New idea exchange ideas in Microsoft Fabric Community

Comments field for Power BI Gateways

rijesh — Tue, 01 Sep 2026 12:41:11 GMT

It would be helpful to have a dedicated Comments field for Power BI Gateways. This would allow administrators to add notes or relevant information about a specific gateway such as its purpose, maintenance notes, special configurations etc. Having a comments field would improve gateway management, documentation and knowledge sharing across teams especially in environments with multiple gateways.

Comments field for Power BI Gateways

rijesh — Tue, 01 Sep 2026 12:39:47 GMT

It would be helpful to have a dedicated Comments field for Power BI Gateways. This would allow administrators to add notes or relevant information about a specific gateway such as its purpose, maintenance notes, special configurations etc.

Having a comments field would improve gateway management, documentation and knowledge sharing across teams especially in environments with multiple gateways.

Support Native SQL LIKE / NOT LIKE Wildcard Filtering Across Power BI Reports

Seeralan — Tue, 01 Sep 2026 12:38:01 GMT

Description

Currently, Power BI does not provide a native way for report consumers to perform dynamic SQL-style wildcard filtering using patterns such as

LIKE '____' - Above return all values with exactly four characters

LIKE '__A_' - Return all four-character values where the third character is "A"

Many enterprise reporting scenarios require users to enter dynamic search patterns similar to SQL LIKE and NOT LIKE functionality. While workarounds using DAX, calculated columns, custom visuals, or custom logic may be possible for individual fields, these approaches are not scalable when reports contain hundreds of filterable columns.

Current Limitation

After engagement with Microsoft Support, Advisory, and Architecture teams (Case #2606220040001996), it was confirmed that:

Power BI currently has no native runtime implementation of SQL LIKE / NOT LIKE filtering.
Existing alternatives do not adequately support large-scale implementations with hundreds of columns.
Third-party visuals such as Smart Filter do not fully support SQL-style wildcard matching (for example _ as a single-character wildcard).
This has been identified as a current product limitation.

Suggested Enhancement

Provide native filtering capabilities that support standard SQL wildcard expressions within Power BI report filters and slicers, including:

% for multi-character matching
_ for single-character matching
LIKE and NOT LIKE style filtering behavior
User-entered runtime pattern matching
Consistent functionality across all text columns without requiring custom DAX or calculated columns

Example Scenarios

User Input	Expected Result
____	Return all values with exactly 4 characters
__A_	Return all 4-character values where the third character is A
%ABC%	Return values containing ABC
A%	Return values starting with A
%XYZ	Return values ending with XYZ

Business Impact

This enhancement would provide significant value for organizations with large-scale enterprise reporting environments by:

Reducing reliance on custom DAX and calculated columns
Improving report usability for business users familiar with SQL-style searches
Enabling dynamic filtering across hundreds of columns without additional development effort
Improving scalability, maintainability, and performance of enterprise Power BI solutions

Supporting Information

Microsoft Support has confirmed that there is currently no supported native Power BI solution for dynamic SQL LIKE wildcard filtering at scale and recommended submitting this requirement through the Microsoft Fabric Ideas portal for product team evaluation.

Retain Matrix/Table Scroll Position When Returning from Drillthrough

Pruthviraj15 — Tue, 01 Sep 2026 11:24:29 GMT

Description:
Currently, when users drill through from a Matrix or Table visual to a detailed page and then use the Back button to return, the report navigates back to the source page but resets the Matrix/Table to the top instead of preserving the user's previous position.

This can be frustrating when working with large datasets, especially when the selected row is far down in a long Matrix or Table. Users must manually scroll and relocate the exact item they were analyzing before continuing their work.

Suggested Enhancement: When returning from a Drillthrough page, Power BI should restore the original visual state, including:

Scroll position within the Matrix or Table
Expanded/collapsed hierarchy levels
Selected row or record
Visual focus and viewport location

Benefits:

Improved user experience and navigation
Faster analysis of large reports
Reduced need for repetitive scrolling and searching
More intuitive drillthrough workflow, similar to modern web applications that preserve page state

Example Scenario: A user scrolls to row 250 in a Matrix visual, drills through to view transaction details, and then clicks Back. Instead of returning to the top of the Matrix, the report should restore the view to row 250 with the same hierarchy expansion state, allowing the user to continue analysis seamlessly.

Business Impact: This enhancement would significantly improve usability for enterprise reports containing thousands of rows and deeply nested hierarchies, where users frequently drill through multiple records during analysis.

Power BI Desktop on macOS

norbert_lokkos — Tue, 01 Sep 2026 10:41:12 GMT

Description

Many organizations are increasingly adopting macOS as a primary endpoint platform. However, Power BI Desktop remains available only for Windows, forcing macOS users to rely on virtual machines, remote desktops, Windows devices, or limited web-based alternatives.

We would like Microsoft to provide a native version of Power BI Desktop for macOS, enabling Power BI developers and analysts to create, edit, and publish reports directly from their corporate Mac devices.

Business Impact

Large enterprises are deploying growing numbers of managed macOS devices.
Data analysts, controllers, and business users working exclusively on macOS cannot use the full authoring capabilities of Power BI Desktop.
Current workarounds (Windows VMs, Azure Virtual Desktop, remote Windows PCs) introduce additional licensing, infrastructure, support, and security complexity.
Web authoring in Power BI Service and Microsoft Fabric is improving but does not yet provide full parity with Power BI Desktop.
A native macOS application would improve user experience, reduce operational overhead, and strengthen Power BI adoption in organizations with mixed Windows/macOS environments.

Thank you for considering this request!

Retain Matrix/Table Scroll Position When Returning from Drillthrough

Pruthviraj — Tue, 01 Sep 2026 10:39:02 GMT

Suggested Enhancement: When returning from a Drillthrough page, Power BI should restore the original visual state, including:

Scroll position within the Matrix or Table
Expanded/collapsed hierarchy levels
Selected row or record
Visual focus and viewport location

Benefits:

Improved user experience and navigation
Faster analysis of large reports
Reduced need for repetitive scrolling and searching
More intuitive drillthrough workflow, similar to modern web applications that preserve page state

Expose Data Agent schema, question interpretation, and generated query through MCP

Antoine1733 — Tue, 01 Sep 2026 09:51:02 GMT

I would like to request additional context and metadata capabilities for the Microsoft Fabric Data Agent MCP server.

It would be very useful if the MCP server could expose more information about the Data Agent itself and how it processes a user's question.

1. Expose the Data Agent data schema

It would be useful to retrieve through MCP the data schema available to the Data Agent, including information such as:

Tables or semantic model entities
Columns and fields
Data types
Relationships
Measures
Descriptions and metadata
Other relevant schema information available to the Data Agent

Ideally, this information could be exposed through a dedicated MCP resource or tool.

This would allow an MCP client to understand what data the Data Agent has access to without having to maintain a separate copy of the schema.

2. Expose the interpreted or reformulated question

It would also be very useful to retrieve information about how the Data Agent understood the user's question.

For example:

Original question:
"How many customers did we lose last month?"

Reformulated / interpreted question:
"Calculate the number of customers who became inactive during the previous calendar month."

If available, it would also be useful to expose structured information such as:

Original user question
Reformulated or normalized question
Detected intent
Relevant tables or entities
Relevant columns or measures
Filters and conditions identified from the question

This would help developers understand how the Data Agent interpreted the request.

3. Expose the generated and executed query

It would also be very valuable to expose the query generated by the Data Agent to answer the user's question.

Depending on the underlying data source, this could include:

SQL
DAX
KQL
Other query languages supported by Fabric Data Agents

For example, the MCP response or a dedicated MCP resource could expose:

Query language:
SQL

Generated query:
SELECT COUNT(*) FROM Customers WHERE ...

Or:

Query language:
DAX

Generated query:
CALCULATE(...)

It would also be useful to know:

Which query language was selected
The generated query
The final query that was actually executed, if it differs
The data source or semantic model targeted
The tables, measures, or entities used by the query
Execution status
Query execution duration, when available
Query errors or warnings, when applicable

This information would be extremely useful for debugging, auditing, observability, and explaining how the Data Agent produced its answer.

Why this would be useful

Ideally, an MCP client could retrieve a structured execution context such as:

Original question
→ Reformulated / interpreted question
→ Relevant schema and entities
→ Selected query language (SQL / DAX / KQL / etc.)
→ Generated query
→ Executed query
→ Result
→ Final Data Agent answer

The goal is not to expose the model's private internal reasoning, but rather to expose the structured interpretation, generated query, schema context, and execution metadata that can safely be shared with the MCP client.

These capabilities would make the Fabric Data Agent MCP server much more useful for building transparent, debuggable, auditable, and context-aware applications.

Could Microsoft please consider exposing the Data Agent schema, structured question interpretation, and generated/executed queries through the MCP server?

Real-time progress streaming for Fabric Data Agent MCP server

Antoine1733 — Tue, 01 Sep 2026 09:47:43 GMT

I would like to request true real-time progress streaming for the Microsoft Fabric Data Agent MCP server.

Currently, when calling a published Fabric Data Agent through MCP using call_tool with a progress_callback, I receive progress events such as:

analyze.database.fewshots.loading
analyze.database.nl2code
analyze.database.execute
Message created

However, these events are usually not delivered during the actual execution.

For example, the request can take 15–20 seconds with no updates, and then several progress notifications arrive almost at the same time, immediately before the final response.

It would be very useful if the Data Agent MCP server could emit and flush progress notifications incrementally as each step happens.

Ideally, applications could display statuses such as:

Understanding the question
Generating the query
Executing the query
Processing the result
Preparing the final answer

This would allow developers to build a much better real-time user experience instead of showing only a loading indicator during long-running requests.

The MCP transport already supports streaming and the client can receive progress notifications. The missing part appears to be real-time delivery of the Data Agent execution progress from the server.

Could Microsoft please consider supporting true incremental progress streaming for the Fabric Data Agent MCP endpoint ?

Connections Shows Offline

v-beeras — Mon, 31 Aug 2026 19:40:20 GMT

We are able to create a shortcut connection to ADLS Gen 2 storage account with private endpoint enabled and public endpoint disabled, from lake house.

but the connections shows offline in the manage connections and gateway.

as per the below document it was a limitation that connections to firewall-enabled Storage accounts have the status Offline in Manage connections and gateways.

Is there any Road map or future update that the connections will show online in Manage connections and gateways or this was fixed limitation.

Power BI UX Suggestion: Preserve Selection When Switching Between Report and Model Views

Murtaza_Ghafoor — Mon, 31 Aug 2026 15:03:45 GMT

When developing a Power BI report, if I select a visual in Report View and then switch to Model View, the selected table/column context is lost and everything becomes unselected.

This can be inconvenient for developers, especially when troubleshooting or working with complex data models.

💡 Suggestion: It would be very useful if Power BI could preserve the selected visual, table, or column context when switching between Report View and Model View.

I believe this small UX improvement could make the development experience much smoother and more efficient.

Microsoft/Fabric team — please consider this enhancement for future updates.

Please vote if you like the idea.

Power BI UX Suggestion: Preserve Selection When Switching Between Report and Model Views

Murtaza_Ghafoor — Mon, 31 Aug 2026 15:03:39 GMT

When developing a Power BI report, if I select a visual in Report View and then switch to Model View, the selected table/column context is lost and everything becomes unselected.

This can be inconvenient for developers, especially when troubleshooting or working with complex data models.

💡 Suggestion: It would be very useful if Power BI could preserve the selected visual, table, or column context when switching between Report View and Model View.

I believe this small UX improvement could make the development experience much smoother and more efficient.

Microsoft/Fabric team — please consider this enhancement for future updates.

Please vote if you like the idea.

Default Scrollable Time-Series Charts to Most Recent Data

CStillwell — Mon, 31 Aug 2026 13:24:00 GMT

Currently, Power BI time-series charts always open scrolled to the earliest (leftmost) date by default, which is inconvenient for reports where users are interested in the most recent (rightmost) date. A setting such as "Default view to latest data" would improve usability and align with how most users consume trend data.

Please add an option for time-series charts to:

Set the default scroll position (earliest date or most recent date).
Remember the last scroll position when navigating between report pages.

This feature would significantly improve usability for time-series charts.

Power BI Desktop Data Load: Can We Get Better Progress Visibility?

salmansaifee77 — Mon, 31 Aug 2026 12:16:33 GMT

One UX improvement I’d really like to see in Power BI Desktop is better visibility when loading large datasets from Power Query.

Currently, when Power Query finishes processing and the data starts loading into the model, the experience can feel like a black box. We often have no clear indication of:

How much data has been loaded
• How many rows have been processed
• What percentage of the load is complete
• How much time is remaining
• Which table is currently being loaded

For small datasets, this may not matter much. But when working with large datasets, a long-running refresh with limited progress information makes it difficult to know whether the process is actively working or stuck.

A simple progress indicator such as:

Customers → 85% loaded
Sales → 12.5M / 20M rows
Overall Progress → 72%
Estimated Time Remaining → 4 min

would make the experience significantly better.

Microsoft Fabric and Power BI are becoming increasingly focused on enterprise-scale data. Shouldn't the Desktop experience provide better transparency during large data loads as well?

Would love to hear the community's thoughts. Is this something you have faced too?

Improve support for calculated tables on remote semantic models

alaeddinegaaya — Mon, 31 Aug 2026 08:47:54 GMT

When a report is connected to a remote semantic model, Power BI Desktop allows users to create calculated tables and calculated columns based on that remote model.

The issue is that this architecture appears to work correctly in Desktop but may generate refresh failures after publication to Power BI Service.

This behavior is confusing because the limitation is only discovered after deployment.

Suggested improvements:

Fully support refresh of calculated tables and columns referencing remote semantic models.
Or block this scenario directly in Power BI Desktop.
Or provide a clear validation message before publication explaining the risk and offering remediation guidance.

This limitation creates unnecessary complexity and maintenance effort.

Allow Bottom-Up Hierarchy Expansion in Power BI Matrix for Financial Statements

Barbarini — Mon, 31 Aug 2026 06:16:58 GMT

Allow Bottom-Up Hierarchy Expansion in Power BI Matrix for Financial Statements

Hi, I would like to request an enhancement to the Power BI Matrix visual that allows hierarchies to be expanded from the lowest level upwards, rather than only following the traditional top-down navigation logic.

This functionality would be extremely valuable for building financial statements and Profit & Loss reports.

Current limitation

When creating a financial statement hierarchy in a Power BI Matrix, the structure typically contains multiple aggregation levels, such as Revenue, Revenue Categories, Account Groups and individual Accounts.

In many financial reporting scenarios, users need to start from detailed accounts or the lowest-level items and understand how these values aggregate into higher-level totals.

Currently, hierarchy navigation in the Matrix is primarily designed around a top-down expansion approach.

Requested feature

Please add the ability to expand a hierarchy bottom-up, starting from detailed or leaf-level accounts and navigating towards their parent and higher aggregation levels.

Ideally, users should be able to choose the hierarchy navigation direction directly in the Matrix settings, with options such as Top-down expansion or Bottom-up expansion.

Business use case

This functionality would significantly improve the creation of Profit & Loss statements, Balance Sheets, Cash Flow statements, Chart of Accounts reporting and Management financial reporting.

Financial hierarchies are different from typical product or geographical hierarchies. Users often need to analyze individual accounts first and then understand how they contribute to higher-level subtotals.

For example:

Account → Account Group → Financial Category → EBITDA → EBIT → Net Income

A bottom-up hierarchy navigation experience would make Power BI Matrix much more flexible and suitable for professional financial reporting.

Benefits

This enhancement would improve native financial reporting capabilities in Power BI, reduce the need for complex DAX workarounds and custom visuals, and make the Matrix visual more suitable for enterprise financial reporting.

Please consider adding bottom-up hierarchy expansion as a native capability of the Power BI Matrix visual.

Support OneLake Security-Enforced Data Sources in Fabric IQ Ontology

Mourak — Sat, 29 Aug 2026 08:26:50 GMT

Fabric IQ Ontology is designed to provide governed business context across enterprise data, while OneLake Security is becoming the central fine-grained security model for Fabric.

These capabilities should work together directly.

I would like Ontology data bindings to fully support Lakehouses that use OneLake Security, including table/folder permissions, row-level security and column-level security.

Ontology queries, Graph exploration, Data Agents and other consumers should respect the effective OneLake permissions of the requesting identity.

Administrators should not have to choose between securing a Lakehouse with OneLake Security and using that data as part of a Fabric IQ ontology.

Integrating the two would provide a consistent security boundary from OneLake data through business concepts, relationships and AI experiences.

Allow External OneLake Data Shares to Be Accepted into Multiple Fabric Item Types

Mourak — Sat, 29 Aug 2026 08:25:19 GMT

Fabric External Data Sharing provides an excellent zero-copy mechanism for sharing OneLake data across tenants.

However, the receiving tenant currently has to accept the share into a Lakehouse.

I would like the consumer to be able to choose the Fabric item that best matches the consuming workload, including Lakehouse, Warehouse, Eventhouse/KQL Database and SQL Database where technically applicable.

For example, a team whose primary consumption environment is Fabric Warehouse should not need to create and operate an additional Lakehouse simply to receive an external share.

The external share should remain governed and read-only while appearing natively in the selected Fabric workload.

This would make cross-tenant OneLake sharing more consistent with Fabric's multi-workload architecture and reduce unnecessary intermediate items.

Allow OneLake Shortcut Authentication Mode to Be Changed In Place

Mourak — Sat, 29 Aug 2026 08:24:18 GMT

OneLake shortcuts support passthrough and delegated authentication, but changing the authentication model currently requires deleting and recreating the shortcut.

I would like shortcut authentication and connection settings to be editable in place.

Administrators should be able to change a shortcut from passthrough to delegated authentication, replace the delegated connection identity, or move back to passthrough without deleting the shortcut.

Fabric should validate the new identity and permissions before applying the change and preserve the shortcut object, downstream references, lineage and dependent workloads.

For enterprise environments, security models and service identities evolve over time. Recreating shortcuts increases operational risk and makes automation more difficult.

Making authentication a manageable property of the shortcut would improve lifecycle management, security operations and CI/CD.

Add an "Explain Effective Access" Experience for OneLake Security

Mourak — Sat, 29 Aug 2026 08:22:51 GMT

As OneLake Security expands across tables, folders, rows, columns and shortcuts, determining why a specific user can or cannot access data can become difficult.

I would like Microsoft Fabric to provide an "Explain Effective Access" experience for OneLake.

An administrator should be able to select a user, service principal or group and a OneLake path and see:

- workspace and item permissions

- applicable OneLake security roles

- RLS and CLS policies

- shortcut-path permissions

- target-path permissions

- whether passthrough or delegated authentication is being used

- which identity each query engine uses

- the resulting effective access

- the specific rule responsible for allowing or blocking access

The same information should be available through an API for security automation and audit tooling.

This would significantly simplify troubleshooting, security reviews and least-privilege validation in enterprise Fabric environments.

Tenant-Wide OneLake Shortcut Lineage and Impact Analysis

Mourak — Sat, 29 Aug 2026 08:18:41 GMT

This is grounded in a documented limitation: shortcut lineage is currently workspace-scoped, and Microsoft specifically says lineage for shortcuts to warehouses and semantic models isn't currently available. There are also community discussions describing the inability to trace table-level dependencies across workspaces.