Orbit Release Diary

Watch Orbit being built.

Orbit goes to production most days, and every release is written up the day it ships. Here is the pace, the two latest entries in full, and every day Orbit went live.

  • 50Production release days
  • 146Write-ups
09 May 2026Each bar is a day · lit when Orbit went to production06 Nov 2026

Latest

The two most recent releases.

Staff can now cancel incorrect or withdrawn declarations at the point of saleNewImprovedBehind the scenes

Headlines

1. Staff can now cancel incorrect or withdrawn declarations at the point of sale

Operators running in-person sales or processing memberships can cancel a declaration directly from the intake register and the outstanding-intakes screen — without calling support. This eliminates a common workflow blocker where a form submission was submitted in error or a customer changed their mind before the sale was finalised.

2. Stronger child safety at the point of sale

Orbit now automatically prevents a known minor from claiming a prepaid item in their own name, and the platform verifies that a declaration involves a legally authorised guardian before the sale proceeds. These rules work silently in the background — staff don't need to remember a checklist.

3. Family invite management — invitations can now be cancelled

A parent or guardian who sent a family connection invite can now withdraw it before the other party accepts. This closes a gap that forced an operator to intervene manually whenever an invite was sent in error.

Customer-facing improvements

  • Pass sessions shown before check-in — when a member holds a pass, staff and operators can now see which upcoming sessions are covered by that pass even before the member checks in. No more guessing whether the pass will apply.
  • Clear reason when a pass isn't accepted — instead of a generic "not offered" message, the platform now tells staff exactly why a pass cannot be used for a particular session or resource (e.g. the product collection doesn't include that facility). This speeds up desk conversations.
  • Open full member profile in one click from the scheduler — staff can open the complete member record in a new tab directly from the session slide-out or member dialog, without navigating away from the scheduler view.
  • Session details panel defaults to collapsed — the scheduler's slide-out now opens with the detail section collapsed, putting actions front and centre and reducing scrolling for busy desk staff.
  • Events and Orbit News visible on mobile — the activity feed now shows Events and Orbit News sections on mobile screens, with a tightened small-screen layout. Members checking in on their phones see the full picture.
  • Fixed a session series display glitch — a bug causing a completed series to reappear in the scheduler when its original start date was no longer in an active week has been resolved.
  • Fixed a double search in the product catalogue — the POS product grid was triggering two back-end searches for a single lookup; now it fires one, making the catalogue snappier under load.
  • Marketing site layout fixes — the Flows guide banner now displays in full without cropping, and a stray navigation element that appeared incorrectly in the guide title area has been removed.

Behind the scenes

  • Verified guardian status now grants consent waivers automatically — when a legal guardian relationship is confirmed, the platform immediately writes the appropriate consent capability without requiring a manual step. Existing verified guardians received a one-time backfill.
  • Architecture decision recorded (ADR-0111 amended) — the rules for how verified legal guardian status interacts with the commerce intake flow are now formally documented, ensuring consistent behaviour as the feature evolves.
  • User documentation refreshed — an automated sweep updated and authored end-user help content covering Guardian relationship verification and related admin workflows.
  • New test coverage added — automated tests now guard the pass-sessions endpoint, the declarant-check composition layer, and the staff inventory's not-offered-products route, reducing regression risk on these paths.
Staff can now complete intake paperwork on behalf of membersNewImprovedBehind the scenes

Headlines

Staff can now complete intake paperwork on behalf of members

When a member hasn't filled in a required form before attending, staff no longer have to chase them manually or turn them away. A new staff-entry flow lets any authorised staff member open the intake form, fill it in on the member's behalf, and mark it complete — all within the same interface they use for check-ins and bookings.

Outstanding Intakes management page is live

Operators now have a dedicated page showing every member who owes intake paperwork for a product they hold. The page shows who is waiting, what is needed, and when the obligation was created — with one-click tools to send a reminder or manually release the requirement.

Scheduler tracks which product each attendee is spending

When a member books into a session, staff can now see — and change — which pass or membership is being used for that specific attendance. The attendee panel shows the product name and remaining balance alongside each booking, and staff can swap it on the spot if needed.

Customer-facing improvements

  • Multi-step form stepper redesigned — the progress indicator at the top of multi-step intake and registration forms has been rebuilt with cleaner visuals, consistent design tokens and screen-reader announcements so members always know exactly which step they are on.
  • Members tab shows total paid — the Members tab on any product now shows the total amount each member has paid, whether or not they currently hold an active entitlement; previously this figure was hidden when a pass was spent or a subscription lapsed.
  • Activity type selected first when creating a session — the new session dialog now asks staff to choose the activity type upfront, then pre-fills relevant defaults, reducing the number of fields to complete and the chance of a mismatched configuration.
  • Activity type shown correctly for merged offerings — when two activity types share an offering, the session list and detail now display the correct merged name instead of a blank or incorrect label.
  • Intake form archive protection — Orbit now warns an operator who tries to archive a form that is still assigned as an intake form with open obligations, preventing accidental data loss.
  • Scheduler hover chip for collection resources — hovering over a session in the schedule grid now shows the collection resources (e.g. equipment pools) assigned to it.
  • Product builder setup warnings — if a product's billing settings are configured in a way that would silently do nothing (e.g. a billing trigger without a valid charge path), the product builder now surfaces a clear warning before the operator saves.
  • Guardian invite wording clarified — the invitation copy sent to a guardian during onboarding has been updated to be clearer and less ambiguous.
  • CMS video support — content editors can now upload video files to the media library and embed them in articles using a new video block; metadata is stripped on upload to avoid exposing device or location information.

Behind the scenes

  • Service Bus pre-flight check for production deploys — the deployment pipeline now verifies that every declared Azure Service Bus subscription exists before the production swap proceeds; a missing subscription causes a fast, early failure rather than a silent runtime error after go-live.
  • Frontend test suite sharded — the frontend test job now runs in parallel shards behind an aggregator, reducing CI wait times on pull requests.
  • Prepaid intake fills not double-charged — the billing engine now recognises when a member has already paid for an intake via a prepaid pass and skips the standard billing trigger, preventing accidental double-charges.
  • Held-pass void fix — a held sale on a residual spent-pack correctly voids the same way as a reactivated revoked pass, closing a narrow edge case in the billing reconciliation logic.
  • Workflow trigger operator preserved — fixed a bug where the operator context was being dropped from a published workflow trigger's start condition, which could cause triggers to run without the expected Planet context.
  • Intake reminders wired to notification engine — the automated reminder system for outstanding intakes is now fully connected to Orbit's notification engine, meaning operators can customise reminder copy and delivery rules through the standard notification designer.

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Every release, the day it ships.

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Production release days

Every day Orbit went live.

A day is listed when Orbit was deployed to production on it. The headlines are public; the write-ups are for Explorers.

November 2026

  • Released to production.
    • Staff can now cancel incorrect or withdrawn declarations at the point of sale
    • Stronger child safety at the point of sale
    • Family invite management — invitations can now be cancelled
    • Staff can now complete intake paperwork on behalf of members
    • Outstanding Intakes management page is live
    • Scheduler tracks which product each attendee is spending
    • Point of Sale — Intake Form Locking now complete (Commerce Phase 2a)
    • Family Connections visible in the Members Directory
    • Adult Confirmation on Sign-Up Forms
    • Orbit Commerce "Sell" — phase 1 live, phase 2 in motion
    • Orbit AI chat — smarter, cleaner, and now cites its sources
    • CMS table of contents — readers can jump to any section
    • Orbit Commerce — Staff Point of Sale is Now Live
    • Orbit Commerce — Multiple Payment Methods at the Till
    • AI-Powered Help Search — Healthier, More Reliable

October 2026

    • Weekly attendance tracking lands for recurring sessions
    • Content pages get significantly richer
    • Scheduling applied correctly to every Planet
    • Staff Notes on Member and Prospect Records
    • Profile Photo Cropping — Now Live
    • Session Type Catalogue — Part 1 Shipped
    • Calendar Appointments Now Show in the Right Time Zone
    • Orbit Admin Can Now Jump Directly Into Any Planet
    • Confirmed Go-to-Market Pricing Published
    • Cleaner, faster list views across the platform
    • Form templates are now organised by category
    • Notifications security hardened
    • Email workflows now support CC and BCC recipients
    • Form submissions now flow straight into your automated emails
    • Professional branded receipts — with GST, invoice references and your logo
    • Workflow emails now carry your Planet's branding
    • Planets can now power forms with their own branded frontend
    • Every member data export is now fully audited
    • CSV exports now open cleanly in Excel and Google Sheets
    • Forms now fold away long text — cleaner, less overwhelming for members
    • Products grid now shows when each product was created and last changed
    • Scheduling and recurring events now handle timezone edge cases correctly
    • Staff can now see a child's parents and guardians without leaving the Members screen
    • Prospect Import — Data Integrity Hardened for Production Launch
    • Security Tightened — Opt-Out Records Now Permanently Protected
    • Identity Confirmation Link Security Closed
    • Members tab now shows when each member actually joined a product
    • Product designer no longer overwrites unedited fields
    • Email verification now works via sign-in code or magic link

September 2026

    • Parents can now buy for a child they haven't added to their account yet
    • Confirmation email sent automatically when a parent registers a child
    • Forms now show only the groups a family's membership actually unlocks
    • 🎟 Promotion Codes — actively being tested and hardened
    • 🔒 Payment integrity — wrong-planet products blocked at the till
    • Orbit now sends its own branded payment receipts
    • Operators can share product registration links in one click
    • Privacy Policy and Security & Trust pages live on the marketing website
    • Customers now see a personalised receipt link after checkout
    • Shared form links now preview with the right title and banner
    • Google sign-in always prompts for account selection
    • Google Sign-In is live on production
    • Forms that register someone else now catch setup errors before they go live
    • Faster member management across the board
    • Checkout payments restored — Planet branding no longer blocks purchases
    • Form builder made bulletproof — bad forms blocked before they reach members
    • Unmanaged resources now protected in the session roster
    • Your Payment Page, Your Brand
    • Automatic Group Placement at Enrolment
    • Pricing & Tier Selector Rebuilt for Conversion and Mobile
    • Date of Birth Now Rock-Solid Across Timezones
    • Scheduling Integrity — No-Show Logic Tightened

August 2026

  • Released to production.
    • Public Explorer Profile Pages Are Live
    • End-User Help Content Automatically Kept in Sync
    • Forms now know which product they're for — smarter sign-up flows out of the box
    • Admin member roster upgraded with stats, filters and lifecycle dates
    • Live products can now change their pass-spending rules without being rebuilt

July 2026

    • Guardian Governance — Safe, Consent-Gated Enrolment for Children and Minors
    • Comprehensive End-User Documentation Launched for Guardian, Auth, and More
    • Unconfirmed Member Lifecycle — Full Operator Control
    • Smarter Product Setup — Form Handler Picker Upgraded
    • Members can now print or email their form submissions as a branded PDF
    • Product-Based Access Control is live
    • Workflow automation gains richer facet intelligence
    • Form choice labels flow correctly through automations
    • Explorers can now see their own products and subscriptions
    • Full payment transaction ledger for admins
    • Smarter workflow branching
    • Email receipts now on by default for paying customers
    • Form data integrity hardened — duplicate field names prevented
    • Payment architecture formally locked in

June 2026

    • Reviewing form submissions just got dramatically faster
    • Submission counts your team can actually trust
    • Infrastructure savings landed in production
    • Rename and describe workflows — without breaking anything
    • Brand-new admin maintenance guides
    • Infrastructure cost saving — same capability, lower bill
    • Planned Maintenance Now Shows a Professional Landing Page
    • Background Messaging Reliability Hardened
    • Deployments Are Now Faster
    • Admins can now dismiss the AI Setup card on their dashboard
    • Admin Dashboard — Real Member-Activity Insights, Live
    • Every Admin Level Gets the Dashboard
    • Beautiful New Dashboard Visual Design
    • File uploads now work on embedded forms
    • Test submissions: keep your data clean
    • Number fields now enforce min/max limits
    • Forms can now be embedded directly on your website
    • Address auto-complete now works in production
    • Help Centre content is richer and more visual
    • A smarter, clearer login experience
    • Three new Billing user-documentation guides go live
    • Documentation quality bar raised across six modules
    • New users can now complete sign-up without hitting a roadblock
    • Faster, clearer diagnosis when something goes wrong after a deployment
    • Platform operators can now permanently delete member accounts
    • Member lifecycle management — suspend, confirm, delete
    • Production AI capabilities are live and fully configured
    • Platform email now sends from Orbit's own verified domain
    • Admin tools now work beautifully on mobile
    • Custom domains go live in production
    • Your Brand, Your Login Page
    • Admins Can Now Edit Their Organisation's URL
    • A Polished, Reliable Sign-in Experience
    • Every club now has its own unique web address
    • Reliable, enterprise-grade email delivery
    • Club website linked directly in your Orbit settings
    • Public forms now support file uploads from anyone — no login required
    • Forms look right in production — branding and images now display correctly on Azure

May 2026

    • AI Features Cleared for Production Deployment

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