Looker 26.8 Enhancements: CI GA, Conversational Analytics, In-Database Models

The Looker Continuous Integration (CI) feature is now generally available.

Conversational Analytics now supports the ability to run queries when users are in Development Mode .

Now available in preview for BigQuery and Snowflake connections, Looker integrates with in-database analytic models ( BigQuery Graph and Snowflake semantic views ), so that you can keep your semantic definitions consistent across Looker and other BI tools, applications, or workloads that interface with your data warehouse. See the In-database analytic models documentation page for more information. Note: This item was added on May 28, 2026.

Now available in preview, dashboard editors can change the size and layout of dashboard tiles with more granularity. To enable this feature, a Looker admin must turn on the Granular Dashboard Sizing setting on the Preview page in the Admin panel.

Now available in preview, enhanced observability metrics, including engagement and token usage data, are available for Conversational Analytics on the Conversational Analytics System Activity dashboard . To use this feature, a Looker admin must turn on the Conversational Analytics Observability setting on the Preview admin page. Note: Token usage monitoring for Conversational Analytics is not available at this time. This item was updated on June 1, 2026.

Now available in preview, you can use natural language to instruct a Conversational Analytics data agent to create a workflow that notifies you when your data has met certain conditions. To use this feature, a Looker admin must turn on the Agentic Workflows setting on the Gemini in Looker admin page.

Now available in preview, the Looker-managed Model Context Protocol (MCP) server allows AI agents to securely connect to your Looker instance without requiring separate middleware. Looker admins can enable this feature and manage which AI tools are available to developers from the new Model Context Protocol (MCP) page in the Admin panel. Usage of the managed MCP server is also tracked within System Activity Explores and Cloud Audit Logs .

Model localization for imported projects will be supported in a future release. Note: This item was updated on May 28, 2026.

Now available in preview, you can publish the Conversational Analytics data agents that you create in Looker to Gemini Enterprise. All users who have the save_agents permission will be granted the publish_agent_externally permission. To use this feature, a Looker admin must turn on the Publish to Gemini Enterprise setting on the Gemini in Looker admin page.

Now available in preview, you can create and use Conversational Analytics data agents on Looker user-defined dashboards . Conversational Analytics uses the Production Mode of content when it queries Looker dashboards. To use this feature, a Looker admin must turn on the Enable Dashboard Agents setting on the Gemini in Looker admin page.

Looker has introduced the following new feature updates for tabbed dashboards: The ability to add buttons with navigation to tabs The ability to duplicate tabs The ability to select all or deselect all tiles on a dashboard tab for filters The ability to monitor dashboard tab usage with the Dashboard System Activity Explore The ability to schedule or send a single dashboard tab or a specific set of tabs The ability to download a single dashboard tab or a specific set of tabs The ability to add a dashboard tab view to a board

The Self-service Explores feature is now supported on Snowflake connections. Your Looker admin can select a Snowflake connection in the Default Connection field of the Self-service Explores admin page. On Snowflake connections, you can upload comma-separated files (CSV) and Excel files (XLS and XLSX) to create a self-service Explore.

Looker has introduced a security sandboxing enhancement for Git command-line interface (CLI) operations. For Looker projects that are configured with SSH connections, this enhancement restricts which directories and executables can be accessed on the instance when Git worktree commands are executed. Looker projects that use HTTPS connections are not affected. This sandboxing feature is enabled automatically for Cloud-hosted Looker (original) and Looker (Google Cloud core) instances starting in Looker 26.8. For customer-hosted Looker instances, this security enhancement is available starting in

The Admin > Roles panel user interface has been updated.

Looker admins can no longer create or manage API credentials for individual standard users in Looker (original) instances. Users must now manage their own keys from their Account page. Admins can enable or disable self-service API key management for users and continue to manage credentials for API-only service accounts. To improve security, API keys are no longer visible to admins while they are sudoing as another user.

The following features will begin rolling out as part of Looker 26.8.