renamed GA
Change data feed (CDF)
Change data feed was renamed - Databricks now calls it Automatic change data feed, as of September 2026.
Change data feed Legacy change data feed Automatic change data feed
Delta Lake table feature that, once turned on for a table, records every row-level insert, update, and delete on each write so downstream jobs can read only what changed between two versions.
- It shipped in Public Preview with Databricks Runtime 8.2 in April 2021 and was generally available three months later in Runtime 8.4, back when a Delta feature could make it from preview to GA inside one summer.
- It only ever looked forward - the 2021 launch blog warned that it is only forward-looking once enabled, so nothing that happened to a table before the switch was flipped could be replayed from it.
- Category
- Data engineering
- Abbreviation
- CDF
- Also known as
- CDF, Delta change data feed, delta.enableChangeDataFeed
- Verified
- 2026-09-10
Sources
- Official Official Databricks / Microsoft docs
- Community Databricks Blog: How to Simplify CDC With Delta Lake Change Data Feed (June 2021)
- Official Databricks Runtime 8.2 release notes (archived): change data feed Public Preview, April 2021
- Official Databricks Runtime 8.4 release notes (archived): change data feed GA, July 2021