> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.cortex.io/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.cortex.io/resources/beta.md).

# Cortex beta program and release phases

At Cortex, we're constantly building new features to improve operational maturity and reduce developer friction through engineering operations. Our beta program allows you to get early access to upcoming features, help shape their development, and provide valuable feedback before they reach general availability.

## Release phases

Cortex uses a phased approach to release new features, allowing us to gather feedback and iterate based on real-world usage. Understanding these phases helps you know what to expect when trying out new features.

<table><thead><tr><th>Release phase</th><th>Who can access?</th><th width="187.27734375">Purpose</th><th>Support</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Private Beta</td><td>Select group of  customers by invitation only</td><td>Test real-world use cases and gather targeted feedback from pilot customers who can handle pre-release features</td><td>Direct support from the Cortex product team</td></tr><tr><td>Public Beta</td><td>All customers have it turned on by default, but certain features may only be available to cloud customers</td><td>Offer new features more broadly while still refining details and fixing bugs based on real-world usage at scale</td><td>Standard Cortex support channels</td></tr><tr><td>Research Preview</td><td>Depending on the feature, a select group of customers by invitation or all cloud customers</td><td>Quickly ship and iterate on AI features</td><td>Standard Cortex support channels</td></tr><tr><td>General Availability (GA)</td><td>All customers by default</td><td>Full-fledged, stable release ready for production use</td><td>Standard Cortex support channels</td></tr></tbody></table>

## Current beta features

We're currently running beta programs for several exciting features:

<table><thead><tr><th>Feature</th><th width="212.6441650390625">Status</th><th>Get Access</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td><a href="#ai-impact-dashboard-for-github-copilot-public-beta">AI Impact Dashboard</a></td><td>Public Beta</td><td>Default</td></tr><tr><td><a href="#incident.io-on-call-public-beta">Incident.io On-call</a></td><td>Public Beta</td><td>Default</td></tr><tr><td><a href="#incident-core-types-incident.io-private-beta">Incident.io Incidents</a></td><td>Public Beta</td><td>Default</td></tr><tr><td><a href="#datadog-core-types-private-beta">Datadog Core Types</a></td><td>Public Beta</td><td>Default</td></tr><tr><td><a href="#datadog-on-call-private-beta">Datadog On-call</a></td><td>Public Beta</td><td>Default</td></tr><tr><td><a href="#opex-review-research-preview">OpEx Review</a></td><td>Research Preview</td><td>Reach out to your account team</td></tr><tr><td><a href="#ownership-predications-research-preview">Ownership Recommendations</a></td><td>Research Preview</td><td>Default</td></tr></tbody></table>

### AI Impact Dashboard for GitHub Copilot (Public Beta)

{% hint style="info" %}
This feature is available for Cortex cloud.
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Measure adoption and impact of AI coding tools, starting with GitHub Copilot, across your engineering teams. [Learn more](/improve/eng-intelligence/dashboards/ai-impact.md)

**Key features:**

* Team-level AI adoption correlated with delivery and reliability
* Impact of recent AI usage on engineering performance
* Detailed user-level AI adoption trends over time

### Incident.io On-Call (Public Beta)

{% hint style="info" %}
This feature is available for Cortex cloud.
{% endhint %}

Bring your incident.io on-call schedules into Cortex, so you can see who's on call directly on entity pages and use that data in CQL and Scorecards. This extends our incident.io integration to give you a single source of truth for both incidents and on-call. [Learn more](/ingesting-data-into-cortex/integrations/incidentio/using-the-integration-for-incident.io.md)

**Key features:**

* **On-call on entity pages** - See the current responder and upcoming shifts for a service directly in the catalog, so anyone can find who to reach without leaving Cortex.
* **CQL and Scorecards support** - Query on-call data with the `oncall` expression and enforce standards like requiring every production service to have coverage configured.

### Incident.io Incidents (Public Beta)

{% hint style="info" %}
This feature is available for Cortex cloud.
{% endhint %}

Our all new integration platform provides a unified, reliable way to ingest, view, and analyze incident data from incident.io. This is the first integration we are migrating to this new platform. [Learn more](/ingesting-data-into-cortex/integrations/incidentio/using-the-integration-for-incident.io.md)

**Key features:**

* **Unified incident catalog** - View all incidents across your organization in one place, with rich metadata including severity, status, affected entities, and more.
* **Multiple data sources** - Ingest incidents from incident.io via our integration platform, or push custom incident data via API,
* **Engineering Intelligence integration -** Access incident metrics you rely on today, now powered by a single, consistent data pipeline.

### Datadog Core Types (Public Beta)

{% hint style="info" %}
This feature is available for Cortex cloud.
{% endhint %}

Our expanded incident support for Datadog allows you to have better insight into your incident data in Cortex by providing visibility into all incidents coming in from your integration (not just ones associated with entities), expanded CQL functionality for more flexibility around rules, and support in engineering intelligence. [Learn more](/ingesting-data-into-cortex/integrations/datadog/using-the-integration-for-datadog.md#viewing-incident-data)

**Key features:**

* **Unified incident view** - View all incidents ingested from Datadog in one place, with rich metadata including severity, status, affected entities, and more.
* **Entity-level incident visibility** - See active incidents directly on entity pages and quickly identify which services are currently impacted.
* **Full CQL support** - Write rules and queries using incident data with the incidents CQL expression.
* **Eng Intelligence integration** - Access the incident metrics you rely on today, now powered by a single, consistent data pipeline.

### Datadog On-Call (Public Beta)

{% hint style="info" %}
This feature is available for Cortex cloud.
{% endhint %}

On-call support brings your Datadog On-Call schedules into Cortex, so you can see who is on-call directly on entity pages and use that data in CQL and Scorecards. This builds on our Datadog incident integration to give you a single, reliable source of truth for both incidents and on-call. [Learn more](/ingesting-data-into-cortex/integrations/datadog/using-the-integration-for-datadog.md#viewing-on-call-information)

**Key features:**

* **YAML and UI configuration** - Manage on-call links through the entity editor UI or the x-cortex-oncall block in entity YAML.
* **On-call on entity pages** - See the current on-call responders and upcoming shifts for a service directly in the catalog, so anyone can find who to reach without leaving Cortex.
* **CQL support** - Write rules and queries against on-call data using the oncall CQL expression.
* **Scorecards** - Enforce operational standards, such as requiring every production service to have an on-call schedule configured.

### OpEx Review (Research Preview)

{% hint style="info" %}
This feature is available for Cortex cloud.
{% endhint %}

OpEx Review is an AI-powered operational excellence review based on the DRIVE framework that turns your Eng Intelligence data into a recurring, narrated report. On a schedule you set, Cortex summarizes what changed since the last cycle and highlights the trends worth your attention, so leaders can spend less time assembling metrics and more time acting on them. [Learn more](/improve/opex-review.md)

**Key features**:

* **Scheduled, narrated reports** - Cortex generates a report on the cadence you choose and writes a plain-language overview of each cycle.
* **Metrics organized by operational pillars** - Related metrics are grouped into pillars, each with an AI insight explaining what the movement means.
* **AI insights on every metric** - Each metric includes its current value, the change from the prior period, its trend over time, and AI-generated insights that explain what's driving the movement and how it connects to other metrics.
* **AI chat** - Open a chat with Cortex AI about any metric; ask follow-up questions, dig into why a metric moved, and pull in related data without leaving the report.

### Ownership predications (Research Preview)

{% hint style="info" %}
This feature is available for Cortex cloud.
{% endhint %}

The ownership predication model leverages machine learning to infer and recommend the most likely owners of a service using signals from Git activity. This helps teams maintain accurate and up-to-date ownership attribution across their software catalog.

**Key features:**

* View all ownership recommendations in a single page
* Accept or reject recommendations

## Join our beta program

### Why join?

* **Early Access.** Be among the first to try new features before they're available to everyone.
* **Shape the Product.** Your feedback directly influences feature development and prioritization.
* **Exclusive Perks.** Beta participants may receive special recognition, early access to future features, or other benefits.
* **Direct Collaboration.** Work closely with our product team to ensure private beta features meet your needs.

### How to join

1. Review the current beta features listed above to see what interests you.
2. Try out any public beta features already enabled and provide any feedback through the link on the feature's public beta banner.
3. Click **Request Access** on any private beta feature you'd like to try.
4. Fill out the brief form to tell us about your use case.
5. We'll review your request and follow up within 3-5 business days.

Not all requests can be accommodated for private beta features due to capacity constraints, but we'll do our best to include as many participants as possible.

### What we ask of beta testers

* **Provide Feedback.** Share your experiences, both positive and negative, through our feedback channels.
* **Report Bugs.** Help us identify issues by reporting them promptly with detailed information.
* **Be Patient.** Beta features may have rough edges or change during the testing period.