If you wanted a Notebook to run under a Workspace Identity or Service Principal, you only could configure this directly in the DataPipeline UI. In fact, the Connections pane didn’t even allow creating Notebook connections at all.

Instead, the only workaround was:

1. Create a Data Pipeline
2. Add a Notebook activity
3. Create the connection from the pipeline activity dialog

Not only was this clunky, it also meant:

• ❌ No way to create Notebook connections via REST API
• ❌ No way to create Notebook connections via the Fabric CLI
• ❌ Impossible to automate
• ❌ Notebooks always ran in the context of the current user
• ❌ You couldn’t use a Service Principal or Workspace Identity to access external services (like Azure Key Vault)

But that’s now history.

New: Create Notebook Connections Directly in the Connection Pane

Microsoft Fabric has rolled out support for creating Notebook connections directly from the Connection Pane.

You can now:

✔ Go to the Connections pane
✔ Create a new Notebook connection instantly

No pipeline workaround.
No hidden dialogs.
No friction.

Now Also Available via REST API and Fabric CLI

fab create .connections/CON_FMD_NOTEBOOKS.Connection \
  -P connectionDetails.type=Notebook \
  -P connectionDetails.creationMethod=Notebook.Actions \
  -P credentialDetails.type=WorkspaceIdentity

Why This Matters

This change unlocks several important scenarios:

1. Run Notebooks using a Service Principal or Workspace Identity

Previously, Notebooks always ran in the context of the interactive user, which meant:

• No headless automation
• No scheduled jobs under a service principal
• No secure, non-human execution

Now, a Notebook can run using:

• ✔ Workspace Identity
• ✔ Service Principal (with credentials in Key Vault)

2. Access Azure Key Vault Securely

Because the Notebook now runs under an identity and not the user who executes the activity, you can:

• Get secrets from Azure Key Vault
• Access Azure Storage
• Access SQL / Fabric data sources
• Interact with other Azure services

This was not possible before unless you manually authenticated as yourself.

Final Thoughts

This seemingly small change removes a major blocker in Fabric’s engineering story.
By enabling Notebook connection creation in:

• the Connections pane,
• the REST API, and
• the Fabric CLI,

Microsoft Fabric is now far more automation‑friendly and enterprise‑ready.

Running Notebooks using a Service Principal or Workspace Identity unlocks secure patterns that were previously impossible.

If you’re building production pipelines, automated deployments, or secure identity-aware workloads, this is a huge step forward.