Microsoft’s July/August 2026 Power Platform update makes the Data Grid modern control generally available for Power Apps canvas apps, adds a new way to pool Power Automate Process capacity, and brings Power Automate flow authoring into GitHub Copilot CLI and Claude Code. The most consequential practical change is less flashy than the agent announcements: Microsoft is now positioning the Fluent UI data grid—not the older Table control—as the recommended default for dense, operational canvas-app screens.
Microsoft’s monthly Power Platform blog also presents the Power Pages Security agent as a “new” public preview. Its own release-plan record and documentation show a more complicated timeline: Security agent entered public preview on January 10, 2026, and Microsoft Learn documentation was updated on August 3, three days before this roundup. The August announcement is therefore better read as a broader push around an already-previewed capability, especially for configuration, authentication, authorization, and application-security workflows—not the beginning of a brand-new preview.
For Windows-based IT teams that manage Power Platform alongside Microsoft 365, Entra ID, Dataverse, and endpoint tooling, this update is chiefly about moving more build, automation, and security work into governed, solution-aware workflows. It also carries a few migration and licensing traps that makers should address before treating the new controls and agents as drop-in upgrades.
The newly generally available Data Grid modern control gives canvas apps a Fluent UI-based grid with search, sorting, column resizing, keyboard support, screen-reader support, selection, and formula-configurable column behavior. Microsoft’s Learn documentation goes further than the feature roundup: it explicitly calls Data Grid the recommended control for displaying tabular data in canvas apps, instead of the modern Table control.
That recommendation matters for apps used as line-of-business work surfaces—case queues, equipment inventories, approval backlogs, service desks, and Dataverse record browsers—where makers previously resorted to galleries or carefully customized tables. Data Grid supports row virtualization for large datasets, which Microsoft says enables smoother scrolling beyond 2,000 records. But the performance benefit has a condition that is easy to miss: enabling text wrapping for a column disables virtualization.
In other words, teams that adopt the grid for a large operational dataset should resist treating it like a fully free-form report layout. Uniform row height and non-wrapping columns are part of the performance model. The grid also retains constraints that will matter to organizations trying to replace a heavily styled table: no attachment-column rendering for Dataverse, no per-column font size or color, no alternating-row colors, no variable row height, and no editable search placeholder text.
Search deserves testing against each production connector rather than blind confidence. Microsoft documents that search may not be delegable for all data sources and that a delegation warning might not appear. For a small SharePoint list or Dataverse table, that may not be consequential. For a large externally backed data source, it can mean the user-facing search field does not evaluate the full record set in the way a maker expects.
The control’s availability is still a significant maturation point. Microsoft’s documentation says the GA work includes reset support, fixed search reliability, better behavior after changing data sources, multiple-selection choice-field rendering, and formula support through
The part administrators and makers should not overlook is the migration behavior. Microsoft Learn says modern controls have received updated versions since February 2026, with renamed properties, typed enums, and changed behavior. Power Apps Studio may show an Update button on older controls, but the update can require formula changes.
For Toggle and Checkbox,
Microsoft specifically warns that some modern-control updates alter when
The new Rating control is a modest but useful addition, particularly for satisfaction, inspection, or review scenarios. It supports custom icon shapes and half-step increments, such as a 3.5 rating, and exposes the selected value for use in formulas. It does not displace the classic Rating control; Microsoft says the classic control remains unchanged.
Microsoft has also published a path away from the older Fluent UI hero controls used in custom pages and Teams apps. The company says classic controls remain supported for organizations that have established design systems. But its product direction is unmistakable: modern controls are the actively developed route, and older hero-control projects should be inventoried before their styling or theming differences become a last-minute migration problem.
Microsoft’s licensing documentation puts important limits around that claim. A group has exactly one Process license; license stacking is unavailable. The group is limited to one environment, and a flow can belong to only one group. Desktop flows, business process flows, cloud flows outside solutions, and flows already covered by a per-user Power Automate plan are not eligible.
There is a further design detail that will catch teams using parent-child flow patterns. A parent flow’s membership does not automatically place its child flows into the group. Each child must be explicitly added, and each added parent or child flow counts toward the 25-flow ceiling. If the child is omitted, it does not inherit the shared group capacity simply because its parent is included.
This makes flow groups a targeted licensing optimization, not a general capacity pooling feature. They fit a solution-aware departmental automation package with a collection of low-to-medium-volume flows. They are a poor fit for a high-volume flow that can independently exhaust the 250,000 daily action pool, because the group cannot be expanded by stacking licenses. Microsoft’s documented answer in that case is to assign Process licenses directly to the high-volume flow.
The practical next step for Power Platform administrators is to identify solution-aware flows that currently have dedicated Process capacity but low actual consumption, then group them by environment and workload. Do not begin by grouping every related flow: first map parent-child relationships, per-user plan coverage, and the daily action profile of each candidate.
This is a notable shift in how Power Automate can be operated. A maker or developer can ask an AI coding agent to create a flow from a description, inspect a failed run, select an environment, manage connections, and make changes from the terminal rather than moving between browser panes in the flow designer. That can help teams working in repositories, CI/CD pipelines, and formal application lifecycle management processes.
It is also a permission-management issue, not merely a productivity feature. Microsoft’s own repository warns that these plugins can invoke file edits, shell commands, and MCP servers during a session. It cautions that automatic approval gives the agent the same access as the user on the machine. GitHub Copilot CLI and Claude Code both offer options to pre-approve selected tools or broadly approve tools, but broad approval should be limited to trusted or sandboxed environments.
For enterprise use, the safe interpretation is simple: treat the plugin as an assisted administrative interface. Review generated flow definitions, inspect connection changes, and test in a development environment before enabling or publishing. Microsoft makes the same recommendation in its product announcement, but the repository’s permission warning explains why this is more than standard AI boilerplate.
The feature can be useful for makers who need help understanding table permissions, web roles, anonymous access, Entra ID configuration, OpenID Connect, SAML 2.0, session settings, security headers, and WAF-related status. Microsoft’s documentation also says the wider Security workspace can surface alerts from scheduled security scanning and traffic monitoring.
But Microsoft’s own preview documentation says the feature is not intended for production use and may have restricted functionality. Its guidance explicitly recommends using Security agent in development or test environments, reviewing proposed configuration changes, and promoting approved changes through the organization’s established ALM process.
That caveat should control deployment decisions. The agent may speed up diagnosis and propose a least-privilege configuration, but it does not replace a security review of externally accessible Dataverse data, identity-provider settings, authorization paths, or WAF policy. A polished natural-language explanation is still an explanation of a configuration change with real consequences for customer-facing access.
Microsoft’s latest Power Platform release is strongest where it reduces friction around governed development: a production-ready data grid, clearer control migration guidance, pooled Process capacity for the right kind of flow portfolio, and terminal-based automation tooling with explicit permission boundaries. The immediate work for IT teams is to test Data Grid search and virtualization against their real data sources, audit modern-control formula dependencies before upgrading, and keep Power Pages Security agent changes out of production until the preview status changes.
For Windows-based IT teams that manage Power Platform alongside Microsoft 365, Entra ID, Dataverse, and endpoint tooling, this update is chiefly about moving more build, automation, and security work into governed, solution-aware workflows. It also carries a few migration and licensing traps that makers should address before treating the new controls and agents as drop-in upgrades.
Data Grid GA makes the classic Table control the legacy choice
The newly generally available Data Grid modern control gives canvas apps a Fluent UI-based grid with search, sorting, column resizing, keyboard support, screen-reader support, selection, and formula-configurable column behavior. Microsoft’s Learn documentation goes further than the feature roundup: it explicitly calls Data Grid the recommended control for displaying tabular data in canvas apps, instead of the modern Table control.That recommendation matters for apps used as line-of-business work surfaces—case queues, equipment inventories, approval backlogs, service desks, and Dataverse record browsers—where makers previously resorted to galleries or carefully customized tables. Data Grid supports row virtualization for large datasets, which Microsoft says enables smoother scrolling beyond 2,000 records. But the performance benefit has a condition that is easy to miss: enabling text wrapping for a column disables virtualization.
In other words, teams that adopt the grid for a large operational dataset should resist treating it like a fully free-form report layout. Uniform row height and non-wrapping columns are part of the performance model. The grid also retains constraints that will matter to organizations trying to replace a heavily styled table: no attachment-column rendering for Dataverse, no per-column font size or color, no alternating-row colors, no variable row height, and no editable search placeholder text.
Search deserves testing against each production connector rather than blind confidence. Microsoft documents that search may not be delegable for all data sources and that a delegation warning might not appear. For a small SharePoint list or Dataverse table, that may not be consequential. For a large externally backed data source, it can mean the user-facing search field does not evaluate the full record set in the way a maker expects.
The control’s availability is still a significant maturation point. Microsoft’s documentation says the GA work includes reset support, fixed search reliability, better behavior after changing data sources, multiple-selection choice-field rendering, and formula support through
ThisItem in column configuration. Those are the less glamorous fixes that determine whether a control survives use in a real production canvas app.Modern-control updates require formula review, not just a Studio click
Microsoft is also continuing its effort to turn the modern controls collection into the primary visual foundation for new canvas apps and custom pages. The July/August update covers the revised Toggle and Checkbox controls, improved modern forms and data cards, refreshed Fluent 2 templates, a modern Rating control, more Card text-formatting options, and a larger Fluent icon library.The part administrators and makers should not overlook is the migration behavior. Microsoft Learn says modern controls have received updated versions since February 2026, with renamed properties, typed enums, and changed behavior. Power Apps Studio may show an Update button on older controls, but the update can require formula changes.
For Toggle and Checkbox,
FontColor becomes Color, FontSize becomes Size, and several text-style properties change names. String-style property values also give way to typed Power Fx enum values such as FontWeight.Bold and LabelPosition.Before. The stated benefit is better IntelliSense and compile-time validation. The immediate operational cost is that formulas written against the earlier control versions need review before a maker upgrades them.Microsoft specifically warns that some modern-control updates alter when
OnChange runs. The company documents a major example outside this month’s Toggle and Checkbox changes: the revised Text Input control fires OnChange on focus loss rather than on every keystroke. That improves performance, but it breaks any app logic that was quietly relying on keystroke-by-keystroke event execution. The same general principle applies here: version updates may improve the control, while leaving an existing app’s formulas or event assumptions behind.The new Rating control is a modest but useful addition, particularly for satisfaction, inspection, or review scenarios. It supports custom icon shapes and half-step increments, such as a 3.5 rating, and exposes the selected value for use in formulas. It does not displace the classic Rating control; Microsoft says the classic control remains unchanged.
Microsoft has also published a path away from the older Fluent UI hero controls used in custom pages and Teams apps. The company says classic controls remain supported for organizations that have established design systems. But its product direction is unmistakable: modern controls are the actively developed route, and older hero-control projects should be inventoried before their styling or theming differences become a last-minute migration problem.
Flow groups reduce wasted Process capacity, with hard boundaries
Power Automate flow groups let organizations assign one Process license—250,000 actions per day—to a shared pool of up to 25 solution-aware cloud flows. The attraction is straightforward: related automations with moderate, predictable consumption no longer need dedicated Process capacity that sits partially unused.Microsoft’s licensing documentation puts important limits around that claim. A group has exactly one Process license; license stacking is unavailable. The group is limited to one environment, and a flow can belong to only one group. Desktop flows, business process flows, cloud flows outside solutions, and flows already covered by a per-user Power Automate plan are not eligible.
There is a further design detail that will catch teams using parent-child flow patterns. A parent flow’s membership does not automatically place its child flows into the group. Each child must be explicitly added, and each added parent or child flow counts toward the 25-flow ceiling. If the child is omitted, it does not inherit the shared group capacity simply because its parent is included.
This makes flow groups a targeted licensing optimization, not a general capacity pooling feature. They fit a solution-aware departmental automation package with a collection of low-to-medium-volume flows. They are a poor fit for a high-volume flow that can independently exhaust the 250,000 daily action pool, because the group cannot be expanded by stacking licenses. Microsoft’s documented answer in that case is to assign Process licenses directly to the high-volume flow.
The practical next step for Power Platform administrators is to identify solution-aware flows that currently have dedicated Process capacity but low actual consumption, then group them by environment and workload. Do not begin by grouping every related flow: first map parent-child relationships, per-user plan coverage, and the daily action profile of each candidate.
The Power Automate plugin moves cloud-flow work into the terminal
Microsoft’s Power Platform Skills repository now includes a Power Automate plugin for GitHub Copilot CLI and Claude Code. According to Microsoft’s repository, the plugin can build, edit, run, and debug cloud flows through the FlowAgent MCP server, with Node.js 18 or later and Azure CLI sign-in among its listed technical requirements.This is a notable shift in how Power Automate can be operated. A maker or developer can ask an AI coding agent to create a flow from a description, inspect a failed run, select an environment, manage connections, and make changes from the terminal rather than moving between browser panes in the flow designer. That can help teams working in repositories, CI/CD pipelines, and formal application lifecycle management processes.
It is also a permission-management issue, not merely a productivity feature. Microsoft’s own repository warns that these plugins can invoke file edits, shell commands, and MCP servers during a session. It cautions that automatic approval gives the agent the same access as the user on the machine. GitHub Copilot CLI and Claude Code both offer options to pre-approve selected tools or broadly approve tools, but broad approval should be limited to trusted or sandboxed environments.
For enterprise use, the safe interpretation is simple: treat the plugin as an assisted administrative interface. Review generated flow definitions, inspect connection changes, and test in a development environment before enabling or publishing. Microsoft makes the same recommendation in its product announcement, but the repository’s permission warning explains why this is more than standard AI boilerplate.
Power Pages Security agent remains preview software
Power Pages Security agent can review site posture, help configure authentication and authorization, assess application-level settings such as Content Security Policy and CORS, and troubleshoot sign-in problems through a natural-language chat panel in the Security workspace. Microsoft says it is grounded in the current site configuration and asks for approval before writing any configuration change.The feature can be useful for makers who need help understanding table permissions, web roles, anonymous access, Entra ID configuration, OpenID Connect, SAML 2.0, session settings, security headers, and WAF-related status. Microsoft’s documentation also says the wider Security workspace can surface alerts from scheduled security scanning and traffic monitoring.
But Microsoft’s own preview documentation says the feature is not intended for production use and may have restricted functionality. Its guidance explicitly recommends using Security agent in development or test environments, reviewing proposed configuration changes, and promoting approved changes through the organization’s established ALM process.
That caveat should control deployment decisions. The agent may speed up diagnosis and propose a least-privilege configuration, but it does not replace a security review of externally accessible Dataverse data, identity-provider settings, authorization paths, or WAF policy. A polished natural-language explanation is still an explanation of a configuration change with real consequences for customer-facing access.
Microsoft’s latest Power Platform release is strongest where it reduces friction around governed development: a production-ready data grid, clearer control migration guidance, pooled Process capacity for the right kind of flow portfolio, and terminal-based automation tooling with explicit permission boundaries. The immediate work for IT teams is to test Data Grid search and virtualization against their real data sources, audit modern-control formula dependencies before upgrading, and keep Power Pages Security agent changes out of production until the preview status changes.
References
- Primary source: Microsoft
Published: 2026-08-06T15:00:00+00:00
What’s new in Power Platform: 2026 feature update
Get the latest news in Power Platform from the last month, so you can find a summary of product, community, and learning updates from Power Platform in one easy place.www.microsoft.com - Related coverage: learn.microsoft.com
Share Process license capacity with flow groups - Power Automate | Microsoft Learn
Learn how flow groups let multiple Power Automate cloud flows share Process license capacity, with up to 25 flows per group.learn.microsoft.com - Related coverage: github.com
GitHub - microsoft/power-platform-skills: A plugin marketplace for Claude Code/GitHub Copilot that provides Power Platform development plugins, including reusable skills, agents, and commands for building and deploying solutions. · GitHub
A plugin marketplace for Claude Code/GitHub Copilot that provides Power Platform development plugins, including reusable skills, agents, and commands for building and deploying solutions. - microsoft/power-platform-skills
github.com
- Related coverage: devblogs.microsoft.com
Dataverse Skills: Your Coding Agent Now Speaks Dataverse | Power Platform Developer Blog
Dataverse Skills is an open-source plugin for coding agents like GitHub Copilot and Claude Code that gives them deep, practical knowledge of how to build and manage Dataverse solutions end to enddevblogs.microsoft.com - Related coverage: aidevme.com
GitHub Copilot CLI Developer Guide: Install, Skills & Workflows
Step-by-step guide to GitHub Copilot CLI for Power Platform, .NET, and TypeScript developers. Covers install, Agent Skills, MCP servers, and PAC CLI integration.aidevme.com - Related coverage: techcommunity.microsoft.com
Business Applications Partner Alert Microsoft Build May 21 23, 2024
PDF documenttechcommunity.microsoft.com
- Related coverage: learn.microsoft.com
Security agent (preview) | Microsoft Learn
Security agent in Power Pages helps secure websites with automated vulnerability scans, real-time traffic monitoring, and guided mitigation workflows.learn.microsoft.com