Biweekly Platform Digest

Period: August 3, 2026 – August 17, 2026

Highlights

• Ernest's AI assistant, Shackleton, got a big upgrade—it can now pull up subcontractor insurance info and contract templates, and help manage direct costs—along with a refreshed look and feel.
• Project schedules now show the critical path and let you set deadlines right on the Gantt chart, making it easier to see what's driving your timeline.
• Bid creation and management got a full overhaul, including new configurable stages to match how your team runs its bidding process.
• Subcontractors now automatically get notified as soon as their invoice is paid.

Ernest API (3 releases)

Areas Affected: Action Items, AI Assistant, Activity Feed, Organization Settings, Subcontracts, Daily Logs, Email Sync, Workstreams, RFIs, Scheduling, Finance, Subcontracts & Vendors, Design System, RFQs, Data Import, Email, Contracts, Bids, Field Observations, Billing, Buyouts

Release on August 7, 2026

• Fixed an issue where special characters in linked action item titles could become corrupted or cut off. (Ticket)
• Delivered a new round of improvements to Shackleton, Ernest's AI assistant, including design refinements based on user feedback. (Ticket)
• Updated the Activity feed with visual and functional improvements for reviewing project activity. (Ticket)
• Updated the AI avatar icon shown throughout the platform to reflect Shackleton's new look. (Ticket)
• Introduced a new, streamlined flow for creating companies directly within Organization Settings. (Ticket)
• Subcontractors now automatically receive a notification when their invoice has been paid. (Ticket)
• Updated how attachments appear in GCL notes, switching from a grid of thumbnails to a cleaner list view. (Ticket)
• Completed a behind-the-scenes update so all remaining record types generate consistent, automatic sequential numbers. (Ticket)
• Improved the reliability of Gmail syncing by automatically retrying temporary connection issues, reducing sync failures. (Ticket)
• Applied visual design refinements to Workstreams based on user feedback, including updated styling. (Ticket)
• Fixed a visual issue where side panel content could become misaligned when a scrollbar appeared. (Ticket)

Release on August 13, 2026

• Project schedules now show the critical path in the Gantt chart, helping users quickly identify which tasks directly affect the project's overall timeline. (Ticket)
• When adding a direct cost, only vendors and subcontractors can now be selected as the associated company, helping keep cost records accurate and consistent. (Ticket)
• Updated the underlying scheduling tool that powers Gantt charts, improving reliability and fixing display issues with task baselines and parent task styling. (Ticket)
• Added a new internal control panel for managing automated background processes, along with cleanup of outdated scheduled task settings. (Ticket)
• Improved CSV file imports so that files containing unusual or special characters no longer cause import errors. (Ticket)
• Autocomplete, multiselect, and select dropdown fields can now optionally show an "Add Item" option, letting users create a new entry right from the dropdown. (Ticket)
• Expanded the list of available trades so users have more options to choose from when categorizing work. (Ticket)
• Strengthened internal quality checks to better catch issues in upcoming features before they are released. (PR)

Release on August 14, 2026

• Updates to contract description fields now show a condensed summary instead of the full text, making changes easier to review. (Ticket)
• Improved the underlying scheduling engine that powers project Gantt charts, including a more reliable way of saving task dependencies. (Ticket)
• Added new categories to choose from when logging field observations, giving teams more ways to classify what they record. (Ticket)
• Revamped how bids are created, edited, and managed, along with new settings for configuring bid stages—making it easier to tailor the bidding process to your workflow. (Ticket)
• Added the ability to set and view deadlines directly on the project schedule (Gantt chart), along with visual refinements based on user feedback. (Ticket)
• Simplified billing window settings—organizations now default to a full-month billing window, removing the need to manually enable or disable this option. (Ticket)
• Fixed dropdown fields so that a selected value of zero now displays correctly instead of showing a blank placeholder. (Ticket)
• Added the ability to select and delete multiple buyout line items at once, saving time when cleaning up buyout sections. (Ticket)

Ernest MCP Server (3 releases)

Areas Affected: Subcontracts, Notes, AI Assistant, Direct Costs, Buyouts, Bid Leveling, Bids, Notifications

Release on August 10, 2026

• Added internal code quality checks for our engineering team to catch potential issues earlier. This has no visible impact on your experience using Ernest. (Ticket)
• The Ernest AI assistant can now retrieve subcontractor insurance information and contract templates to help answer related questions more quickly. We also removed the assistant's ability to delete insurance records, to help prevent accidental data loss. (Ticket)
• Notes can now include multiple file attachments instead of being limited to just one, making it easier to share everything relevant in a single note. (Ticket)

Release on August 11, 2026

• The Ernest AI assistant can now list, create, and update direct costs, making it easier to manage project costs through the assistant. (Ticket)
• When a buyout line item is created, Ernest now automatically matches it to the correct cost code, removing the need for manual lookup. (Ticket)
• Buyout line items now resolve to the correct cost code automatically at the moment they're created.
• Added internal guidance to help the AI assistant handle cost codes for buyouts more accurately.
• Refined the cost code matching logic to be more reliable and to avoid pulling in more data than needed.

Release on August 14, 2026

• Updated the content of the bid contract, and fixed a link on the bid creation page that wasn't working correctly. (Ticket)
• Removed blank buyout entries that had no information in them, so they no longer clutter the buyout list. (Ticket)

Ernest NLS API (2 releases)

Areas Affected: Platform, Documents, Branding, Search

Release on August 7, 2026

• Delivered the third round of enhancements to the Shackleton feature, adding further improvements and refinements based on ongoing feedback. (Ticket)
• Improved reliability of document text recognition (OCR) processing so that large documents no longer cause processing failures. (Ticket)
• Restored the suggested actions feature after it had been temporarily turned off. (PR)

Release on August 14, 2026

• The application can now display the Shackleton brand name and identity throughout the experience for customers using that brand, instead of showing Ernest branding. (Ticket)
• Restricted the ability to force a document search reprocess so only internal system processes can trigger it, preventing accidental or unauthorized reprocessing. (PR)