Git initialization One lake

[smpa01]

I’m planning to integrate a OneLake folder with a GitHub repository because working directly on the server is practically impossible for any serious development. A widely adopted practice in real development workflows is to work locally in VS Code and back up the code to GitHub, provided there’s a reliable and developer-friendly VS Code extension.

Current Fabric Offerings in VS Code Extensions:

Fabric Data Engineering VS Code  -This extension claims to support local notebook development with remote execution on a Fabric cluster. However, I haven't been able to get it working yet. Moreover, it does not provide access to Lakehouse files, making it far from a complete development solution.

Microsoft Fabric  - This only allows viewing notebook definitions as .json files. It doesn't provide access to Lakehouse files or any meaningful interaction beyond static inspection.

What Fabric Developers Actually Need:

Similar to the Databricks extension, Fabric developers would benefit from:

1. The ability to create folders and files locally and sync them to the workspace.

2. The ability to execute notebooks on a remote Fabric cluster from within the local environment.

Since Fabric currently lacks such comprehensive support, my plan is to use Git initialization and remote integration the lakehouse files to back up and locally access all such files. Are there any potential drawbacks to using this approach for the following folders and files?

Thank you in advance?

[v-nmadadi-msft]

Hi @smpa01 

I wanted to check if you had the opportunity to review the information provided. Please feel free to contact us if you have any further questions. If our responses has addressed your query, please accept it as a solution and give a 'Kudos' so other members can easily find it.

Thank you.

[v-nmadadi-msft]

Hi @smpa01 ,

May I ask if you have resolved this issue? If so, please mark the helpful reply and accept it as the solution. This will be helpful for other community members who have similar problems to solve it faster.

Thank you.

[v-nmadadi-msft]

Hi @smpa01   ,
Thanks for reaching out to the Microsoft fabric community forum.

Microsoft Fabric's Git integration primarily tracks metadata for Lakehouse artifacts, such as display names, descriptions, and logical GUIDs. It does not track the actual data within tables or files.
Source: Lakehouse deployment pipelines and git integration - Microsoft Fabric | Microsoft Learn

Since Git integration doesn't track actual data, any changes to the data within your Lakehouse won't be reflected in your GitHub repository. This could lead to inconsistencies between your local development environment and the production environment.
In the method you are trying to implement you can go ahead and change the Display name, Description, Logical guid without any potential issues.

If you find this post helpful, please mark it as an "Accept as Solution" and consider giving a KUDOS. Feel free to reach out if you need further assistance.
Thank you

[smpa01 · Accepted solution]

When I was asking for git initialization, I was asking about a git init on \%USERPROFILE%\OneLake - Microsoft\.

I actually went ahead and init git on this and so far it has been good.

I can directly add lakehouse folders and folder contents from the vs code workspace and it is convenient cause, I dont need to move away from my development environment to a the cloud (fabric in browser).

Now, are there any negative side effects you might know of that I don't (other than accidental delete of lakehouse folder contents from local that sync to the server instantly but in my case it is git backed up so even more powerful; anything else you can think/know of) ?

[v-nmadadi-msft]

Hi @smpa01  ,

I’ve looked into potential drawbacks of the approach you're using, but I haven’t come across any documented issues or known limitations specific to that setup but a suggestion I can provide is to regularly monitor synchronization activities between your local environment and the cloud to detect and resolve any issues promptly

If you find this post helpful, please mark it as an "Accept as Solution" and consider giving a KUDOS. Feel free to reach out if you need further assistance.
Thank you