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---
title: Databend Monthly Report: January 2026 — Table Branching...
description: Databend&#x27;s January monthly report covers 11 nightly releases (v1.2.863 to v1.2.873-nightly) with 33 new features, 31 bug fixes, and 37 refactors. Highlights...
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og:description: Databend&#x27;s January monthly report covers 11 nightly releases (v1.2.863 to v1.2.873-nightly) with 33 new features, 31 bug fixes, and 37 refactors. Highlights...
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> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Databend Monthly Report: January 2026 — Table Branching & Tags, Spatial Indexes

**[Databend Blog](https://daily.dev/sources/databend)** · 4 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments

## Summary

Databend's January monthly report covers 11 nightly releases (v1.2.863 to v1.2.873-nightly) with 33 new features, 31 bug fixes, and 37 refactors. Highlights include experimental Table Branching & Tags for data version control, full Spatial Index support for Geometry/Geography workloads, and newly live Iceberg Write support (via iceberg-rust v0.8.0). Engine improvements include self-join elimination, lazy materialization across joins, and Fuse Parquet Prewhere optimizations, alongside Meta service observability and Openraft upgrades. A spotlight section frames Table Branching as a safe sandbox for AI agents to experiment on data without touching production tables.

## Full article

daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: <https://www.databend.com/blog/category-product/monthly-jan2026>

## Questions this post answers

### What is Table Branching and Tags in Databend used for?

Table Branching and Tags is an experimental Databend feature enabling data version control by letting users create branches of a table for safe experimentation. Agents or users can perform DELETE, UPDATE, or complex ETL operations on a branch without affecting the main table, then merge verified changes back or use tags for snapshot-based rollback via time travel.

_Teams evaluating data version control workflows can follow Databend's evolving feature set on daily.dev._

### Does Databend support writing to Iceberg tables?

Yes, Databend added Iceberg write support by upgrading to iceberg-rust v0.8.0, enabling the write path in addition to existing read support and improving compatibility with open data lake formats. This was delivered as part of a run of 11 nightly releases spanning versions v1.2.863 through v1.2.873.

_Developers weighing lakehouse write compatibility across engines can track updates like this on daily.dev._

### What spatial indexing capabilities does Databend offer for Geometry and Geography data?

Databend introduced Spatial Index support with CREATE/DROP SPATIAL INDEX statements that fully cover Geometry and Geography workloads, boosting spatial query performance. This was shipped alongside other query engine improvements like self-join elimination and lazy materialization across joins during the same nightly release cycle.

_Engineers building geospatial analytics pipelines can follow database feature rollouts like this on daily.dev._

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---

Tags: [#backend](https://daily.dev/tags/backend), [#data-warehouse](https://daily.dev/tags/data-warehouse), [#apache-iceberg](https://daily.dev/tags/apache-iceberg)

[View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/databend-monthly-report-january-2026-table-branching-tags-spatial-indexes-chhbxcsw9)

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