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Abstract
Details are provided of continuous delivery updates to IBM® CICS® Transaction Server for z/OS® (CICS TS) 6.1, 6.2, and 6.3.
Content
CICS Transaction Server for z/OS continuous delivery updates
Planned availability
- January 16, 2026
IBM CICS Transaction Server for z/OS (CICS TS) is a world-class, secure and scalable platform for hosting transactional enterprise applications in a hybrid architecture.
In addition to the features delivered as part of CICS TS 6.3 at general availability in September 2025, the following features are now available in VS Code to aide application development:
Improvements to Zowe Explorer for IBM CICS Transaction Server Extension
As part of ongoing efforts to enhance the CICS Developer Experience, the IBM CICS TS team has been actively contributing to the open-source extension Zowe Explorer for CICS TS, enabling developers to leverage the power of Microsoft Visual Studio (VS) Code for CICS application development. The following enhancements are now generally available and represent a significant step forward in improving developer productivity and streamlining CICS development workflows:
CICS Tree enhancements
Zowe Explorer for CICS TS now delivers a more efficient CICS‑tree experience for developers. Resources are automatically sorted alphabetically so that assets can be found at a glance and the navigation overhead is dramatically reduced. In addition, Java developers can start or stop JVM servers directly from the CICS tree with new Enable and Disable actions.
The CICS bundlepart enable status is now displayed directly in the label and icon, giving developers an immediate visual cue of each part’s activation state. Also, a Show Bundle Directory context menu is added to CICS Bundles in the CICS tree, enabling developers to jump quickly into the Zowe Explorer UNIX System Services (USS) tree and explore the deployed bundle without leaving the VS Code interface.
The refresh button has been enhanced to perform an in‑place refresh without collapsing the tree, keeping the current view intact and further streamlining day‑to‑day workflow.
CICS Tree updates
Files (formerly Local Files) now include both local and remote CICS files in the Files tree, giving developers a single view for all file resources.
JVM Endpoint is displayed under each JVM Server node, providing instant visibility of endpoint details for debugging and performance tuning.
Enable/Disable actions on JVM Endpoints let developers start or stop endpoints on‑the‑fly, speeding up testing cycles.
TS Queues tree groups TS and Shared TS queues in a dedicated view, simplifying queue management and monitoring.
Highlighted attributes for all resources in the CICS Resource Inspector
All CICS resources now have highlighted information in the CICS Resource Inspector, giving developers an at‑a‑glance view of access rights and resource details, speeding up troubleshooting and configuration. For example, this information includes items like the permissions and data set for a CICS file, the language, use count, and status of a CICS program.
Credential management
Developers can now perform Update Credentials action to CICS profiles, allowing developers to refresh authentication (including multi-factor authentication) instantly from the Zowe Explorer tree without waiting for an unauthorized access (401) error. This aligns CICS credential handling with the rest of Zowe Explorer’s trees and eliminates unnecessary failed requests.
In addition, Zowe Explorer for CICS TS now supports SSL certificate-based authentication for CICS management client interface (CMCI) connections.
Planned availability
- January 16, 2026
Publications
- Product documentation for CICS TS is hosted online in IBM Documentation. The documentation is refreshed regularly to reflect feedback from users, and includes changes that result from continuous delivery and IBM Service.
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Modified date:
20 January 2026
UID
ibm17256917