajectory data, inspect time distribution, review inference metrics, and track agent configuration history. For more information, see [Agent auditing](/console/agent-auditing) and [Trajectories](/trajectories).

* **Product branding**\
  Customize how Poolside appears in your organization from **Settings > Product Branding**. For more information, see [Product branding](/console/product-branding).

* **Homepage and quick navigation**\
  A new homepage gives you quick access to common tasks, recent agent activity, and console-wide search.

* **Model connection testing**\
  Test a model configuration before saving it using **Test Connection**.

### Poolside Assistant (IDE)

* **More flexible sandbox configuration**\
  Configure sandboxes with volume mounts, workspace-specific settings, and a more detailed selector so you can reuse local caches and configuration files while keeping projects isolated.

* **Sandbox session restoration**\
  Restore sandbox sessions when you switch conversations or restart your IDE, so you do not need to rebuild environments for related work.

* **Auto-allow mode and sandbox controls**\
  Administrators can grant the `Auto Approve Commands` permission to let trusted workflows run with fewer prompts, with optional sandboxing for stronger runtime boundaries. For more information, see [Tool permissions](/tool-permissions) and [Sandboxes](/sandboxes).

### Poolside Chat

* **Poolside Chat replaces Poolside Web Assistant**\
  Poolside Chat is the new name for the experience previously called Poolside Web Assistant.

* **Search in Poolside Chat**\
  Search for previous conversations from the sidebar or with `Command+K` (macOS) or `Ctrl+K` (Windows and Linux).

### Poolside Agent CLI

* **Interactive mode**\
  Work with agents in the terminal by running `pool`, with support for slash commands such as `/skills` and trajectory review after a run. For more information, see [Interactive mode](/cli/interactive-mode).

* **Automated mode**\
  Run one-shot agent workflows with `pool exec`, including unattended runs with `--unsafe-auto-allow`. For more information, see [Automated mode](/cli/automated-mode).

* **ACP-compatible editor support**\
  Use agents from JetBrains, Zed, Neovim, and other ACP-compatible editors through `pool acp`. For more information, see [Editor integration (ACP)](/cli/editor-integration).

### API

* **Identity Management API**\
  Manage users and team assignments programmatically for user lifecycle and provisioning workflows. For more information, see [Identity Management API](/organization/identity-management-api).

### Platform and infrastructure

* **Additional deployment options**\
  This release adds support for Red Hat OpenShift, upstream Kubernetes, and AWS-native deployment options. For more information, see [Supported configurations](/deployment/supported-configurations).

* **Improved model serving**\
  Run model deployments with improved reconciliation, authenticated serving connections, and direct stop-token handling.

***

## Beta features

<div className="hide-callout-icon">
  <Note>
    <Badge className="beta-badge" color="purple" size="lg" shape="pill">BETA</Badge> The following features are in beta and may change before general availability.
  </Note>
</div>

* **Plan mode**\
  Review an implementation approach before the agent changes your code. For more information, see [Plan mode](/plan-mode).

* **Repositories**\
  Connect shared files from Git repositories, S3 buckets, or uploaded archives for remote skills and reference content. For more information, see [Repositories](/repositories).

* **Third-party model providers**\
  Integrate any model in your experience. Leverage all the security and compliance features available in Poolside Console with any model. For more information, see [Models](/console/models#manage-model-providers).

***

## Requirement changes

* **Visual Studio 17.9 is now required**\
  Poolside Assistant for Visual Studio now requires Visual Studio 17.9 or later.

***

## Breaking changes

* **Existing `pool` flags move to `pool exec`**\
  `pool` now opens interactive mode, and non-interactive commands now use `pool exec`. The flags are unchanged. Update any scripts, aliases, or command snippets by replacing `pool` with `pool exec`.

  | Before                          | After                                |
  | ------------------------------- | ------------------------------------ |
  | `pool -p "Summarize this repo"` | `pool exec -p "Summarize this repo"` |
  | `pool -f prompt.txt`            | `pool exec -f prompt.txt`            |
  | `pool < prompt.txt`             | `pool exec < prompt.txt`             |

***

## Known issues

### Poolside Console

* **Multiple open Poolside Console tabs may cause authorization issues**\
  Opening the Poolside Console in multiple browser tabs simultaneously may result in authorization errors.\
  Workaround: Use a single tab when working in the Poolside Console.

### Poolside Assistant (IDE)

* **Apply Changes may fail after multiple edits in sandboxed sessions**\
  In some cases, applying changes from a read-only sandbox may fail after follow-up edits in the same conversation.\
  Workaround: Apply changes at the end of a conversation before starting a new one.

* **Binary files may appear in diffs in sandboxed sessions**\
  Binary files created in read-only mode may be incorrectly rendered or included in line-count diffs during change review.\
  Workaround: Ask the agent to remove built binaries before using **Apply Changes**, or add them to `.gitignore`.

* **Limited tooling in default sandbox images**\
  The bundled default images provide a minimal toolset and may not include commonly expected development tools.

* **Private container registries require pre-authentication**\
  Poolside Assistant cannot negotiate container registry authentication. Runtimes must already be authenticated to pull from private registries.

{/* TODO: Confirm whether this known issue applies to this release. MCP in Chat may not be included.
- **Placeholder-backed MCP servers are not usable with web agents in remote sandboxes**  
In beta web agent workflows that use remote sandboxes, you can associate an MCP server that uses placeholder variables without immediate failure, but credentials that depend on those placeholders are not resolved at runtime. As a result, the affected MCP server is not usable in that workflow.  
*/}

### Platform

* **Trajectory storage growth**\
  All execution trajectories are stored in the database, which can lead to rapid database growth over time.\
  Workaround: A pruning script is available for administrators to manage storage usage.

## Component versions

| Component                            | Version |
| ------------------------------------ | ------- |
| Poolside Assistant for VS Code       | v4.2.0  |
| Poolside Assistant for Visual Studio | v4.2.0  |
| Poolside Agent CLI (pool)            | v0.3.3  |