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Port Databricks notebooks and jobs to Microsoft Fabric: dbutils→notebookutils, Unity Catalog 3-level→Lakehouse 2-level, DBFS→OneLake, Jobs→Spark Job Definitions, Photon→Native Execution Engine.
npx claudepluginhub microsoft/skills-for-fabric --plugin fabric-skillsHow this skill is triggered — by the user, by Claude, or both
Slash command
/fabric-skills:databricks-migrationThe summary Claude sees in its skill listing — used to decide when to auto-load this skill
> **Update Check — ONCE PER SESSION (mandatory)**
Provides behavioral guidelines to reduce common LLM coding mistakes, focusing on simplicity, surgical changes, assumption surfacing, and verifiable success criteria.
Searches, retrieves, and installs Agent Skills from prompts.chat registry using MCP tools like search_skills and get_skill. Activates for finding skills, browsing catalogs, or extending Claude.
Structures git workflow practices for committing, branching, resolving conflicts, and organizing work across parallel streams. Use when making any code change.
Share bugs, ideas, or general feedback.
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-updatesskill.- 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
- To find workspace details (including its ID) from a workspace name: list all workspaces, then use JMESPath filtering
- To find item details (including its ID) from workspace ID, item type, and item name: list all items of that type in that workspace, then use JMESPath filtering
dbutils.widgetshas no direct equivalent in Fabric — use notebook parameters (cell tagparameters) ornotebookutils.runtime.contextfor context injectiondbutils.library(runtime library install) has no equivalent — use Fabric Environments for reproducible library management- Unity Catalog uses a 3-level namespace (
catalog.schema.table); Fabric Lakehouse uses 2-level (schema.tablewithin a named Lakehouse)
Read these companion documents before executing migration tasks:
az rest, az login, token acquisition, Fabric REST via CLIFor notebook and Lakehouse creation, see spark-authoring-cli. For Fabric Warehouse DDL/DML authoring, see sqldw-authoring-cli.
| Topic | Reference |
|---|---|
| Migration Workload Map | § Migration Workload Map |
Complete dbutils → notebookutils Mapping | dbutils-to-notebookutils.md |
| Unity Catalog → Fabric Lakehouse Schemas | catalog-migration.md |
| Before/After Code Patterns | code-patterns.md |
| Cluster Config → Fabric Spark Pools | § Cluster Config → Fabric Spark Pools |
| Databricks Jobs → Spark Job Definitions | § Databricks Jobs → Spark Job Definitions |
| Delta Sharing → OneLake Shortcuts | § Delta Sharing → OneLake Shortcuts |
| MLflow → Fabric ML Experiments | § MLflow → Fabric ML Experiments |
| Must / Prefer / Avoid | § Must / Prefer / Avoid |
| Authentication & Token Acquisition | COMMON-CORE.md § Authentication |
| Lakehouse Management | SPARK-AUTHORING-CORE.md § Lakehouse Management |
| Notebook Management | SPARK-AUTHORING-CORE.md § Notebook Management |
| Databricks Component | Fabric Target | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| All-purpose cluster (notebooks, REPL) | Fabric Notebook (Starter Pool or Custom Pool) | No persistent cluster — Fabric provisions compute on session start |
| Job cluster (automated jobs) | Spark Job Definition (SJD) | SJD maps one-to-one with Databricks Jobs on job clusters |
| Unity Catalog | Fabric Lakehouse (schema per namespace) | See catalog-migration.md |
| Databricks Repos (Git-backed notebooks) | Fabric Git Integration | Connect workspace to Azure DevOps or GitHub; notebooks are synced |
| Delta Live Tables (DLT) | Fabric Notebooks + Data Pipelines | No DLT equivalent — rewrite DLT datasets as parameterized notebook cells with pipeline orchestration |
| Databricks SQL Warehouses | Fabric Warehouse or Lakehouse SQL Endpoint | SQL warehouse sessions → Warehouse (for write) or SQL Endpoint (for read-only) |
| MLflow Tracking | Fabric ML Experiments | MLflow SDK is supported in Fabric — see § MLflow |
| Delta Sharing | OneLake Shortcuts + Fabric external data sharing | See § Delta Sharing → OneLake Shortcuts |
| Databricks Feature Store | Fabric Feature Store (preview) | Direct conceptual equivalent; APIs differ |
| dbutils (all sub-modules) | notebookutils (most sub-modules) | See dbutils-to-notebookutils.md for full mapping |
dbutils → notebookutils Quick ReferenceThe complete side-by-side API table is in dbutils-to-notebookutils.md. The key mappings are:
dbutils Call | notebookutils Equivalent | Compatibility Note |
|---|---|---|
dbutils.fs.ls(path) | notebookutils.fs.ls(path) | Direct replacement |
dbutils.fs.cp(src, dest) | notebookutils.fs.cp(src, dest) | Direct replacement |
dbutils.fs.mv(src, dest) | notebookutils.fs.mv(src, dest, create_path, overwrite=False) | ⚠️ Signature differs — see dbutils-to-notebookutils.md |
dbutils.fs.rm(path, recurse) | notebookutils.fs.rm(path, recurse) | Direct replacement |
dbutils.fs.mkdirs(path) | notebookutils.fs.mkdirs(path) | Direct replacement |
dbutils.fs.put(path, contents) | notebookutils.fs.put(path, contents) | Direct replacement |
dbutils.fs.head(path, maxBytes) | notebookutils.fs.head(path, max_bytes) | ⚠️ Default differs — Python/Scala 100 KB, R 64 KB. See dbutils-to-notebookutils.md |
dbutils.fs.mount(...) | notebookutils.fs.mount(source, mountPoint, extraConfigs=None) | ✅ Supported — Microsoft Entra (default), accountKey, or sasToken auth. For cross-workspace / persistent sharing, prefer OneLake Shortcuts |
dbutils.secrets.get(scope, key) | notebookutils.credentials.getSecret(keyVaultUrl, secretName) | Scope → Key Vault URL; key → secret name |
dbutils.notebook.run(path, timeout, args) | notebookutils.notebook.run(name, timeout, args) | path → notebook name (relative to workspace) |
dbutils.notebook.exit(value) | notebookutils.notebook.exit(value) | Direct replacement |
dbutils.widgets.get(name) | See § Widgets Migration | No direct equivalent |
dbutils.library.install(...) | Not available at runtime — use Fabric Environments | dbutils.library.restartPython() → notebookutils.session.restartPython() |
dbutils.data.summarize(df) | display(df.summary()) | Use display() or pandas describe() |
dbutils.widgets has no direct equivalent in Fabric. Use these patterns instead:
| Use Case | Fabric Pattern |
|---|---|
| Pass parameter from parent notebook | Mark a cell in the child notebook as a parameters cell (notebook UI: cell "..." menu → "Mark cell as parameters"). The parent calls notebookutils.notebook.run("child", arguments={"param": "value"}) — at runtime the engine inserts a new cell beneath the parameters cell that overrides the defaults |
| Pipeline-driven parameterization | Same parameters-cell mechanism; the Fabric Pipeline notebook activity supplies override values via its Base parameters setting |
| Centralized cross-notebook config | Use notebookutils.variableLibrary.getLibrary("<name>") to read values from a Variable Library item (deployment pipelines activate the right value set per stage) |
| Interactive selection in notebook | Use display() with input cells, IPython widgets (Python only), or Fabric Data Activator |
Note:
notebookutils.runtime.contextdoes not expose parameter values. It's for execution metadata (workspace/notebook/activity/user IDs, pipeline-vs-interactive flags, etc.). See dbutils-to-notebookutils.md § Runtime Context.
| Databricks Cluster Concept | Fabric Spark Equivalent | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| All-purpose cluster (interactive) | Starter Pool | Auto-provisioned; no config; ideal for notebooks |
| Job cluster (single-use for jobs) | Custom Pool (or Starter Pool) attached to SJD | Configure node size, autoscale in Fabric capacity settings |
Node type (e.g., Standard_DS3_v2) | Fabric node size (Small/Medium/Large/X-Large/XX-Large) | Map by vCore/memory ratio |
| Autoscale min/max workers | Custom Pool min/max node settings | Available in workspace Spark settings |
spark.conf in cluster settings | Fabric Environment Spark properties | Move to Environment item; attach to workspace or notebook |
init_scripts (cluster init) | Fabric Environment install script | Not fully equivalent — only library installs are supported |
| Databricks Runtime version | Fabric Runtime (1.1 = Spark 3.3, 1.2 = Spark 3.4, 1.3 = Spark 3.5) | Choose matching Spark version; test deprecated APIs |
| Photon accelerator | Fabric Native Execution Engine (NEE) | Enable in workspace Spark settings; vectorized execution similar to Photon |
| Databricks Jobs Concept | Fabric SJD Equivalent | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Job with single notebook task | SJD referencing a notebook | Attach a default Lakehouse; pass parameters via SJD args |
| Multi-task job (DAG of tasks) | Fabric Data Pipeline orchestrating multiple SJDs/notebooks | Pipeline activities map to job tasks; dependencies = activity dependencies |
| Job schedule (cron) | Pipeline schedule trigger | Cron expression → recurrence trigger in pipeline |
| Job parameters | SJD default arguments or notebook cell parameters | Parameters cell in notebook is injected at runtime |
| Job clusters per task | Pool attached to SJD | Each SJD can specify its Spark pool independently |
| Databricks Workflows | Fabric Data Pipelines | Full DAG orchestration with conditions, loops, and failure branches |
Delegate to
spark-authoring-clifor SJD creation and notebook deployment.
| Databricks Delta Sharing Pattern | Fabric Equivalent |
|---|---|
| Provider publishes a Delta share | Fabric external data sharing (preview) or OneLake Shortcut to ADLS Gen2 where Delta data resides |
| Recipient reads shared data | Create a OneLake Shortcut pointing to the ADLS Gen2 Delta table; access via Lakehouse |
| Cross-workspace table sharing within org | OneLake Shortcuts pointing to another workspace's Lakehouse tables — no data copy |
| Cross-tenant sharing | Fabric external data sharing (GA roadmap) — use ADLS Gen2 shortcut as interim |
Fabric ML Experiments are built on the MLflow SDK — most code is directly portable:
| Databricks MLflow Pattern | Fabric Equivalent | Migration Action |
|---|---|---|
mlflow.set_tracking_uri("databricks") | Remove — Fabric tracking is automatic | Delete this line in Fabric notebooks |
mlflow.set_experiment("/path/exp") | mlflow.set_experiment("experiment_name") | Use name only (not path); Fabric creates the Experiment item |
mlflow.log_metric(...) | mlflow.log_metric(...) — identical | No change |
mlflow.log_artifact(...) | mlflow.log_artifact(...) — identical | No change |
mlflow.autolog() | mlflow.autolog() — identical | No change |
mlflow.register_model(...) | mlflow.register_model(...) — identical | Model Registry is available in Fabric ML |
| Databricks Model Serving | Azure ML Online Endpoints or Fabric Data Activator | No direct Fabric model serving yet — use Azure ML |
dbutils.* calls using the mapping in dbutils-to-notebookutils.md — dbutils is not available in Fabric notebooksdbutils.fs.mount() to notebookutils.fs.mount() (✅ supported — Microsoft Entra default, or accountKey / sasToken from Key Vault). For cross-workspace or persistent sharing, prefer OneLake Shortcuts instead. Always pair mount() with unmount() in try/finally — Fabric mounts are not released automatically on session enddbutils.secrets.get(scope, key) with notebookutils.credentials.getSecret(keyVaultUrl, secretName) — secret scopes map to Azure Key Vault URLsnotebookutils.variableLibrary for centralized cross-notebook config. notebookutils.runtime.context does not expose parameter valuesdbutils.library.install*() with Fabric Environments — runtime library installs are not supported in production. dbutils.library.restartPython() maps to notebookutils.session.restartPython() (Python / PySpark only)catalog.schema.table) to Fabric 2-level (schema.table within a Lakehouse) — see catalog-migration.mdset_tracking_uri)bronze, silver, gold Unity Catalog schemas to separate Fabric Lakehousesdbutils or attempt dbutils = ... assignments in Fabric notebooks — this will raise NameError; always use notebookutils%pip install in production Fabric notebooks at runtime — use Fabric Environments for stable, versioned library managementspark.databricks.*) — these are proprietary and will be silently ignored or raise errors in Fabricdbfs:/...) — there is no DBFS in Fabric; all paths must use OneLake abfss:// or Lakehouse-relative pathsSee dbutils-to-notebookutils.md and code-patterns.md for the full mapping. Key quick references:
dbutils.fs → notebookutils.fs
# Databricks
dbutils.fs.ls("/mnt/bronze/orders/")
dbutils.fs.cp("/mnt/raw/file.csv", "/mnt/archive/file.csv")
# Fabric (replace DBFS/mount paths with OneLake relative paths)
notebookutils.fs.ls("Files/bronze/orders/")
notebookutils.fs.cp("Files/raw/file.csv", "Files/archive/file.csv")
dbutils.secrets → notebookutils.credentials
# Databricks
pwd = dbutils.secrets.get(scope="prod", key="db-password")
# Fabric (scope → Key Vault URL, key → secret name)
pwd = notebookutils.credentials.getSecret("https://myvault.vault.azure.net/", "db-password")
Unity Catalog namespace → Lakehouse schema
# Databricks
df = spark.read.table("prod.silver.customers")
# Fabric (catalog dropped; Lakehouse context provides it)
df = spark.read.table("silver.customers")