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26.1 Galaxy Release (July 2026)

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Please see the full release notes for more details.

Highlights

Discover some of the exciting new features, enhancements, and improvements in Galaxy 26.1.

Galaxy Notebooks

Turn every Galaxy history into a living scientific notebook.

  • Unified workspace. Combine narrative, datasets, visualizations, and AI-assisted writing in a single collaborative space.

  • Document as you go. Capture the reasoning behind your analysis and record results while you work.

  • Reproducible reports. Create rich reports that stay connected to the data they describe.

  • Assistant on hand. GalaxyAI works inside a notebook with that notebook’s own context, drafting and proposing content in place.

Galaxy Notebooks make it easy to capture, share, and reproduce the full story behind an analysis. [#22361] [#22807]

GalaxyAI: Specialized Agents and Context-Aware Help

GalaxyAI now knows where you are and routes your question to the right specialist.

  • Context-aware panel. A dockable assistant that knows which tool form, job, history, or notebook you are viewing.

  • Specialized agents. Purpose-built agents for error analysis, tool recommendations, GTN tutorials, and IWC workflows.

  • Asks instead of guessing. Ambiguous requests get a clarifying question with quick replies.

  • Report drafting. Draft a workflow invocation report from the run itself.

  • Safer custom tools. The custom tool agent resolves verified containers rather than inventing one.

Each answer is labeled with the agent that produced it. [#22096] [#22097] [#22791] [#21934] [#22981]

Connect Your Own AI Tools with MCP

Galaxy now speaks the Model Context Protocol, so AI clients outside Galaxy can work with your data.

  • Bring your own client. Any MCP-compatible client can connect to a Galaxy server.

  • Real Galaxy operations. Search and run tools, inspect histories and datasets, invoke workflows, and monitor jobs.

  • Community workflows. Find and import vetted Intergalactic Workflow Commission (IWC) workflows without leaving your client.

  • Same rules as any client. External agents route through Galaxy’s service layer, inheriting the same authorization and validation.

  • Administrator opt-in. Disabled by default; enabled with enable_mcp_server.

The same operations layer powers GalaxyAI in the application, so both surfaces stay in step. [#21942] [#22626] [#22906]

Bulk Dataset Storage Migration

Managing storage at scale just got much easier.

  • Bulk moves. Move multiple datasets and collections between storage locations in a single operation.

  • Preview the impact. Review what will change before you begin.

  • Progress tracking. Follow migrations from start to finish with detailed status updates.

  • Optional notifications. Get notified when large migrations complete.

These improvements make large storage migrations safer, simpler, and more transparent. [#22606]

Modern Workflow Extraction Interface

The history-to-workflow extraction interface has been rebuilt in Vue with a modern card-based design.

  • Clear step distinction. Tool steps and workflow inputs are clearly separated.

  • Rename before extraction. Give inputs meaningful names before the workflow is created.

  • Direct job access. Open related jobs directly from the extraction view.

  • Immediate results. The newly created workflow is displayed as soon as extraction finishes.

Extracting a workflow from your history is now clearer and more intuitive. [#21935]

Favorite and Recent Tools Panel

Galaxy now includes an optional tool panel focused on faster access to the tools you use the most.

  • Favorites at hand. Highlight and quickly access your favorite tools.

  • Automatic recents. Recently executed tools are automatically tracked.

  • Keyboard navigation. Move through the panel without leaving the keyboard.

  • Integrated search. Search tools with quick favorite and unfavorite actions.

  • Guided discovery. When no favorites are configured, the panel helps you discover and organize tools through the redesigned tool discovery interface.

The result is faster, more personalized access to your everyday tools. [#21600]

View Workflow Step Configuration During Execution

No more switching back to the workflow editor to inspect a running workflow.

  • In-context inspection. View the full configuration of any workflow step directly from the invocation graph.

  • Understand settings at a glance. See tool settings, inputs, and parameters while an analysis runs.

  • Stay in the monitor. Review step details without interrupting execution.

Monitoring a running workflow is now more transparent and informative. [#22144]

Visualizations Updates

Datatypes Updates

Builtin Tool Updates

Please see the full release notes for more details. The admin-facing release notes are available here.

To stay up to date with Galaxy’s progress, watch our screencasts; visit our community Hub; and follow us on Bluesky, Mastodon, and LinkedIn.

You can always chat with us on Matrix.

Thanks for using Galaxy!

The Galaxy Team