DuckDB released version 1.5.2, a patch update bringing bugfixes, performance improvements, and support for the new DuckLake v1.0 lakehouse format. The stable lakehouse specification includes data inlining, sorted tables, bucket partitioning, and deletion buffers as Iceberg-compatible Puffin files. This release marks DuckLake's transition to production-ready status after extensive development.

The Iceberg extension gained several capabilities: GEOMETRY type support, ALTER TABLE statements, updates and deletes from partitioned tables, and truncate/bucket partition operations. DuckDB collaborated with Jepsen for testing, uncovering a bug in INSERT INTO statements with primary key conflict resolution that was patched in this release. Benchmarking on an r8gd.8xlarge instance with 32 vCPUs and 256 GiB RAM showed the TPC-H composite score improved approximately 10%, jumping from 778,041 to 854,676.

The WebAssembly shell at shell.duckdb.org received a complete overhaul, now supporting file storage and listing via the .files command. Users can drag-and-drop files from their local system, create new files using DuckDB's COPY statement, and download results directly. The updated shell includes built-in datasets for experimentation.

DuckCon #7 takes place June 24 at Amsterdam's Royal Tropical Institute, with talk submissions open through April 22. Co-creator Hannes Mühleisen will present at AI Council 2026 on May 12.