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 (e.g., /fabric-skills:check-updates).
• Claude Code / Cowork / Cursor / Windsurf / Codex: read the local package.json version, then compare it against the remote version via git fetch origin main --quiet && git show origin/main:package.json (or the GitHub API). If the remote version is newer, show the changelog and update instructions.
• 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

activator-consumption-cli — Read-Only Activator Exploration via CLI

Table of Contents

Tool Stack

Connection

Use the shared authentication guidance in COMMON-CLI.md § Authentication Recipes. Resolve workspace and item IDs per COMMON-CLI.md § Finding Workspaces and Items in Fabric. Examples below assume WS_ID and REFLEX_ID are already resolved.

Listing Activator Items

List All Activators in a Workspace

az rest --method GET \
  --url "https://api.fabric.microsoft.com/v1/workspaces/${WS_ID}/reflexes" \
  --resource "https://api.fabric.microsoft.com" \
  | jq '.value[] | {id, displayName, description}'

Required scopes: Workspace.Read.All or Workspace.ReadWrite.All

Paginated Listing

For workspaces with many items, follow the continuationUri returned in each response:

NEXT_URL="https://api.fabric.microsoft.com/v1/workspaces/${WS_ID}/reflexes"
while [ -n "$NEXT_URL" ]; do
  RESPONSE=$(az rest --method GET \
    --url "$NEXT_URL" \
    --resource "https://api.fabric.microsoft.com")
  echo "$RESPONSE" | jq '.value[] | {id, displayName, description}'
  NEXT_URL=$(echo "$RESPONSE" | jq -r '.continuationUri // empty')
done

Filter by Folder

az rest --method GET \
  --url "https://api.fabric.microsoft.com/v1/workspaces/${WS_ID}/reflexes?recursive=true&rootFolderId=${FOLDER_ID}" \
  --resource "https://api.fabric.microsoft.com" \
  | jq '.value[] | {id, displayName}'

Inspecting a Single Activator

az rest --method GET \
  --url "https://api.fabric.microsoft.com/v1/workspaces/${WS_ID}/reflexes/${REFLEX_ID}" \
  --resource "https://api.fabric.microsoft.com" \
  | jq '{id, displayName, description, type, workspaceId}'

Reading the Definition

getDefinition is a POST (not GET), requires ReadWrite scopes (Reflex.ReadWrite.All or Item.ReadWrite.All) even for read-only inspection, and may return 202 LRO. Use the fabric_lro helper from COMMON-CLI.md § Long-Running Operations (LRO) Pattern so 202 responses can be polled via the Location header before decoding.

Decode the Full Definition

DEFINITION=$(fabric_lro POST \
  "https://api.fabric.microsoft.com/v1/workspaces/${WS_ID}/reflexes/${REFLEX_ID}/getDefinition" \
  '{}')

echo "$DEFINITION" \
  | jq '.definition.parts[] | select(.path=="ReflexEntities.json") | .payload' -r \
  | base64 -d | jq .

Save Definition to File

DEFINITION=$(fabric_lro POST \
  "https://api.fabric.microsoft.com/v1/workspaces/${WS_ID}/reflexes/${REFLEX_ID}/getDefinition" \
  '{}')

echo "$DEFINITION" \
  | jq '.definition.parts[] | select(.path=="ReflexEntities.json") | .payload' -r \
  | base64 -d | jq . > reflex-entities.json

Exploring Rules, Sources, and Actions

Once you have the decoded ReflexEntities.json, use jq to extract specific components.

List All Entity Types

cat reflex-entities.json | jq '[.[] | .type] | sort | group_by(.) | map({type: .[0], count: length})'

List Data Sources

cat reflex-entities.json | jq '.[] | select(.type | endswith("Source-v1")) | {name: .payload.name, type: .type, id: .uniqueIdentifier}'

List Rules

cat reflex-entities.json | jq '.[] | select(.type == "timeSeriesView-v1" and .payload.definition.type == "Rule") | {name: .payload.name, id: .uniqueIdentifier, shouldRun: .payload.definition.settings.shouldRun}'

List Objects and Their Attributes

# Objects
cat reflex-entities.json | jq '.[] | select(.type == "timeSeriesView-v1" and .payload.definition.type == "Object") | {name: .payload.name, id: .uniqueIdentifier}'

# Attributes for a specific object
OBJECT_ID="<object-guid>"
cat reflex-entities.json | jq --arg oid "$OBJECT_ID" '.[] | select(.type == "timeSeriesView-v1" and .payload.definition.type == "Attribute" and .payload.parentObject.targetUniqueIdentifier == $oid) | {name: .payload.name, id: .uniqueIdentifier}'

Inspect a Rule's Condition

RULE_ID="<rule-guid>"
cat reflex-entities.json \
  | jq --arg rid "$RULE_ID" '.[] | select(.uniqueIdentifier == $rid) | .payload.definition.instance' -r \
  | jq '.steps[] | {step: .name, rows: [.rows[] | .kind]}'

List Actions (Fabric Item Actions)

cat reflex-entities.json | jq '.[] | select(.type == "fabricItemAction-v1") | {name: .payload.name, itemType: .payload.fabricItem.itemType, itemId: .payload.fabricItem.itemId}'

Summary View

Get a high-level overview of an Activator's configuration:

cat reflex-entities.json | jq '{
  containers: [.[] | select(.type == "container-v1") | .payload.name],
  sources: [.[] | select(.type | endswith("Source-v1")) | {name: .payload.name, type: .type}],
  objects: [.[] | select(.type == "timeSeriesView-v1" and .payload.definition.type == "Object") | .payload.name],
  rules: [.[] | select(.type == "timeSeriesView-v1" and .payload.definition.type == "Rule") | {name: .payload.name, active: .payload.definition.settings.shouldRun}],
  actions: [.[] | select(.type == "fabricItemAction-v1") | {name: .payload.name, type: .payload.fabricItem.itemType}]
}'

Inspecting Power BI Sources

Power BI-backed Activator sources use powerBiSource-v1. The source's parent container-v1 must use exact case-sensitive payload.type: "pbiMetrics". The source query.queryString is a JSON-string Power BI source query payload, and metricDefinition describes the same semantic model metric, dimensions, filters, and report visual lineage. The Activator API does not accept semantic-model query text in query.queryString.

Current public API limitation: Power BI-backed Activator definitions cannot currently be relied on for public ALM readback. getDefinition can reject an artifact that was imported successfully when PBI ALM export is disabled. Preserve the exact response and request/correlation ID, describe inspection as unavailable, and do not claim that persistence failed or that the source is absent solely because the definition cannot be exported.

Flag a missing parent container or any container type other than pbiMetrics. In particular, powerBiQueries is invalid.

Parse the Stored Query and Metric Definition

jq -r '.[] | select(.type == "powerBiSource-v1")
  | .payload.query.queryString' reflex-entities.json | jq .

metricDefinition can be either a JSON string or an object. Parse both forms before explaining the metric:

import json
from pathlib import Path

entities = json.loads(Path("reflex-entities.json").read_text(encoding="utf-8"))
for entity in entities:
    if entity.get("type") != "powerBiSource-v1":
        continue
    payload = entity["payload"]
    metric = payload.get("metricDefinition")
    if isinstance(metric, str):
        metric = json.loads(metric)
    print(json.dumps({
        "sourceName": payload.get("name"),
        "datasetId": payload.get("datasetId") or payload.get("metadata", {}).get("datasetId"),
        "reportId": payload.get("reportId") or payload.get("metadata", {}).get("reportId"),
        "pageId": payload.get("pageId") or payload.get("metadata", {}).get("pageId"),
        "visualId": payload.get("visualId") or payload.get("metadata", {}).get("visualId"),
        "measureName": payload.get("measureName") or payload.get("metadata", {}).get("measureName"),
        "dimensionValue": payload.get("dimensionValue"),
        "metricDefinition": metric,
    }, indent=2))

Persisted Power BI source queries should omit top.

Consistency Checks

Call out any of these issues:

• getDefinition is blocked because PBI ALM export is disabled. Report the limitation rather than fabricating source details.
• query.queryString or metricDefinition is not parseable JSON.
• The parent container is missing or is not exact pbiMetrics.
• metricDefinition.type is not DatasetMetric.
• Source datasetId, query provider.datasetId, and metricDefinition.definition.datasetId disagree.
• The persisted query includes top.
• A personalized source has dimensionValue, but the same value is absent from the query filters or metricDefinition.definition.filter.
• metricDefinition.definition.filter uses BasicFilter instead of the semantic-query Version / From / Where contract.
• Report, page, visual, or measure lineage is missing.

Must / Prefer / Avoid

MUST DO

• Always use --resource https://api.fabric.microsoft.com with az rest
• Always send --body '{}' for getDefinition — it is a POST and omitting the body can cause 411 errors
• Handle LRO responses — getDefinition may return 202; poll the Location header
• Base64-decode the ReflexEntities.json payload before inspection — it is Base64-encoded in the API response
• JSON-parse the definition.instance field in rule entities — it is a JSON-encoded string, not a nested object
• For Power BI sources, JSON-parse both query.queryString and metricDefinition before explaining metrics, dimensions, or filters

PREFER

• Summary view first — give users a high-level overview before diving into individual entities
• Save to file when the definition is large — decode once and explore with jq locally
• Discover IDs dynamically via workspace and item listing + JMESPath filtering
• Paginated listing for workspaces with many Activator items
• Report Power BI lineage — include dataset/report/page/visual/measure metadata when available
• Flag Power BI filter inconsistencies — especially missing personalized dimension values

AVOID

• Hardcoded workspace or item IDs — always resolve dynamically
• Using GET for getDefinition — it is a POST endpoint; GET will return 405
• Attempting to read definitions of items with encrypted sensitivity labels — it will be blocked
• Modifying data — this is a read-only skill; use activator-authoring-cli for write operations
• Treating Power BI source queries as semantic-model query text — they are source payloads stored as JSON strings

Examples

List All Activators and Show Their Rules

# Step 1: List activators
az rest --method GET \
  --url "https://api.fabric.microsoft.com/v1/workspaces/${WS_ID}/reflexes" \
  --resource "https://api.fabric.microsoft.com" \
  | jq '.value[] | {id, displayName}'

# Step 2: For a specific activator, get and decode its definition
az rest --method POST \
  --url "https://api.fabric.microsoft.com/v1/workspaces/${WS_ID}/reflexes/${REFLEX_ID}/getDefinition" \
  --resource "https://api.fabric.microsoft.com" \
  --headers "Content-Type=application/json" \
  --body '{}' \
  | jq '.definition.parts[] | select(.path=="ReflexEntities.json") | .payload' -r \
  | base64 -d \
  | jq '.[] | select(.type == "timeSeriesView-v1" and .payload.definition.type == "Rule") | {name: .payload.name, active: .payload.definition.settings.shouldRun}'

Inspect a Specific Rule's Full Configuration

# Decode definition and extract rule details
az rest --method POST \
  --url "https://api.fabric.microsoft.com/v1/workspaces/${WS_ID}/reflexes/${REFLEX_ID}/getDefinition" \
  --resource "https://api.fabric.microsoft.com" \
  --headers "Content-Type=application/json" \
  --body '{}' \
  | jq '.definition.parts[] | select(.path=="ReflexEntities.json") | .payload' -r \
  | base64 -d \
  | jq '.[] | select(.payload.name == "Too hot for medicine") | .payload.definition.instance' -r \
  | jq '.steps[] | {step: .name, details: .rows}'

Querying Activation History

Activation history (when rules fired) is not available via the public REST API. It is accessible via the Activator MCP server using the get_activations_for_rule tool.

Prerequisites

Use the shared authentication guidance in COMMON-CLI.md § Authentication Recipes before connecting to the Activator MCP endpoint.

pip install mcp httpx azure-identity aiohttp

Workflow

1. List rules using the public API (getDefinition → decode → filter for Rule entities) to get the rule's uniqueIdentifier
2. Connect to the Activator MCP server and call get_activations_for_rule with the rule ID

MCP Server Connection

The Activator MCP endpoint is at:

https://api.fabric.microsoft.com/v1/mcp/workspaces/{workspaceId}/reflexes/{activatorId}

Use the shared Fabric API authentication guidance from COMMON-CORE.md § Authentication & Token Acquisition. MCP clients should rely on standard Azure identity flows and must not hardcode tokens.

Calling get_activations_for_rule

Connect using the MCP streamable_http_client, then call the tool:

from mcp import ClientSession
from mcp.client.streamable_http import streamable_http_client

# After connecting and initializing the session:
result = await session.call_tool(
    "get_activations_for_rule",
    {
        "getActivationsParams": {
            "workspaceId": "<workspace-id>",
            "artifactId": "<activator-id>",
            "ruleId": "<rule-uniqueIdentifier>",
        }
    },
)

The response contains totalCount and an activations array with details of each time the rule fired.

Available MCP Tools

Agent Integration Notes

• This skill uses the Fabric Items API (/reflexes) for listing and getDefinition for inspection
• No additional data-plane protocols are needed for item/rule inspection — all use az rest with the Fabric API audience
• getDefinition requires ReadWrite scopes even for read-only access — this is a known API requirement
• Activation history requires the MCP server connection (not available via public REST API)
• For creating or modifying Activator items and rules, use the activator-authoring-cli skill