Breaking changes to Records Service for the upcoming GA release

Hi everyone,

As we prepare for the General Availability release of Records in CDF on December 2nd, 2025, we're implementing important changes based on learnings from the Private Beta program.

Timeline: These changes will be rolled out progressively between today and December 2nd, 2025. We'll update this post as specific changes go live.

What's changing:

1. Record-specific containers
   • We are introducing a new type of container dedicated to records, which has higher limits for number of properties, and will allow evolution of the records specific container as more features are made available in records. This container is defined by the usedFor field set to "record".
   • It will be possible to ingest records only into containers with usedFor set to "record"
   • Any records already ingested into non-record containers will remain queryable, but new ingestion attempts to these containers will fail
   • This separation enables better schema management, clearer data organization, and simpler logic for clients querying instances and records
2. Immutable streams
   • The hotPhaseDuration property is being removed from immutable streams
   • This becomes an internal implementation detail managed by Cognite, allowing us to continuously optimize immutable stream performance without introducing future breaking changes to the service
3. Stream deletion endpoint update
   • The current endpoint using HTTP DELETE /streams/{streamId} is being deprecated
   • A new endpoint using HTTP POST /streams/delete is being made available
   • This aligns with overall CDF API guidelines and provides consistency across the platform

If you're currently testing Records in the Private Beta:

• Review the code to create your containers and plan to recreate them with usedFor: "record" 
• Your current records in non-record containers will continue to be accessible for queries
• Prepare to update your ingestion pipelines to use record-specific containers
• Update any stream deletion calls to use the new POST /streams/delete endpoint

These changes set a stronger foundation for Records as we move to GA, enabling better performance, clearer separation of concerns, and a more maintainable service for the long term.

Thank you for your participation in the Private Beta and for your understanding as we finalize Records for production use.