What's new
Changelog
Every change that makes CrossBeam better for the cities and builders who use it, written up the night it ships.
Thursday, October 8, 2026
Laguna Beach plugin and new MCP requirements tools
The public Laguna Beach plugin is now generated from CrossBeam's current city rules, with the City's checklists, plan-set kinds and fee math, and is checked for drift. The MCP server adds tools to fetch a permit-drawings skill and a city's review requirements, and drawings can be handed to a city plugin to fill forms.
Tightened who can change account roles and organizations
Users can now change only their own preferences, such as department, notifications, privacy and signature, from their account. Role, organization and other account settings can be changed only through authorized server actions, with a database-level guard so the protection holds going forward.
PreCheck flags out-of-area plan sets and skips billing
When the drawings name a property in another city, the PreCheck round is not billed to the city. The review reads the printed address and checks the parcel's jurisdiction, and the usage page shows the round grayed out as "Not billed · Outside" the city.
Tuesday, October 6, 2026
PreCheck assistant stops guessing at FastPass timing
The PreCheck page assistant no longer announces that it is looking something up, and no longer invents reasons for FastPass turnaround. It now says FastPass is priority review with no set timeline and sends timing questions to the Building Division.
Friday, October 2, 2026
One consistent PreCheck time estimate
Every applicant screen and email now says results take 30 to 90 minutes, including the intake page, receipt, live status ticker, FAQ and receipt email. The range comes from completed reviews on real plan sets, which took about 35 to 70 minutes.
Thursday, October 1, 2026
Abandoned PreCheck uploads are cleaned up
An upload left unfinished for 24 hours, for example after the applicant closed the tab, is now removed along with its stored files. The PreCheck FAQ assistant now says phone photos in JPG, PNG or HEIC are accepted and that a PDF plan set reviews best.
City staff no longer see builder billing screens
City department accounts no longer see review credits, the Buy Credits page or the advertising data-sharing toggle. City admins get a Usage card in Settings, ad sharing is always off for city organizations, and the empty Job Sites view uses city wording.
TIFF scans accepted for review
Applicants can upload TIFF scans on every intake flow. Each multi-page TIFF is converted to a PDF page by page and reviewed like any other plan set, and the file picker and upload copy now list PDF, JPG, PNG or TIFF.
PreCheck intake skips empty files and fits phones
A 0-byte file is now left out as it is added, with a message naming it, so the rest of the plan set submits instead of failing at the upload check. On phones the form fields start on screen, and the page now passes accessibility checks for landmarks, headings and the address list.
Tenant improvement and multi-unit sets get dedicated reviews
When the AI review identifies a plan set as a commercial or restaurant tenant improvement or a multi-unit building, it now runs that permit type's dedicated review instead of the residential worksheet. Unlabeled full drawing sets get the full worksheet review rather than a counter-form check.
Large PreCheck uploads resume where they stopped
Large plan sets on the public PreCheck intake now upload in 6 MB resumable chunks, so going offline, a hung request or switching apps on a phone resumes from the last confirmed chunk instead of restarting the file.
PreCheck applicants see a progress bar while reviewing
City-sponsored PreCheck runs now show phase markers and an animated progress bar that advances with the review, in place of the raw activity log. The bar respects reduced-motion settings and other contractor runs are unchanged.
Expired PreCheck sign-in links lead to a fresh link
An applicant who opens an expired or already-used emailed sign-in link now lands on their city's PreCheck intake page with the resend form open, instead of a password login they never set up. If the browser is already signed in, they go straight to their results.
Buena Park runs plan sets that resist classification
When the permit router cannot classify a Buena Park plan set, the review now proceeds as a general building review against state code instead of failing on every retry.
Monday, September 28, 2026
Evidence pins show on calc pages filed as sheets
Calc PDFs whose pages appear as sheet tabs now show their evidence pins on those tabs, and the Evidence chip zooms to the box. Sheets are also keyed by page, so plan sets with repeated sheet numbers no longer mix up findings between pages.
Friday, September 25, 2026
Every page of every upload reaches the review
A plan set uploaded under a document label such as a report no longer loses all but its first page. Each page now gets a thumbnail and is judged as drawing or supporting document, so letter-size plan sets land in the sheet index and get reviewed.