Feature

Agent Platform Workbench image release

The following Agent Platform Workbench instances image releases are available:

• 20260712-2130-rc0 (workbench-instances-2603 - Debian 12)
  • Installed latest packages from upstream dependencies.
  • Fixed broken cupy installation.
• M144 (workbench-instances - Debian 11)
  • Installed latest packages from upstream dependencies.
  • Fixed a race condition that could cause JupyterLab to be unreachable (HTTP 524) on GPU instances.

Feature

Secure Boot is compatible with GPUs

You can now enable Secure Boot on Agent Platform Workbench instances that have a GPU attached. Secure Boot with GPUs is supported on the workbench-instances-2603 VM image and the workbench-container-2606 custom container, which include a Secure Boot-signed NVIDIA GPU driver so the driver loads under Secure Boot. For more information, see Create an instance.

Feature

Agent Platform Workbench image release

The following Agent Platform Workbench instances image release is available:

• 20260701-2130-rc0 (workbench-instances-2603 - Debian 12)
  • Installed latest packages from upstream dependencies.
  • Fixed a race condition that could cause JupyterLab to be unreachable (HTTP 524) on GPU instances.
  • Fixed an issue where long-running requests (for example, streaming or long-poll connections) could be terminated after about 60 seconds.

Feature

Python 3.12 base containers for Agent Platform Workbench custom containers

You can build custom containers for Agent Platform Workbench instances using Python 3.12 base containers, in addition to the default Python 3.10 base containers. The Python 3.12 standard and slim base containers are available at the following URIs:

• us-docker.pkg.dev/workbench-images/gcr.io/workbench-container-2606:latest
• us-docker.pkg.dev/workbench-images/gcr.io/workbench-container-slim-2606:latest

Feature

Agent Platform Workbench image release

The following Agent Platform Workbench instances image release is available:

• 20260628-2130-rc0 (workbench-instances-2603 - Debian 12)
  • Installed latest packages from upstream dependencies.
  • Installed TensorFlow and PyTorch packages to the default kernel.

Feature

Agent Platform Workbench image release

The following Agent Platform Workbench instances image release is available:

• 20260624-1604-rc0 (workbench-instances-2603 - Debian 12)
  • Installed latest packages from upstream dependencies.
  • Fixed an issue where notebook kernels could become unavailable if the Dataproc plugin failed to load.

Feature

Agent Platform Workbench image release

The following Agent Platform Workbench instances image releases are available:

• 20260622-2130-rc0 (workbench-instances-2603 - Debian 12)
  • Installed latest packages from upstream dependencies.
  • Fixed a duplicate "Python 3 (ipykernel)" kernel appearing in the launcher.
• M143 (workbench-instances - Debian 11)
  • Installed latest packages from upstream dependencies.

Feature

Agent Platform Workbench image release

The following Agent Platform Workbench instances image release is available:

• 20260531-2130-rc0 (workbench-instances-2603 - Debian 12)
  • Installed latest packages from upstream dependencies.

Feature

Agent Platform Workbench image release

The following Agent Platform Workbench instances image release is available:

• M142 (workbench-instances - Debian 11)
  • Installed latest packages from upstream dependencies.
  • Fixed pip availability in the base environment.
  • Hardened JupyterLab authentication configuration.

Feature

Agent Platform Workbench image release

The following Agent Platform Workbench instances image release is available:

• 20260524-2130-rc0 (workbench-instances-2603 - Debian 12)
  • Installed latest packages from upstream dependencies.
  • Fixed a Python 3.12 compatibility issue in the JupyterLab server configuration.
  • Hardened JupyterLab authentication configuration.

Feature

Agent Platform Workbench image release

The following Agent Platform Workbench instances image release is available:

• 20260510-2130-rc0 (workbench-instances-2603 - Debian 12)
  • Installed latest packages from upstream dependencies.

Feature

Agent Platform Workbench image release

The following Agent Platform Workbench instances image release is available:

• 20260503-2130-rc0 (workbench-instances-2603 - Debian 12)
  • Installed latest packages from upstream dependencies.
  • Improved metadata server resolution reliability on Debian 12 by using the recommended metadata.google.internal name.

Feature

Agent Platform Workbench image release

The following Agent Platform Workbench instances image release is available:

• 20260426-2130-rc0 (workbench-instances-2603 - Debian 12)
  • Installed latest packages from upstream dependencies.

Feature

Agent Platform Workbench image release

The following Agent Platform Workbench instances image releases are available:

• 20260419-2130-rc0 (workbench-instances-2603 - Debian 12)
  • Installed latest packages from upstream dependencies.
  • Fixed intermittent connectivity failures caused by proxy TLS certificate rotation.
  • The post-startup script now re-runs after an instance auto-upgrade.
• M141 (workbench-instances - Debian 11)
  • Installed latest packages from upstream dependencies.
  • Fixed intermittent connectivity failures caused by proxy TLS certificate rotation.
  • The post-startup script now re-runs after an instance auto-upgrade.

Feature

M140 release

The M140 release of Vertex AI Workbench instances includes the following:

• Gemini CLI Update: Minor updates to Gemini CLI's dependencies.

Feature

Workbench Image Release 26.03

Released the new 26.03 image version under the following image family workbench-instances-2603. This major update introduces:

• OS Upgrade: Migration to Debian 12 (Bookworm) for improved security and performance.
• Python Upgrade: Python 3.12 as the default version.
• New Versioning Scheme: Transitioned to a date-based versioning format (e.g., v26.03) to provide better historical context for image updates. For more information on new versioning schema see the latest documentation
• Micromamba CLI: Installed by default
• JupyterLab Environments: Supports only JupyterLab 4.

Fixed

Fixed a vulnerability in Vertex AI Workbench for users utilizing managed credentials.

Feature

M139 release

The M139 release of Vertex AI Workbench instances includes the following:

• Removed a startup script dependency on gs://dl-platform-public-configs.

Feature

Preview: The Gemini CLI is available in Vertex AI Workbench instances. The Gemini CLI is an open source AI agent that provides access to Gemini directly in a terminal. You can use the Gemini CLI to do tasks like the following:

• Create a new notebook.
• Run notebook cells.
• Write and edit a notebook's code and text cells.
• Explain code and technical concepts.
• Interact with a Vertex AI Workbench instance's local file system, including performing complex file operations that span multiple files based on a single, high-level instruction.
• Run basic shell commands.
• Run commands to interact with other Google Cloud services, such as Vertex AI and BigQuery.

To get started, see Use the Gemini CLI.

Feature

M138 release

The M138 release of Vertex AI Workbench instances includes the following:

• Fixed an issue where daemon processes launched by post-startup scripts, such as gcsfuse mounts, did not persist after the script finished executing.

Feature

• The following features are now generally available (GA):

  • Create new Vertex AI Workbench instances with JupyterLab 4+.

  • Create an instance with managed user credential access.

• Using post-startup scripts for new instances with user credential access is now available in private GA. For information about access to this release, see the access request page. For more information, see Create instances with post-startup scripts.

Feature

M137 release

The M137 release of Vertex AI Workbench instances includes the following:

• Patched an issue where sudo prompts for a password when a custom Jupyter user name is specified.

Feature

Generally available (GA): Encrypt your data-in-use by using Confidential Computing. You can enable the Confidential VM service when you create a Vertex AI Workbench instance. To get started, see Create an instance with Confidential Computing.

Feature

M136 release

The M136 release of Vertex AI Workbench instances includes the following:

• Patched an issue where image outputs aren't displayed properly.

Feature

M135 release

The M135 release of Vertex AI Workbench instances includes the following:

• Patched an issue where user-triggered OS shutdowns aren't reported to the Notebooks API.

Feature

M134 release

The M134 release of Vertex AI Workbench instances includes the following:

• Patched a regression with custom notebook metrics reporting (for example, jupyterlab_kernels and docker_status metrics).
• Updated the Dataproc JupyterLab plugin (dataproc-jupyter-plugin) to version 0.1.92.
• When using Google Cloud CLI commands, the project and region properties are preset.

Feature

Generally available (GA): You can use Workforce Identity Federation with Vertex AI Workbench instances. Workforce Identity Federation lets you create and manage Vertex AI Workbench instances with credentials provided by an external identity provider (IdP). For more information, see Create an instance with third party credentials.

Feature

M133 release

The M133 release of Vertex AI Workbench instances includes the following:

• Patched an incompatibility with the Dataproc JupyterLab plugin (dataproc-jupyter-plugin) and instances with end-user credentials enabled.

Feature

M132 release

The M132 release of Vertex AI Workbench instances includes the following:

• The new scheduler Jupyter plugin (scheduler-jupyter-plugin) is now preinstalled in the Jupyterlab 4 environment, with support for both the Cloud Composer and Vertex AI notebook schedulers.

• Updated the Dataproc JupyterLab plugin (dataproc-jupyter-plugin) to version 0.1.90.

• Patched bugs related to the managed end user credentials feature (Preview), resolving an incompatibility with listing Dataproc remote kernels.

• Patched a bug that caused instances with disabled proxy access to get stuck in provisioning.

• Removed the archived Debian 11 backports repository, resolving an issue with running apt update within the instance.

Feature

Generally available: You can consume reservations with Vertex AI Workbench instances. Reservations of Compute Engine zonal resources help you gain a high level of assurance that your jobs have the necessary resources to run. For more information, see Use reservations with Vertex AI Workbench instances.

Feature

M131 release

The M131 release of Vertex AI Workbench instances includes the following:

• Updated the Dataproc JupyterLab plugin to version 0.1.89.

Feature

M130 release

The M130 release of Vertex AI Workbench instances includes the following:

• Updated the Dataproc JupyterLab plugin to version 0.1.87.
• Added the BigQuery JupyterLab plugin, version 0.0.1.
• The GOOGLE_CLOUD_REGION environment variable is now set by default.