Introduction
Integrating Azure DevOps with Microsoft Fabric marks a major step toward bringing true DevOps practices into the modern data platform ecosystem. This integration is not just about connecting two Microsoft products — it’s about enabling controlled development, version management, collaboration, and deployment of your analytics assets within a governed and traceable framework.
In this article, we’ll walk through every step of connecting Azure DevOps Git repositories with Microsoft Fabric, understanding the source control features, and learning how to work with branches, commits, and pull requests — all within the Fabric environment itself.
Why Integrate Azure DevOps with Microsoft Fabric?
Before we jump into the “how,” it’s worth understanding the “why.”
Data projects have traditionally struggled with change management. Analysts modify datasets, pipelines, or notebooks — and without versioning, it’s easy to lose track of what changed, when, and why.
Integrating Fabric with Azure DevOps solves this problem elegantly. It introduces:
- Version control for all supported Fabric artifacts
- Branching and merging capabilities to manage changes safely
- Pull request workflows for peer review and approvals
- Consistent release management across environments
In short, it brings DevOps discipline to data engineering.
Now, Lets delve in to setup process
Setting Up the Azure DevOps Repository
Lets first have a dedicated repo under Azure DevOps for the Fabric Workspace. So, Start by navigating to your Azure DevOps portal → Repos → New Repository. and give it a meaningful name (may be your fabric workspace name)
Once you create the repo, it appears under your Azure DevOps project. This repository will act as the source of truth for all changes that occur in your Fabric workspace.
Connecting Azure DevOps to Microsoft Fabric
Now, Once the Repo is ready its time to integrate the Fabric with DevOps. So, to do this, Open your open your Microsoft Fabric workspace and go to the workspace Settings → Git Integration. You’ll find an option to connect to Azure DevOps. Click Connect to start the setup.
Fabric will automatically recognize your Microsoft account and list the available Azure DevOps organizations connected to it. So, now provide the belwo information as per the repo you just created.
- Organization (your DevOps organization)
- Project (under which your repository resides)
- Repository name
- Branch (select main as default)
After confirming these details, click Connect and Sync.
The synchronization may take a few minutes depending on workspace size. During this time, you’ll see Fabric indicating “Syncing to Git” across your workspace.
Once complete, every item (dataset, pipeline, report, notebook, etc.) in your workspace will display a Git status icon, confirming that the workspace is now under source control.
To verify, go back to your Azure DevOps repo and refresh it. You’ll notice new folders and JSON files representing your Fabric workspace structure — confirming that synchronization is active.
Understanding Source Control in Fabric
After integration, a new section appears in your Fabric workspace Source Control. This is where most of the Git-based activities happen.
The Over View:
The Source Control pane gives you a complete view of:
- Files that have been modified locally
- Commits pending for synchronization
- Comparison between your branch and the main branch
Branches Tab:
Under the “Branches” tab, you’ll find the options to:
- Create a new branch
- Switch between branches
- Work in isolated branches by branching out to new Workspace before merging
Fabric supports standard Git branching but adds a unique feature — branching into a new workspace.
When you create a new branch, Fabric can automatically spin up an isolated workspace linked to that branch. This is ideal for development or testing changes without disturbing the main environment.
Note:Only users with Workspace Creator permissions can create new workspaces while branching.
Commiting and Merging Feature Branch:
Now with this we have successfully integrated the CICD to Microsoft Fabric. Now its time to do some practice like creating a feature branch and merge the changes to Main Branch.
So, from Branch tab lets create a new branch using the Main branch and name it accordingly.
For example, let’s update a pipeline by changing a “wait” time or altering transformation logic.
When you return to the Source Control view, Fabric will highlight all modified artifacts.
You’ll see indicators showing:
Review the changes in the Source Control pane and confirm that all necessary updates are listed. Select the files you want to commit, provide a commit message (e.g., “Updated wait time in pipeline”), and commit them to your development branch
Once committed, your development branch will show up-to-date with local changes synced to Azure DevOps.
Now that your branch changes are committed, it’s time to merge them back into the main branch. So, Click your branch name under Source Control in Fabric this automatically redirects you to your Azure DevOps repository with your active branch open.
From here, select Create Pull Request and Fill in all the required details: Title, Description of changes, Reviewers (team members for approval), Link any work items if needed
Submit the PR and wait for approval. Reviewers can check diffs, run validations, and add comments before approval.
Once approved, click Complete Merge.
You may choose to delete the development branch after merging to keep your repo clean.
After the merge completes, navigate back to the main branch in both Fabric and Azure DevOps.
You should now see your changes reflected across both platforms.
So, using this steps we can integrate DevOps to Fabric Workspace.
Final Thoughts:
This post is based on a fully implemented integration scenario with real configurations, screenshots, and practical workflows. If you’re planning to bring structured DevOps practices to your Fabric environment, this guide should help you get started confidently.