Release Notes for v26.1-v26.1.5 (#23398)

Author: release-notes-automation[bot]

src/current/_data/releases.yml

@@ -11592,4 +11592,38 @@
     docker_arm_experimental: false
     docker_arm_limited_access: false
   source: true
-  previous_release: v24.3.32
+  previous_release: v24.3.32
+
+- release_name: v26.1.5
+  major_version: v26.1
+  release_date: '2026-05-29'
+  release_type: Production
+  go_version: go1.26.2
+  sha: 2162fab1ea78bc39eb153518fe2ee291f439e12d
+  has_sql_only: true
+  has_sha256sum: true
+  mac:
+    mac_arm: true
+    mac_arm_experimental: true
+    mac_arm_limited_access: false
+  windows: true
+  linux:
+    linux_arm: true
+    linux_arm_experimental: false
+    linux_arm_limited_access: false
+    linux_intel_fips: true
+    linux_arm_fips: false
+  docker:
+    docker_image: cockroachdb/cockroach
+    docker_arm: true
+    docker_arm_experimental: false
+    docker_arm_limited_access: false
+  source: true
+  previous_release: v26.1.4
+  cloud_only: true
+  cloud_only_message_short: 'Available only for select CockroachDB Cloud clusters'
+  cloud_only_message: >
+      This version is currently available only for select
+      CockroachDB Cloud clusters. To request to upgrade
+      a CockroachDB self-hosted cluster to this version,
+      [contact support](https://support.cockroachlabs.com/hc/requests/new).

src/current/_includes/releases/v26.1/v26.1.5.md

@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+## v26.1.5
+
+Release Date: May 29, 2026
+
+{% include releases/new-release-downloads-docker-image.md release=include.release %}
+
+<h3 id="v26-1-5-bug-fixes">Bug fixes</h3>
+
+- Fixed a rare panic that could occur when a virtual cluster entry was removed before it was fully populated by the rangefeed.
+- Fixed a bug where Physical Cluster Replication (PCR) reader virtual clusters could permanently fail authentication, causing all SQL connections to fail with "descriptor not found".
+- A long-running `BACKUP` to S3 using `AUTH=implicit` no longer fails with an `ExpiredToken` error when it races the rotation of the underlying short-lived credentials. The S3 client now retries `ExpiredToken`, `ExpiredTokenException`, and `RequestExpired` errors the same way the legacy `aws-sdk-go` v1 client did.
+- Fixed a rare nil pointer panic in the internal SQL executor.
+- The `storage.compression.cr` metric now includes blob files.