sqldw-authoring-cli

Telemetry — MANDATORY. Every api.fabric.microsoft.com call must carry x-ms-fabric-skill: sqldw-authoring-cli (az rest: --headers "x-ms-fabric-skill=sqldw-authoring-cli"), including every LRO poll, fabric_lro and retry. Snippets omit it — add it anyway.

Update Check — ONCE PER SESSION (mandatory) The first time this skill is used in a session, run the check-updates skill before proceeding.

• GitHub Copilot CLI / VS Code: invoke the check-updates skill.
• Claude Code / Cowork / Cursor / Windsurf / Codex: compare local vs remote package.json version.
• Skip if the check was already performed earlier in this session.

CRITICAL NOTES

1. To find the workspace details (including its ID) from workspace name: list all workspaces and, then, use JMESPath filtering
2. To find the item details (including its ID) from workspace ID, item type, and item name: list all items of that type in that workspace and, then, use JMESPath filtering

SQL Endpoint Authoring — CLI Skill

⚠️ SQL Execution Override: For SQL data-plane execution, this skill supersedes COMMON-CLI SQL/TDS guidance. Use MCP fabric-sqlendpoint-execute_query (see Tool Stack) unless explicitly using Legacy CLI Fallback.

Table of Contents

Task	Reference	Notes
Finding Workspaces and Items in Fabric	COMMON-CLI.md § Finding Workspaces and Items in Fabric	Mandatory — READ link first [needed for finding workspace id by its name or item id by its name, item type, and workspace id]
Fabric Topology & Key Concepts	COMMON-CORE.md § Fabric Topology & Key Concepts
Environment URLs	COMMON-CORE.md § Environment URLs
Authentication & Token Acquisition	COMMON-CORE.md § Authentication & Token Acquisition	Wrong audience = 401; read before any auth issue
Core Control-Plane REST APIs	COMMON-CORE.md § Core Control-Plane REST APIs	Includes pagination, LRO polling, and rate-limiting patterns
OneLake Data Access	COMMON-CORE.md § OneLake Data Access	Requires storage.azure.com token, not Fabric token
Definition Envelope	ITEM-DEFINITIONS-CORE.md § Definition Envelope	Definition payload structure
Per-Item-Type Definitions	ITEM-DEFINITIONS-CORE.md § Per-Item-Type Definitions	Support matrix, decoded content, part paths — REST specs, CLI recipes
Job Execution	COMMON-CORE.md § Job Execution
Capacity Management	COMMON-CORE.md § Capacity Management
Gotchas, Best Practices & Troubleshooting (Platform)	COMMON-CORE.md § Gotchas, Best Practices & Troubleshooting
Tool Selection Rationale	COMMON-CLI.md § Tool Selection Rationale
Authentication Recipes	COMMON-CLI.md § Authentication Recipes	az login flows and token acquisition
Fabric Control-Plane API via az rest	COMMON-CLI.md § Fabric Control-Plane API via az rest	Always pass --resource; includes pagination and LRO helpers
OneLake Data Access via curl	COMMON-CLI.md § OneLake Data Access via curl	Use curl not az rest (different token audience)
SQL / TDS Data-Plane Access	COMMON-CLI.md § SQL / TDS Data-Plane Access	Legacy sqlcmd reference (MCP is primary — see Tool Stack)
Job Execution (CLI)	COMMON-CLI.md § Job Execution
OneLake Shortcuts	COMMON-CLI.md § OneLake Shortcuts
Capacity Management (CLI)	COMMON-CLI.md § Capacity Management
Composite Recipes	COMMON-CLI.md § Composite Recipes
Gotchas & Troubleshooting (CLI-Specific)	COMMON-CLI.md § Gotchas & Troubleshooting (CLI-Specific)	az rest audience, shell escaping, token expiry
Quick Reference	COMMON-CLI.md § Quick Reference	az rest template + token audience/tool matrix
Item-Type Capability Matrix	SQLDW-CONSUMPTION-CORE.md § Item-Type Capability Matrix	Shows read-only (SQLEP) vs read-write (DW)
Connection Fundamentals	SQLDW-CONSUMPTION-CORE.md § Connection Fundamentals	TDS, port 1433, Entra-only, no MARS
Supported T-SQL Surface Area (Consumption Focus)	SQLDW-CONSUMPTION-CORE.md § Supported T-SQL Surface Area	Read before writing T-SQL — includes data types (no nvarchar/datetime/money)
Read-Side Objects You Can Create	SQLDW-CONSUMPTION-CORE.md § Read-Side Objects You Can Create	Views, TVFs, scalar UDFs, procedures
Temporary Tables	SQLDW-CONSUMPTION-CORE.md § Temporary Tables
Cross-Database Queries	SQLDW-CONSUMPTION-CORE.md § Cross-Database Queries	3-part naming, same workspace only
Security for Consumption	SQLDW-CONSUMPTION-CORE.md § Security for Consumption	GRANT/DENY, RLS, CLS, DDM
Monitoring and Diagnostics	SQLDW-CONSUMPTION-CORE.md § Monitoring and Diagnostics	Includes query labels; DMVs (live) + queryinsights.* (30-day history)
Performance: Best Practices and Troubleshooting	SQLDW-CONSUMPTION-CORE.md § Performance: Best Practices and Troubleshooting	Statistics, caching, clustering, query tips
REST API: Refresh SQL Endpoint Metadata	SQLDW-CONSUMPTION-CORE.md § REST API: Refresh SQL Endpoint Metadata	Force metadata sync when SQLEP is stale after ETL
System Catalog Queries (Metadata Exploration)	SQLDW-CONSUMPTION-CORE.md § System Catalog Queries	sys.tables, sys.columns, sys.views, sys.stats
Common Consumption Patterns	SQLDW-CONSUMPTION-CORE.md § Common Consumption Patterns	Reporting views, cross-DB analytics, temp table staging
Gotchas and Troubleshooting (Consumption)	SQLDW-CONSUMPTION-CORE.md § Gotchas and Troubleshooting Reference	18 numbered issues with cause + resolution
Quick Reference: Consumption Capabilities	SQLDW-CONSUMPTION-CORE.md § Quick Reference: Consumption Capabilities
Authoring Capability Matrix	SQLDW-AUTHORING-CORE.md § Authoring Capability Matrix	Read first — DW vs SQLEP authoring scope
Table DDL (DW Only)	SQLDW-AUTHORING-CORE.md § Table DDL (DW Only)	CREATE, CTAS, ALTER, sp_rename, DROP, constraints, schema evolution, IDENTITY
DML Operations (DW Only)	SQLDW-AUTHORING-CORE.md § DML Operations (DW Only)	INSERT...SELECT, UPDATE, DELETE, TRUNCATE, MERGE
Data Ingestion (DW Only)	SQLDW-AUTHORING-CORE.md § Data Ingestion (DW Only)	COPY INTO, OPENROWSET, method comparison
Transactions (DW Only)	SQLDW-AUTHORING-CORE.md § Transactions (DW Only)	Snapshot isolation only; write-write conflict rules
Stored Procedures (Authoring Patterns)	SQLDW-AUTHORING-CORE.md § Stored Procedures (Authoring Patterns)	ETL procs, upsert, CTAS swap, cursor replacement
Time Travel and Warehouse Snapshots	SQLDW-AUTHORING-CORE.md § Time Travel and Warehouse Snapshots (DW Only)	FOR TIMESTAMP AS OF; 30-day retention; snapshots GA
Source Control and CI/CD	SQLDW-AUTHORING-CORE.md § Source Control and CI/CD (DW Only — Preview)	Git integration, SQL DB projects, deployment pipelines
Authoring Permission Model	SQLDW-AUTHORING-CORE.md § Authoring Permission Model	Contributor minimum for DDL/DML; Admin for GRANT
Authoring Gotchas and Troubleshooting	SQLDW-AUTHORING-CORE.md § Authoring Gotchas and Troubleshooting	17-row issue/cause/resolution table
Common Authoring Patterns	SQLDW-AUTHORING-CORE.md § Common Authoring Patterns	Incremental load, SCD Type 1, SQLEP view layer
Quick Reference: Authoring Decision Guide	SQLDW-AUTHORING-CORE.md § Quick Reference: Authoring Decision Guide	Scenario → recommended approach lookup
Core Authoring via MCP	authoring-cli-quickref.md § Core Authoring via MCP	Table DDL, DML, data ingestion via execute_query
Advanced Authoring Patterns via MCP	authoring-cli-quickref.md § Advanced Authoring Patterns via MCP	Transactions, schema evolution, stored procedures, time travel
MCP Workflow Templates	authoring-script-templates.md § MCP Workflow Templates	COPY INTO, ELT pipeline, upsert with retry, schema migration, time travel recovery
Tool Stack	SKILL.md § Tool Stack	fabric-sqlendpoint-execute_query MCP tool + az CLI; verify before first op
Connection	SKILL.md § Connection	workspaceId/itemId discovery, execute example
Query Execution	authoring-cli-quickref.md § Query Execution	MCP tool call format, batch considerations
Agentic Workflows	SKILL.md § Agentic Workflows	Start here — discover schema before any write
Monitoring Authoring Operations	authoring-cli-quickref.md § Monitoring Authoring Operations	Active DML/DDL, recent ETL, failed writes
Gotchas, Rules, Troubleshooting	SKILL.md § Gotchas, Rules, Troubleshooting	MUST DO / AVOID / PREFER checklists
Agent Integration Notes	authoring-cli-quickref.md § Agent Integration Notes	Platform-specific tips (Copilot CLI, Claude Code)

---

Tool Stack

Tool	Role	Install
fabric-sqlendpoint-execute_query MCP tool	Primary: Execute DDL/DML T-SQL queries against Fabric SQL Endpoints. Returns CSV results. Auth handled by MCP protocol.	No install — server-side. Requires MCP server registration.
az CLI	Auth (az login), Fabric REST for workspace/item discovery, snapshot management.	Pre-installed in most dev environments
jq	Parse JSON from az rest	Pre-installed or trivial

IMPORTANT — MCP vs sqlcmd: This skill uses the fabric-sqlendpoint-execute_query MCP tool for all T-SQL execution. Do not use COMMON-CLI SQL/TDS/sqlcmd sections for query execution.

Agent preflight — verify before first operation:

1. Confirm the fabric-sqlendpoint-execute_query tool is available in your tool list. This tool is provided by the fabric-sqlendpoint MCP server, which is registered either by installing a Fabric skills plugin (the path for end users) or via this repo's .mcp.json — other MCP clients may register it through their own configuration.
2. If no matching tool is found, the user must register the Fabric SQL Endpoint MCP server. See mcp-setup/.
   • Global URL: https://api.fabric.microsoft.com/v1/mcp/dataPlane/sqlEndpoint
   • Item-scoped URL: https://api.fabric.microsoft.com/v1/mcp/dataPlane/workspaces/{workspaceId}/items/{itemId}/sqlEndpoint

MCP Tool Signature

fabric-sqlendpoint-execute_query(workspaceId, itemId, query)

Tool name may differ: execute_query is the logical operation. Depending on how the server is registered, the concrete tool name in your tool list may be prefixed (e.g. fabric-sqlendpoint-execute_query or sqlendpoint-global-execute_query). Invoke the concrete name shown in your tool list, always passing workspaceId, itemId, and query.

Parameter	Type	Description
workspaceId	string (UUID)	The workspace GUID containing the target item
itemId	string (UUID)	The Fabric item GUID to target. For a Warehouse, use the item id. For a Lakehouse, use its SQL analytics endpoint id (properties.sqlEndpointProperties.id) — not the Lakehouse item id.
query	string	T-SQL query text (single batch — no GO separators or sqlcmd meta-commands)

Returns: CSV resource (RFC 4180) with tabular results + metadata text.

Batch guidance: Multiple statements without GO are allowed in one call (e.g., CREATE TABLE ...; INSERT INTO ...). However, only the last result set is returned, and an error in any statement fails the entire batch. Prefer separate fabric-sqlendpoint-execute_query calls for independent DDL/DML operations — this gives clearer error messages and lets you verify each step succeeded before proceeding.

MCP Limits

Limit	Value	Notes
Max rows returned	10,000	For DDL/DML, row count metadata indicates affected rows
Query timeout	300 seconds	Long-running operations may timeout
Rate limit	20 requests/min per identity	HTTP 429 returned when exceeded

These values are observed defaults, not a documented contract — the MCP service can change them. Treat them as guidance and confirm the current behavior from live 429 / timeout / truncation responses (or Microsoft Learn, if/when published) rather than relying on the exact numbers.

Authoring Scope by Item Type

Capability	Warehouse (DW)	Lakehouse/Mirrored DB SQLEP
Table DDL (CREATE/ALTER/DROP)	✅	❌
DML (INSERT/UPDATE/DELETE/MERGE)	✅	❌
COPY INTO, OPENROWSET (ingest)	✅	OPENROWSET read-only
Transactions	✅	❌
Time travel, snapshots	✅	❌
CREATE VIEW/FUNCTION/PROCEDURE	✅	✅
CREATE SCHEMA	✅	✅

Fabric DW DDL Constraints

These constraints are hard requirements — violating them produces errors:

Constraint	Details
No DEFAULT in CREATE TABLE	Default values not supported. Set defaults in application/INSERT logic.
No PRIMARY KEY inside CREATE TABLE	Must add via ALTER TABLE ... ADD CONSTRAINT ... PRIMARY KEY NONCLUSTERED (col) NOT ENFORCED
DATETIME2 requires precision	Always use DATETIME2(6), never bare DATETIME2
Unsupported data types	NCHAR, NVARCHAR, TEXT, IMAGE, MONEY, SMALLMONEY, DATETIME — use VARCHAR, DECIMAL, DATETIME2(6) instead
No WITH DISTRIBUTION	Distribution is automatic in Fabric
Constraints must be NOT ENFORCED	PRIMARY KEY NONCLUSTERED NOT ENFORCED, UNIQUE NONCLUSTERED NOT ENFORCED, FOREIGN KEY NOT ENFORCED
PK columns must be NOT NULL	Declare PK columns as NOT NULL in CREATE TABLE before adding PK constraint
ALTER TABLE scope	Add/drop nullable columns (must specify NULL) and add/drop constraints (NOT ENFORCED only) are GA; ALTER COLUMN type changes are in preview (see note below)

MERGE and ALTER COLUMN are NOT hard errors. Per T-SQL surface area, MERGE is a generally available Warehouse feature and ALTER TABLE ... ALTER COLUMN is in preview. Prefer an explicit DELETE+INSERT when snapshot-conflict isolation matters, and CTAS + sp_rename for production-critical column-type changes — as a robustness choice, not because the syntax is blocked.

Correct CREATE TABLE pattern:

CREATE TABLE dbo.Orders (
    OrderID INT NOT NULL,
    CustomerName VARCHAR(100) NULL,
    Amount DECIMAL(19,4) NULL,
    CreatedAt DATETIME2(6) NULL
)

ALTER TABLE dbo.Orders ADD CONSTRAINT PK_Orders PRIMARY KEY NONCLUSTERED (OrderID) NOT ENFORCED

Additional supported patterns:

• CREATE TABLE [dbo].[clone] AS CLONE OF [dbo].[source] — duplicate table structure + data
• COPY INTO — highest-throughput ingestion from external storage

---

Connection

Discover workspaceId and itemId

You need the workspace GUID and item GUID to call fabric-sqlendpoint-execute_query:

# 1. Find workspace ID by name (capture into WS_ID for the next call)
WS_ID=$(az rest --method get \
  --resource "https://api.fabric.microsoft.com" \
  --url "https://api.fabric.microsoft.com/v1/workspaces" \
  --query "value[?displayName=='MyWorkspace'].id" --output tsv)
echo "Workspace ID: $WS_ID"

# 2. Find warehouse item ID by name
az rest --method get \
  --resource "https://api.fabric.microsoft.com" \
  --url "https://api.fabric.microsoft.com/v1/workspaces/$WS_ID/warehouses" \
  --query "value[?displayName=='MyWarehouse'].id" --output tsv

# For a Lakehouse SQL endpoint, pass its SQL analytics endpoint id — NOT the lakehouse item id
az rest --method get \
  --resource "https://api.fabric.microsoft.com" \
  --url "https://api.fabric.microsoft.com/v1/workspaces/$WS_ID/lakehouses" \
  --query "value[?displayName=='MyLakehouse'].properties.sqlEndpointProperties.id" --output tsv

Execute a Query

fabric-sqlendpoint-execute_query(
  workspaceId: "aaaaaaaa-bbbb-cccc-dddd-eeeeeeeeeeee",
  itemId: "11111111-2222-3333-4444-555555555555",
  query: "CREATE TABLE dbo.FactSales (SaleID bigint NOT NULL, Amount decimal(19,4) NOT NULL)"
)

No additional connection setup needed — authentication is handled transparently by the MCP protocol.

Verifying DDL/DML Results

For DDL (CREATE/ALTER/DROP), the tool returns success with metadata. Always verify:

# After CREATE TABLE, verify it exists
fabric-sqlendpoint-execute_query(workspaceId, itemId, "SELECT table_schema, table_name FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES WHERE table_name = 'FactSales'")

# After DML, check row count
fabric-sqlendpoint-execute_query(workspaceId, itemId, "SELECT COUNT(*) AS row_count FROM dbo.FactSales")

---

Agentic Workflows

Schema Discovery Before Authoring

Before any write operation, discover the target schema:

# 1. List tables
fabric-sqlendpoint-execute_query(workspaceId, itemId, "SELECT table_schema, table_name FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES ORDER BY 1,2")

# 2. Check columns
fabric-sqlendpoint-execute_query(workspaceId, itemId, "SELECT column_name, data_type, is_nullable FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS WHERE table_name='FactSales' ORDER BY ordinal_position")

# 3. Sample data
fabric-sqlendpoint-execute_query(workspaceId, itemId, "SELECT TOP 5 * FROM dbo.FactSales")

# 4. Check constraints
fabric-sqlendpoint-execute_query(workspaceId, itemId, "SELECT constraint_name, constraint_type FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLE_CONSTRAINTS WHERE table_name='FactSales'")

# 5. Row counts
fabric-sqlendpoint-execute_query(workspaceId, itemId, "SELECT s.name AS [schema], t.name AS [table], SUM(p.rows) AS row_count FROM sys.tables t JOIN sys.schemas s ON t.schema_id=s.schema_id JOIN sys.partitions p ON t.object_id=p.object_id AND p.index_id IN (0,1) GROUP BY s.name, t.name ORDER BY row_count DESC")

# 6. Programmability objects
fabric-sqlendpoint-execute_query(workspaceId, itemId, "SELECT name, type_desc FROM sys.objects WHERE type IN ('V','FN','IF','P','TF') ORDER BY type_desc, name")

Agentic Workflow

1. Discover → Run steps 1–4 to understand available tables/columns.
2. Sample → SELECT TOP 5 on relevant tables.
3. Formulate → Select pattern from SQLDW-AUTHORING-CORE.md (Table DDL through Common Authoring Patterns).
4. Execute → Call fabric-sqlendpoint-execute_query(workspaceId, itemId, query). For multi-batch operations (e.g., CREATE PROCEDURE with BEGIN/END), use a single batch without GO.
5. Verify → Query affected table (SELECT COUNT(*), SELECT TOP 5).
6. Optionally follow up → Run additional queries to confirm schema changes.

---

Gotchas, Rules, Troubleshooting

For full authoring gotchas: SQLDW-AUTHORING-CORE.md Authoring Gotchas and Troubleshooting. For CLI-specific issues: COMMON-CLI.md Gotchas & Troubleshooting (CLI-Specific).

MUST DO

• Verify workspace has capacity before creating warehouse — call GET /v1/workspaces/{id} and check capacityId.
• Verify fabric-sqlendpoint-execute_query MCP tool is available — check the tool list before the first operation. If unavailable, instruct the user to register the MCP server.
• Discover workspaceId and itemId first — resolve the target Warehouse via az rest; the tool takes GUIDs, not an FQDN or -d <DatabaseName>.
• az login first (for discovery) — the az rest workspace/warehouse lookups need an Azure CLI session. The fabric-sqlendpoint MCP server itself ships headerless and authenticates via your MCP client's native Fabric session, not the Azure CLI token; no signed-in session → auth failure on either path.
• SET NOCOUNT ON; in scripts — suppresses row-count messages that corrupt output.
• Send a single T-SQL batch per call — no GO separators and no -i file.sql; split multi-batch work (CREATE PROCEDURE, multi-step transactions) into separate fabric-sqlendpoint-execute_query calls.
• Label authoring queries with OPTION (LABEL = 'ETL_description').
• Use explicit CAST() in CTAS to control output types.
• Keep transactions short — long transactions increase conflict window.

AVOID

• GO separators — the MCP tool accepts only a single T-SQL batch. Combine related DDL in one statement or call fabric-sqlendpoint-execute_query multiple times.
• sqlcmd meta-commands (:setvar, :r, -i) — not available in MCP tool. Inline all SQL in the query parameter.
• Unbounded SELECT * — 10,000 row limit. Always use TOP N or WHERE to limit result sets.
• Singleton INSERT ... VALUES at scale — creates tiny Parquet files. Use INSERT...SELECT, CTAS, or COPY INTO.
• DROP TABLE IF EXISTS + CREATE TABLE to refresh — loses time-travel history. Use TRUNCATE TABLE + INSERT INTO.
• MERGE in production — GA, but table-level snapshot-conflict detection makes concurrent writers likely to fail. Prefer DELETE + INSERT when isolation matters.
• ALTER COLUMN in production — in preview; prefer CTAS + sp_rename for production-critical column-type changes (Schema Evolution).
• Variables in CTAS — not allowed. Wrap in dynamic SQL: EXEC sp_executesql N'CREATE TABLE ...'.
• DML on Lakehouse/Mirrored DB SQLEP — read-only for table data. Only views/funcs/procs can be authored.
• Concurrent UPDATE/DELETE on same table — snapshot isolation conflicts at table level. Serialize writes.
• Rapid-fire MCP calls — rate limit is 20 req/min. Consolidate multiple statements into one batch where possible.
• MARS — not supported. Remove MultipleActiveResultSets from connection strings.

PREFER

• CTAS over CREATE TABLE + INSERT — parallel, single-operation.
• INSERT ... SELECT over singleton INSERTs.
• COPY INTO for external file ingestion — highest throughput.
• DELETE + INSERT over MERGE for upserts in production.
• TRUNCATE TABLE over DELETE FROM without WHERE — faster, preserves history.
• Consolidating related DDL into a single fabric-sqlendpoint-execute_query call when no GO is required between statements.
• CTAS + sp_rename for large-scale transforms instead of UPDATE.
• fabric-sqlendpoint-execute_query MCP tool over sqlcmd for all T-SQL operations.
• SET NOCOUNT ON; prefix — reduces metadata noise in results.
• TOP N or WHERE clauses — stay within 10K row limit.

TROUBLESHOOTING

Symptom	Fix
Error 24556/24706 snapshot conflict	Serialize writes to same table; retry with backoff
COPY INTO auth error	Grant Storage Blob Data Reader on ADLS; or SAS in CREDENTIAL
COPY INTO from OneLake fails	Provision workspace identity; check firewall rules
CTAS unexpected types	Use explicit CAST() in SELECT
Singleton INSERT poor perf	Remediate: CTAS + drop + rename to consolidate Parquet
fabric-sqlendpoint-execute_query tool not available	MCP server not registered — user must add Fabric SQL Endpoint MCP server
HTTP 429 rate limit exceeded	Wait 60s and retry; consolidate queries into fewer calls
Query timeout (300s)	Break into smaller operations; for COPY INTO, check source file sizes
sp_rename on SQLEP fails	Only available on Warehouse, not Lakehouse/Mirrored DB
Deploy drops/recreates table	Avoid ALTER TABLE in DB project; apply manually
Only last result set returned	MCP returns only the final SELECT. Split multi-SELECT batches into separate calls.
Binary columns unreadable	Columns with [base64] suffix are base64-encoded. Decode if needed.