What's new in IBM® watsonx Orchestrate®

May 2026 end-of-month release

Region availability:

Features and fixes deploy to regions in phases. For availability details, see Regional availability and outbound IP addresses.

Seamless login in AWS MCSP 2.0 environments

Access watsonx Orchestrate seamlessly in AWS MCSP 2.0 environments (HIPAA and GovCloud) when you use secure access links with mcsp_metadata.

You can:

• Skip the watsonx Orchestrate login screen and go directly to your organization's IdP
• Return to the marketplace page when you log out

The login screen now displays "Continue with your email" instead of "Continue with IBM id" when you access watsonx Orchestrate through secure access links with mcsp_metadata. This change reduces confusion if your organization uses a custom Identity Provider.

Use this feature to access watsonx Orchestrate more quickly with fewer steps.

Learn more: Logging in to IBM watsonx Orchestrate

May 2026 mid-month release

Region availability:

Features and fixes deploy to regions in phases. For availability details, see Regional availability and outbound IP addresses.

At a glance

This release adds loop controls in Flow builder, enhanced test evaluation reporting, embedded chat customization options, improved message grouping, catalog management capabilities, and infrastructure improvements.

• Add loop controls to agentic workflows
• Add optional parameters to tools
• Python toolkit integration in agentic workflows
• Automatic feedback storage in embedded chat
• Customize embedded chat fonts
• Newly added prebuilt agents and tools
• Other enhancements

Add loop controls to agentic workflows

Create iterative workflows using loop controls in the Flow builder. A loop control repeats a set of activities while the condition is true. It evaluates the specified condition before each iteration and runs the activities until the condition evaluates to false.

You can:

• Add loop controls from the Flow nodes tab by dragging onto the canvas or inserting on a connector line
• Define loop conditions using the Condition builder with variables, operators, and values
• Build conditions using the Expression editor with Python expressions that evaluate to Boolean values
• Add local variables that are available only within the loop control for storing iteration-specific intermediate results
• Combine multiple conditions using the and operator

Use this feature to automate repetitive tasks such as processing batches of data, polling for status updates, or implementing retry logic until specific conditions are met.

Learn more: Add a loop control

Add optional parameters to tools

Control whether parameters must be provided or are optional when adding inputs to tools. Use the Required toggle switch to mark parameters as required.

Use this feature to create more flexible tools that adapt to different use cases without requiring all parameters upfront.

Learn more: Inputs and outputs

Python toolkit integration in agentic workflows

Add Python toolkit tools to agentic workflows. Python toolkits bundle multiple Python tools together, providing better performance and easier management compared to deploying individual tools separately.

Use this feature to invoke Python toolkit tools from agentic workflows with support for connections, async execution, error handling, and retries. Python toolkits work similarly to MCP toolkits already supported in agentic workflows.

Automatic feedback storage in embedded chat

Thumbs-up and thumbs-down feedback from embedded chat is now automatically stored on watsonx Orchestrate servers, eliminating the need for custom storage solutions. Feedback is enabled by default and maintains state across sessions.

Feedback is accessible through the Messages API. Existing webhook patterns continue to work for customers who need additional custom processing.

Learn more: Integrating agents with web applications

Customize embedded chat fonts

Customize the font style of embedded chat to align with your organization's brand guidelines. Add the fontFamily parameter to the style component inside the window.wxOConfiguration object in your web chat script to apply custom fonts to all text elements.

You can:

• Set custom font families using the fontFamily parameter in the style configuration
• Apply fonts consistently across all chat text elements including static UI text, dynamic responses, and user messages
• Use brand-approved typography for embedded chat deployments
• Combine font customization with other style parameters such as headerColor, userMessageBackgroundColor, and primaryColor

Font customization applies to all text in embedded chat including welcome messages, agent responses, user utterances, and starter prompts.

Learn more: IBM watsonx Orchestrate ADK

Newly added prebuilt agents and tools

IBM watsonx Orchestrate introduces new prebuilt agents and tools to expand automation across key business domains.

Table 1. Prebuilt agents

Category	Agent name
Productivity	Extract Pdf Content
	Insert Content in Pdf
	Generate Pdf
	Update Pdf

Learn more: Prebuilt agents

Other enhancements

The following table lists enhancements available in this release:

Table 2. Enhancements

Enhancement	Description	Affected role
Enhanced test case evaluation	The evaluation interface now includes embedded metric definitions, improved layout with journey success prominently featured, and support for unlimited evaluation runs. View user stories in test tiles, and save JSON changes only when valid.	Builder or Writer
Grouped consecutive messages in chat	Consecutive agent responses within a 2-minute window are now visually grouped with a single avatar, name, and timestamp for a cleaner conversation experience. The copy button appears only on the last message in the group and copies the entire group content.	User or WO User
Improved domain agent performance	Domain agents using gpt-oss-120b now deliver performance comparable to previous Llama-based versions with optimized temperature settings, random seed configuration, and targeted generic instructions to reduce variance and improve response consistency.	Builder or Writer
Session cookie isolation	Session cookies are now isolated to specific regional hostnames using host-only cookie behavior, preventing authentication conflicts when accessing multiple production regions simultaneously.	Admin or Manager

Related release information

For information about updates to the Agent Development Kit (ADK) and On‑premises deployments, see the following resources:

• ADK release notes
• On‑premises release notes