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Apache Superset Repo Recap: May 2026
SUPERSET DEVELOPERS

Apache Superset Repo Recap: May 2026

Evan Rusackas
Evan Rusackas
5 min read
832 words

May kept up April's momentum, with 66 contributors merging 475 pull requests. If April was about new surfaces, May was about depth. The standout story is Superset's MCP service growing from a foundation into a broad, practical tool catalog that lets AI assistants work with nearly every part of Superset. Alongside it: a sizeable wave of translations (including new AI-assisted tooling to backfill them), semantic layers reworked as extensions, and a steady stream of dashboard and infrastructure polish.

The community kept growing, too. Superset gained more than 560 GitHub stars in May, welcomed 36 new contributors to the repo, and added another 34 members to the community Slack. Eighteen people merged their first Superset PR this month — welcome aboard.

Highlights

Superset's MCP Service Grows Up

April laid the MCP (Model Context Protocol) foundation; May built it out. A large batch of work expanded what AI assistants can actually do through Superset's MCP server, adding read tools for nearly every resource type: annotation layers (#40342), saved queries and query history (#40346), tags (#40349), users and roles (#40345), row-level security and plugins (#40347), CSS templates and themes (#40343), the action log and tasks (#40344), and a get_dashboard_layout companion tool (#40328).

Chart generation got more capable as well: custom SQL metrics in generate_chart/update_chart (#40448), chart formatting options across all supported chart types (#39887), and a find_users tool with owner filters (#39679).

Operators got more control and safety: a MCP_DISABLED_TOOLS option to suppress specific tools at startup (#39835), and a "Data Boundary" instruction that hardens the server against prompt injection by treating tool-returned content as untrusted (OWASP LLM01) (#40080). And navigating to /mcp in a browser now shows an auth-aware setup page instead of a 405 error (#40471).

A Wave of Translations, with AI-Assisted Tooling

May brought a burst of localization work. New developer tooling uses AI to draft translations for missing .po entries and backfill them — every AI-generated entry is marked fuzzy and attributed to the model used, so it can't reach end users without human review (#39448). On top of that, the month added a human-reviewed Ukrainian translation (#39720), Slovak (#40219), Thai (#40391), Finnish (#40390), and Czech date support (#40241).

Semantic Layers, Now as Extensions

Building on April's launch, semantic layers were reworked to ship as a Superset extension (#37815). Users can register an external semantic layer provider (for example, a Pandas semantic layer packaged as a .supx file) and build charts from its semantic views like any dataset, still behind the SEMANTIC_LAYERS flag. Follow-ups added a single-view configuration form (#40280) and metadata for additive metrics (#40279).

Schema-less Database Support

Databases that don't have schemas (like YDB) are now first-class in the dataset flow: a new supports_schemas engine flag hides the schema selector and skips schema requirements throughout dataset creation (#39433).

Soft Deletes Land (SIP-208)

The foundational infrastructure for soft deletes went in (#39977): a SoftDeleteMixin, an ORM listener that automatically hides soft-deleted rows from queries, restore commands, and supporting plumbing. It's dormant until later PRs opt charts, dashboards, and datasets into it, but it sets up an "undo" safety net for the future.

Charts & Visualizations

  • Metric-based color scales and line width on the Deck.gl Path chart, matching Scatterplot parity (#39165)
  • A data-theme-mode attribute on <html> so custom dashboard CSS and extensions can adapt to the active light/dark theme without JavaScript (#39063)

Dashboards & Filters

  • Rison-encoded ?f=(...) URL filters that auto-apply to matching native filters and surface unmatched ones as removable chips (#39795)
  • Compact filter pills with a popover for ListView CRUD pages, cutting header overflow (#40169)

SQL Lab & Databases

  • A SQLGlot dialect for Vertica (#39969)
  • Support for creating datasets on schema-less databases (see Highlights) (#39433)

Core & Infrastructure

  • Soft-delete infrastructure for SIP-208 (see Highlights) (#39977)
  • React StrictMode enabled at the application root, surfacing latent rendering issues (#39893)
  • An expanded docs:screenshots generator with manifest and tutorial captures (#39444)

Security

  • Static security analysis for GitHub Actions workflows in CI (#40510)
  • A safeguard that delays version-bumping PRs to avoid prematurely adopting potentially compromised packages (#39783)
  • Prompt-injection hardening for the MCP server (see Highlights) (#40080)

Dependency Updates

  • Dependabot stayed busy, with 198 dependency-update PRs merged in May keeping frontend and backend packages current for security and stability.

Contributors

May's work came from 66 contributors:

Abdulrehman-PIAIC80387, alex-poor, alexandrusoare, AliGouta, aminghadersohi, andy-clapson, arpitjain099, ASolarers-Rodriguez, bdonovan1, betodealmeida, bialkou, chaselynisabella, Cloud-Architect-Emma, dankor, davidkopelent, EnxDev, eschutho, ethan-l-geotab, fitzee, gabotorresruiz, geido, hainenber, hdahme, hughhhh, innovark37, jaymasiwal, jbbqqf, jesperct, justinpark, kasiazjc, Khrol, luizotavio32, madhushreeag, massucattoj, Mayankaggarwal8055, michael-s-molina, Michelle, miharejec, mikebridge, mistercrunch, msyavuz, mtrentz, Nishieee, nitishagar, onurtashan, richardfogaca, rusackas, sadpandajoe, Samuelinto, SBIN2010, scouredimage, semohr, sfirke, sh011, sha174n, SkinnyPigeon, sofeel, tstoeter, veeceey, vgvoleg, villebro, Vitor-Avila, xavier-GitHub76, ya-nsh, yeaight7, yousoph

First-Time Contributors

A warm welcome to May's 18 first-time contributors: AliGouta, arpitjain099, bialkou, chaselynisabella, Cloud-Architect-Emma, davidkopelent, fitzee, jbbqqf, miharejec, mtrentz, Nishieee, onurtashan, scouredimage, semohr, sh011, tstoeter, ya-nsh, yeaight7

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