Introducing FabricTools (PowerShell module)

Community-Powered DevOps for Microsoft Fabric

🔍 The Challenge: DevOps for Microsoft Fabric

In the world of Microsoft Fabric, DevOps is still maturing. Unlike Azure Data Factory (ADF), which has been around long enough to have established tooling – like the #ADFTools I developed 5 years ago – Fabric is new, broad, and complex, in a very positive way!

Microsoft Fabric integrates data engineering, warehousing, real-time analytics, and BI. With this scale, the need for solid DevOps tooling is more critical than ever.

🛠️ The Spark: Why Another Tool?

You might have seen my recent post discussing CI/CD readiness for Microsoft Fabric. That sparked further reflection. I began to seriously consider building a DevOps automation tool tailored for Fabric, just as I had done for ADF (Azure Data Factory).

But this time, something clicked: maybe I don’t have to start from scratch. That’s when I decided to take the lead and initiate a new community project – FabricTools – bringing together existing efforts under one unified, open-source PowerShell module for Microsoft Fabric.

🤝 Collaboration Over Reinvention

During last year’s Data Saturday Madrid (SQLSatMadrid), I spoke with Frank Geisler, who had already created a great PowerShell-based project called PowerRTI. Later on, I came across FabTools by Ioana Bouariu, another PowerShell module built about a year ago.

Rather than competing efforts, these tools presented an opportunity.

So, I reached out to both Frank and Ioana with a proposal:
Let’s join forces, unify the code, and build a single community-owned module under the DataPlatform GitHub organisation.

They agreed.

🔁 Stronger Together: Merging Efforts with Tiago

Shortly after my first commit to the newly created project on GitHub, I spoke with Tiago Balabuch, a Microsoft employee and member of the Fabric ACE Team (a team helping enterprise customers adopt Fabric). Tiago had been working privately on a PowerShell module of his own: MicrosoftFabricMgmt
He had just made it public, and the timing couldn’t have been better. We started a deep conversation about what we both have done and what my vision of FabricTools. Tiago was very keen to join and support the project, which much more functions than we already have.

🚀 That code has already been merged into the FabricTools project.
I handled the integration myself right after creating the new project. We’ve unified much of the structure already, and more alignment and refinement are on the way. Tiago’s work brings a wide coverage of Fabric resources and a solid foundation that accelerates our progress significantly.

🧑‍🔧 Support from the Best

Before I started this new initiative, I had already looked at dbatools – a mature and very well-organised project being developed by the community. We wanted to bring that experience and values to FabricTools, so I spoke to Rob Sewell, co-owner of dbatools and administrator of the DataPlatform GitHub organisation. Rob brings deep experience in PowerShell tooling, DevOps, and community-driven open-source projects.

But that’s not all – Rob also invited Jess Pomfret, a well-known contributor in the PowerShell and SQL Server communities, to join the effort. Jess has deep expertise in PowerShell development and automation and is now part of the core team shaping FabricTools.

Together, Rob and Jess are helping us with:

• Build and release automation
• Module structure and packaging
• Documentation planning (including a potential dedicated site)
• Long-term maintainability and governance
• And development and adoption of new features, too!

Their involvement not only strengthens the technical side of the project but also reinforces our commitment to open, sustainable, and inclusive collaboration.

🧱 Enter: FabricTools

The result of that collaboration is FabricTools – an open-source, community-built PowerShell module for managing Microsoft Fabric.

• 💻 Built by the community, for the community
• 🔓 100% open source
• 🌍 Hosted under the same GitHub org as dbatools
• 🚧 Currently in public preview
• 🧪 Early version – but designed for extensibility and future growth

I’m inviting the community to test, contribute, and shape the direction of this project. You can already file issues and feature requests, and of course, contribute directly on GitHub.

📢 Get Involved!

This is just the beginning.
Whether you’re using Fabric already or planning to adopt it soon, this module is your opportunity to shape the tooling around it. We encourage you to:

• ⭐ Star the repo
• 🐛 Log issues
• ✍️ Join the discussions
• 🤝 Contribute code
• 📣 Spread the word

As the project owner, I’m excited about the direction we’re heading – and even more excited to build it with you. Let’s make FabricTools the DevOps tool Microsoft Fabric truly deserves.

We’re building this tool together, and we’re just getting started.