Biweekly Platform Digest

Period: May 25, 2026 – June 8, 2026

Highlights

• Teams can now create subcontracts directly from a selected quote using a guided wizard that pre-fills vendor, amount, and trade information. The flow covers scope of work, schedule of values, and contract generation — including support for admin-managed templates with auto-populated placeholders — and keeps every subcontract linked back to its source quote for full procurement traceability.
• Users can now control their own notification preferences from their profile, choosing which features trigger alerts and whether to receive them in-app, by email, or both. Admins can set role-level defaults so each team starts with a tailored setup, and new users automatically inherit the defaults for their first assigned role.
• Two new pay application statuses — Rejected and Revisions Required — give GCs a formal way to send subcontractor invoices back for correction. When either status is set, a reason is required, the subcontractor is notified immediately, their billing table is unlocked for edits, and they can resubmit once corrections are made. Every status change and reason is recorded for a full audit trail.
• The project Overview page now surfaces AI-detected critical issues from the Shackleton engine, grouped by category — RFIs, Submittals, GC Logs, and Action Items — with direct links to each flagged item and a one-click option to resolve issues with Shackleton AI.

Ernest API (3 releases)

Areas Affected: Submittals, Subcontracts, Invoices, GC Logs, Observations, Settings, Notifications, Finance, Direct Costs, AI Assistant, Overview, RFIs, Schedule, Change Orders, Activity Feed, Action Items, Subcontractor Portal

Release on May 27, 2026

• Observations can now be viewed and browsed as a list on the iOS mobile app, with data syncing between mobile and the office. (Ticket)
• Submittals now include an optional Expected Resolution Date field, available when creating a submittal and visible in both the detail view and the table view. The detail view layout has been updated to group related date and people fields together for a cleaner, more organized presentation. (Ticket)
• Two new statuses — Rejected and Revisions Required — have been added to subcontractor pay applications. When a GC sets either status, a reason is required. The subcontractor is notified by email and in-app, their billing table is unlocked so they can make corrections, and they can resubmit by setting the status back to Billed. All status changes and provided reasons are recorded for a full audit trail. (Ticket)
• Email and in-app notifications are now sent whenever a GC Log moves to Pending, Approved, or Rejected status. The Project Manager, the log's creator, and the person who submitted the log will all receive these updates. (Ticket)
• Users can now create subcontracts directly from a selected quote using a guided three-step wizard that pre-fills the vendor, amount, and trade. The wizard covers scope of work, schedule of values, and contract generation. Admins can upload and manage contract templates containing placeholders that are automatically populated when a contract PDF is generated. Subcontracts created this way are linked to their source quote for full procurement traceability, and contracts can also be generated or regenerated from any existing subcontract. (Ticket)
• A legacy labor hours field on project phases that was no longer in use has been removed. There is no user-visible change. (Ticket)
• Subcontractor invoice detail views now include two dedicated document upload sections: Notarized Pay Application and Lien Waiver Packet. Both documents must be on file before a pay application can be moved to Paid status. Subcontractors upload the documents and GCs can view them directly on the invoice. (Ticket)

Release on May 29, 2026

• Fixed a visual issue where modals without action buttons displayed unnecessary empty space at the bottom. Content such as tables inside these modals was also being cut off — both issues are resolved, and content now fills the available space correctly. (Ticket)
• Users can now manage their notification preferences from Settings → My Profile → Notifications. Each user can choose which features they want to be notified about and whether to receive those alerts in-app, by email, or both. Admins can also set default notification preferences per role under Settings → Data Management → Roles, giving each team a tailored starting point. Users can always override role defaults from their own profile. New users automatically inherit the notification defaults of their first assigned role. (Ticket)
• Fixed a display issue on the Direct Cost page where rich text fields with no content appeared completely blank. Empty fields now correctly show a dash (—) as a placeholder, consistent with the rest of the platform. (Ticket)
• The rich text editor can now be configured to hide the formatting toolbar in areas of the platform where it isn't needed, providing a cleaner editing experience in those contexts. Keyboard shortcuts for applying formatting continue to work even when the toolbar is not visible. (Ticket)
• Added detailed performance tracking to the AI assistant pipeline. This internal improvement allows the team to pinpoint where slowdowns occur across different query types, enabling faster and more targeted performance improvements for users. (Ticket)
• Work to surface critical project flags on the Overview page was included in this release but pulled back before going live. This feature will be revisited in a future update. (Ticket)

Release on June 5, 2026

• The Overview page now displays AI-detected critical issues (proactive flags) from the Shackleton engine alongside the existing Shackleton panel. Flags are grouped by category — RFIs, Submittals, GC Log, and Action Items — with a total count shown in the header. Each flag links directly to the relevant item so users can take immediate action. A 'Resolve with Shackleton AI' button is available for each flag, and the section shows a clean empty state when no issues are active. (Ticket)
• Input and rich text editor fields can now optionally expand to fill the full height of their parent container. This improves the layout of forms where taller fields are needed, ensuring the UI adapts properly when content areas vary in size. (Ticket)
• Several small visual and interaction issues have been resolved: content no longer overflows its container in certain views; the close button now shows the correct pointer cursor on hover; a dividing border has been added below the Change Order header for clarity; when a contract is marked as signed, the status field immediately becomes read-only; the billing start date picker now behaves correctly; and duplicate project entries in the user modal have been fixed, preventing issues with deletion and display. (Ticket)
• The activity feed and action item linked entities are now filtered based on the user's role. Field Managers and Client/Owners will no longer see activity for items they cannot access (such as invoices for Field Managers), and clicking those links will no longer lead to a broken page. Action items linked to inaccessible entities can no longer be opened or edited by unauthorized users. (Ticket)
• Change Orders — both project-level and subcontract-level — now appear in the activity feed. The feed will log when a Change Order is created and whenever its status is updated, giving teams a clear audit trail of CO activity. (Ticket)
• RFIs now include four date fields to better track their lifecycle: Create Date (set automatically when the RFI is created), Submit Date (set automatically when the RFI is submitted), Expected Resolution Date (optional, user-editable at any time), and Resolved Date (auto-populated when the RFI is resolved, but editable after the fact). The Expected Resolution Date also appears in the RFI table view. When resolving an RFI, users are now prompted to provide a response before the status changes. All date fields are visible in the detail view based on the RFI's current status. (Ticket)
• Status labels and colors for linked items now display correctly across Observations, project-associated Bids, and Action Items (including linked invoices). Previously, some statuses could appear as 'Unknown' or briefly flash a raw number before the label loaded — both issues are now resolved. (Ticket)
• Several issues with Subcontracts have been corrected: a bug where the selected template would appear empty after saving and re-opening the edit form (which also prevented signing) has been fixed; date picker disabled states now render correctly; button sizing, spacing, and minor formatting have been tidied up throughout the subcontract flow. (Ticket)
• The Schedule view no longer resets after every edit. Previously, each change would cause the page to scroll back to the top and collapse all expanded workstreams, forcing users to re-navigate after every update. The scroll position and workstream expand/collapse states are now preserved throughout the editing session. (Ticket)
• Under the hood, the way linked item statuses are communicated between the server and the interface has been standardized. This ensures that status labels and colors remain accurate and consistent across all linked entity types — including permits, change orders, RFIs, submittals, material requests, invoices, and objectives — even when status names change in the future. (Ticket)
• Subcontractor Portal permissions have been tightened. Subcontractors can no longer create or edit schedule objectives, milestones, lookaheads, or workstreams, nor change the status of those items. Adding plan sheets has been restricted. RFI status can no longer be updated directly by subcontractors. These actions now require involvement from the project team, aligning the portal with the intended approval workflow. (Ticket)

Ernest MCP Server (2 releases)

Areas Affected: Subcontracts, Projects, Platform Reliability, Action Items, Finance

Release on June 5, 2026

• Improved internal monitoring and error tracking to support platform reliability and faster issue detection.
• Standardized configuration settings across services to reduce inconsistencies between environments.
• Internal code quality improvements based on team review feedback.
• Expanded internal monitoring coverage with additional detail for better observability.
• Internal update merged as part of ongoing platform improvements.
• Aligned deployment branch synchronization strategy with the rest of the platform for consistency. (PR)
• Fixed an issue with the development deployment pipeline to restore normal deployment workflows. (PR)

Release on June 5, 2026

• Status labels and colors for items linked to action items — including permits, change orders, RFIs, submittals, material requests, subcontract invoices, and project invoices — now render reliably. Previously, statuses could silently display incorrectly or fall back to 'Unknown' if any label was adjusted. All linked item types now show the correct status label and color consistently. (Ticket)
• Linked item statuses on action items are now resolved to the correct display labels, ensuring accurate status representation across all linked entity types.
• Follow-up refinements applied based on internal review feedback.