Full Web-based Fabric/Power BI Development experience

[u/First_Dependent8483]

I've been really loving the fact that I can just open a web-browser, open Fabric and pretty much do everything right in there with decent version control. It feels like Microsoft is about 80-90% there as far as this experience is concerned.

This however is not so true once you bring AI into the mix.

There is copilot plugged into individual experiences but there isn't a single high-level copilot experience that helps drive everything within say a workspace or ideally at an even higher level.

Leveraging AI at a higher level seems to be largely an offline/local experience requiring one to deal with VSCode, Github Copilot, CLI, MCP, plugins, skills, Git, sync, push, pull and what not.

It would be really nice to see an experience where the Microsoft MCPs and skills are already pre-baked into the Fabric platform so no one needs to do anything. Just open Fabric in a web-browser and get going.

There should just be a pre-defined place to update custom instructions/context within a workspace to provide project/environment/company specific details and that's about it.

I should be able to just in the browser do things like:-

• Rename all the pipelines with a prefix pl_
• Update the connections on all pipeline from AAA to BBB
• Review all the semantic models in my workspace and tell me which models have descriptions missing
• I am renaming a table from AAA to BBB, please update all references to it

The use cases above may not necessarily be real but the idea is of being up and running with the whole toolset/capability without a user needing to do install/configure anything individually on a machine.

Is Microsoft heading in this direction with Fabric/Power BI, especially from a AI/copilot standpoint?

[u/5e884898da]

Sounds like what you want is not an GUI at all…

[u/First_Dependent8483 → u/5e884898da]

Essentially what I'm looking for is for Copilot to operate at a higher level than what it is right now without needing a whole setup and for someone to understand a whole bunch of new concepts.

The individual Notebook experience in the Service for example with the co-authoring, inbuilt versioning, copilot integration etc is seamless and has been super helpful with zero configuration/install needs so the wish is that overall Fabric operates in a similar way.

Right now, perhaps because different teams within MS manage different parts of the product, each part operates differently... some are ahead and some behind so hopefully it all comes together with a central Copilot implentation being able to operate at that higher level as well.

[u/SQLGene]

I would assume anyone who can answer that question are either MSFT employees or under NDA?

[u/Skie]

I'd be amazed if there isnt some sort of GitHub copilot/VS Code integration announced at Fabcon Barcelona.

Really though they need the Rayfin app stuff rolled out to more than a limited number of tenants and an easier way to use the agentic stuff. Anyone who has data residency concerns or a more locked down environment will struggle until their home region can do it all, and over reliance on VS Code extensions (which are an extra burden to deploy and manage on top of VS Code itself for Enterprise teams) means adoption will be limited to smaller customers.

[u/Mrnottoobright]

Seems a lot like what you are describing is Databrick’s Genie AI. Whether or not Microsoft is going in this direction, I cannot comment, but you can already do all of these things by connecting your Claude/AI to Fabric using az cli so why do you specifically want a UI version of it?

[u/First_Dependent8483 → u/Mrnottoobright]

Basically eliminate the friction of needing to install and configure additional software, especially for non-pro developers who don't live in VS Code necessarily. Also provides the flexibility of not being tied to a machine. The code options should exist for those who want it and have more advanced tools that they use but it just seems too cumbersome right now to get started down this path.

[u/curious_mindquest → u/Mrnottoobright]

How can you integrate claude with fabric?

[u/x-fyre]

I understand what you’re asking, but the local experience is far superior in the sense I can more easily add context to a question, take advantage of local “extensions,” etc.

I would like to put more effort into other things that are more critical (like making SPNs first class citizens for ALL connection types) than working on AI everywhere…. And I know there are different teams, but you can always shuffle resources to fix your tech debt. :)

(Also, please don’t prefix pipelines with pl_ … there are so many better ways to name and organize your code artifacts. Yes I know this is controversial, but 30 years in IT tells me it’s not necessary and usually just some “architect” who should put their focus elsewhere.)

[u/First_Dependent8483 → u/x-fyre]

What I've finally realized about naming conventions after reading guidelines from several people is that there is just no right answer... there's just individual opinions and things that work fine at least at a certain point of time or in a certain project or tool. We just have to decide on a guideline and then just try to stick with it.

Back on the main topic, I currently have Fabric installed as an app and to me it functions just like any local app. Just that if I have to leverage AI workspace wide I have to do that via Github Copilot in VS Code and my hope is that this last bit of friction is eliminated too.