CANFAR Science Platform Release 2026.1 - February 26, 2026

CanfarSP 2026.1 - February 26, 2026

✨ Features

• Updated Desktop and Desktop Terminal — The CANFAR Desktop session and the associated Desktop Terminal (1.2.0) have been updated and refreshed. The previous version of the Terminal (1.1.2) is still available from the drop-down menu under: Applications → AstroSoftware → skaha

• In the CANFAR CLI and Python Library

  • Active Server Context — Every canfar cli command now shows the active server context (@<server-name>) in the CLI output.
  • New CLI Commands — canfar config get/set to retrieve and update configuration values with dotted paths with editing YAML by hand. For example:
    • canfar config get console.width -- get the current console width
    • canfar config get contexts.default.server -- get the default server configuration
    • canfar config set console.width 160 -- set the console width to 160 characters
  • Configurable CLI Width — control table and log/event output width via configuration parameter console.width which can be set via canfar config set console.width 160.
  • Regex-aware prune — canfar prune now accepts literal prefixes or regex patterns for bulk cleanup.

• CVMFS enabled — All sessions and jobs now have access to the CernVM File System, providing instant access to software stacks maintained by the Digital Research Alliance of Canada (Alliance). More on using CVMFS on CANFAR.

• Two new contributed sessions:

  • WebTerminal — A simple but effective way to interact with your data in CANFAR, based on ttyd
  • Globus — Manage CANFAR data transfers on Globus Connect Personal endpoints

• Scripting functions now available on CARTA sessions. Like with Firefly sessions, you can now programatically interact with your CARTA sessions through the CARTA API. See the documentation on Session API Access for more information.

🐛 Fixes

• On the Science Portal, Desktop sessions won't be available until fully intialized, thus avoiding the "503 Service Unavailable" message that would occur for about 30 seconds.

• An issue was fixed where, in the SRCNet deployments, the incorrect userid was sometimes shown on the Science Portal.

• CANFAR CLI and Python Library bug fixes:

  • Pending Session Open — canfar open now skip Pending sessions and warn until they are Running.
  • Improved Timeout + HTTP Error Messages — clearer diagnostics for stalled or failing requests (sync and async clients), including replica creation workflows.
  • Logging fallback — CLI logging falls back to a temp directory when the default log path is not writable.
  • canfar ps reporting correct values and match with those reported by top

⚙️ Technical Changes

• Backwards Compatability Note: Removal of the skaha API 'v0' endpoint — The v0 endpoint of skaha was replaced by v1 in the CanfarSP 2025.1 release of September 2025. v0 continued in parallel with v1 for the last few months, but has now been removed. This change only affects people with clients or scripts that communicate with the API directly (e.g. with curl), not those using the Science Portal or the canfar CLI and python package which all use v1. If there are any remaining users of the old skaha python package (that uses v0), they should update their workflows with the new canfar package: pip install --upgrade canfar

• CANFAR CLI and Python Library:

  • Destroy-with matching — destroy_with uses regex when metacharacters are present, otherwise a literal prefix.
  • Shared console output — CLI commands now use a single Rich console configured from canfar.utils.console, and always shows the active server context.
  • Registry discovery updates — expanded SRCNet registry names/endpoints (Australia, SKAO, Italy-CINECA) and excluded preprod endpoints.

📦 Deployment Notes

• Initial values for flexible jobs now configurable in the skaha helm charts
• Logos on the CANFAR Portal can be customized. SRCNet nodes can brand their portals with the national logos.
• Removal of the skaha/v0 API endpoint
• Official CVMFS support (must also be supported in your kubernetes infrastructure).
• The CANFAR Portal reflects image registry options when multiple are configured

Python Client & CLI

Component	Version
canfar	v1.2+

Helm Charts & Container Images

Component	Helm Chart Version	Container Image
base	0.4.0	-
cavern	0.9.0	0.9.2
skaha	1.5.1	1.2.0
posix-mapper	0.5.0	0.3.2
science-portal	1.2.0	1.3.0
storage-ui	0.8.0	1.4.1

💬 Contact & Support

For any questions about this release, or for information relating to CANFAR issues or deployment support, head over to the CANFAR Discord Server or please contact us at support@canfar.net.

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