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Brief Connect v2.5.8 Release Notes

Release date - Monday, June 15th, 2026

Package version: 2.5.8

This is a patch release with a single bug fix that resolves the "ghost user" issue reported across multiple customers, where unexpected names appeared in workflow roles and on the Record Activity timeline.

Bug fixes

  • Fixed "ghost users" appearing in workflow roles and on the Record Activity timeline

On records using an All-Must-Agree workflow step (for example, Endorsers, Decision Makers, Reviewers, Recommenders), the Record Activity timeline could list an additional user as an assignee — and that user could also appear in the role on the record — even though they had no role on the record, no entry in the activity log, and no proxy relationship to anyone involved. The extra user belonged to a different record created in the same record type and month.

This is the same issue that customers have been reporting as the "Ghost user", "Ghost Endorser" or "Ghost Decision Maker" problem, where clearing the browser cache and reopening the record sometimes made the extra name disappear temporarily.

No record data was modified while this bug was present — the extra entries were a display issue where the timeline was including information from neighbouring records. The Record Activity timeline and role assignments now show only the users actually assigned to the record you are viewing, and the workaround of clearing the browser cache is no longer needed.

Related support tickets:

Upgrade instructions (from v2.5.7)

The following instructions apply to environments already running Brief Connect v2.5.7 or 2.5.7-rc.2.

Note

If you are upgrading from a version earlier than v2.5.7, please refer to the Brief Connect team for specific release notes for additional pre-deployment steps (including pipeline setup and environment variable updates).

Manual pre-deployment steps

Review release pipeline variables

It's important to apply any changes to pipeline variables before a release is created, because every release creates a snapshot of pipeline variables at the moment of creation. The only way to redeploy the application with updated variables is by creating a new release.

  1. Go to Azure DevOps, open your Brief Connect project
  2. In the left panel navigation, go to Pipelines → Library → Variable groups
  3. Review variables for all environments included in this release and update values where required
  4. Save any changes

Create a new release

  1. Go to Azure DevOps, open your Brief Connect project, go to Pipelines → Releases
  2. Find the Deploy Brief Connect Application release pipeline and click on it to open
  3. If there is no release with version 2.5.8, click Create Release
  4. Set the Package Version variable to 2.5.8
  5. Add a description (optional)
  6. Click Create
  7. The release v2.5.8 (n) will be created and available in the list of releases after you refresh the page

Pipeline deployment steps

  1. Deploy release v2.5.8 (n) (where (n) is the latest number available) from the Deploy Brief Connect Application release pipeline in Azure DevOps to the target environment

Manual post-deployment steps

N/A

Smoke tests

We recommend following our basic testing guide after this release: Basic testing of Brief Connect

Release-specific tests for v2.5.8

Confirm the "ghost user" issue is resolved across the All-Must-Agree workflow roles customers have observed (Decision Maker, Endorser, Reviewer, Recommender).

  • Create two records of the same record type in the same month
  • Send both records to an All-Must-Agree workflow step and assign different users to the role on each record (for example, assign Alice and Bob on the first record, and Carol on the second). Move the second record to the step last
  • Open the first record and confirm the role shows only Alice and Bob (no Carol). Confirm the same on the People and Roles tab
  • Open the second record and confirm the role shows only Carol
  • On both records, open the Record Activity timeline and confirm there are no entries that reference users from the other record
  • Confirm the result
  • Repeat for any other All-Must-Agree role types your environment uses (for example, Reviewer 1, Reviewer 2, Recommender)