News•Feb 18, 2026
Ambient Multi-Network Multicluster Support Is Now Beta
Istio 1.29 introduces beta‑level ambient multi‑network multicluster support, targeting production‑ready telemetry across distributed clusters. The release adds an enriched HBONE protocol with baggage headers, enabling waypoint and ztunnel proxies to exchange peer metadata across network boundaries. Telemetry gaps that previously showed "unknown" source or destination labels are now resolved, delivering more accurate L7 metrics. The new capabilities are gated behind the AMBIENT_ENABLE_BAGGAGE feature flag and remain beta, with some limitations still present.
