Welcome back to the product update. This time, we have not one, but two months to update you on. February and March were packed, we shipped improvements across Databases, Realtime, the CLI, the Console, and Sites, and introduced new tools built for the AI coding era.
Here is a quick overview of what we shipped:
- Relationship queries in Appwrite Databases
- New string column types for Appwrite Databases
- Realtime Channel helpers
- Realtime queries with server-side event filtering
- Appwrite Skills
- Appwrite Arena
Let's dive in.
Relationship queries in Appwrite Databases
You can now filter directly on relationship columns in Appwrite Databases using dot notation, no more fetching everything and filtering client-side. All comparison operators are supported, and as a bonus, we overhauled relationship internals for 12-18x faster performance across the board. Available on Appwrite Cloud and self-hosted.
New string column types for Appwrite Databases
Appwrite Databases now supports four explicit string column types: varchar, text, mediumtext, and longtext. The new types make storage trade-offs clear for both developers and AI agents. Existing string columns continue to work with full backward support. Live on Appwrite Cloud.
Realtime channel helpers
Appwrite Realtime now includes channel helpers, a fluent type-safe API for building channel subscriptions. Instead of writing channel strings by hand, use a chainable API with IDE autocomplete and compile-time validation. Existing string-based subscriptions continue to work. Available across Web, Flutter, React Native, Apple, and Android SDKs.
Realtime queries: Server-side event filtering
Appwrite Realtime now supports queries when subscribing to channels. Events are filtered server-side, so your callbacks only receive updates that match your conditions. Combine filters with Query.and() and Query.or(), and subscribe to the same channel multiple times with different filters. Available across Web, Flutter, React Native, Apple, and Android SDKs.
Introducing Appwrite Skills
Appwrite Skills are open-source Markdown files that give AI coding agents like Claude Code, Cursor, and Windsurf deep, language-specific knowledge of Appwrite's SDKs, so they produce accurate code without you having to paste docs into every prompt. Available for the CLI and all major SDKs.
Build fast, scale faster
Backend infrastructure and web hosting built for developers who ship.
Start for free- Open source
- Support for over 13 SDKs
- Managed cloud solution
Introducing Appwrite Arena
Appwrite Arena is an open-source benchmark that tests how well AI models understand Appwrite's services, SDKs, and APIs, 191 questions across 9 service categories, fully transparent scoring, all results open source. GPT-4.1 ranks best with Skills, Claude Opus 4.6 leads without, and DeepSeek and MiniMax offer the best balance between intelligence and cost.
Community recognitions
We are excited to feature Shivam as part of our monthly community recognitions for February 2026. Shivam created NotesBee, an Android notes app that also securely stores WhatsApp exports so only you can see them.
For March, a community member created Skincare Buddy, a skincare tracking app that helps you manage your routine and share curated data with AI tools for personalized insights.
If you would like to participate in next month's Community Recognitions, join our Discord server and showcase your project.
Engineering Resources
- Solving the headaches of screenshot automation (and why an API-First approach works better)
- Managing your endless website assets on your repo has a price and it's called cold start
- Common Appwrite mistakes (and how to avoid them)
- The fastest way to launch your next side project
- Introducing user impersonation for Appwrite Auth
What's to come
We have a lot more to come, including new features and a big partnership announcement we are very excited to share.
Follow us on X and check our Changelog regularly, as we will release more information in the coming weeks.
