Data Connections
How Fabric connects to external systems — now unified under Integrations as runtime actions.
This has changed. Fabric no longer has a separate "Data Connections" surface for syncing external content into a background index. Connecting an external service — and everything it can do — now lives under Settings → Integrations, where each provider is configured as a set of runtime actions.
What changed
"Data Connections" used to be a separate way to sync external content (Notion pages, Drive files, and so on) into a background index for retrieval. That surface has been retired in favor of a single, unified model:
- One place — manage every external connection under Settings → Integrations.
- Runtime actions, not background sync — instead of pre-indexing content, agents call knowledge actions (e.g. "Search Notion", "Get Page Content") live, on demand. Providers also expose write actions (e.g. "Create Issue"). A provider that offers both is labeled Hybrid.
- Same credentials everywhere — one connection works in AI chat, the orchestrator, and workflow nodes alike.
Backlog sync is different. Linking a project to a project-management tool (Azure DevOps, GitLab, Jira, Fizzy) does keep your backlog aligned two ways over time. That's a separate, project-level capability — see Project Management Sync.
Where things moved
| Before | Now |
|---|---|
| Settings → Data Connections | Settings → Integrations |
| "Available Providers" tab | The provider grid on the Integrations page |
| Set up Search / background sync | Manage Actions on a provider (knowledge actions run live) |
| RAG indexing of connected content | Project context + RAG providers — see RAG |
Connecting a service
See Connect Your First Integration for the current step-by-step flow, and MCP Integration for how connected tools are called at runtime.
Knowledge & retrieval
For document knowledge and retrieval-augmented generation, Fabric uses project context and your configured RAG / embedding providers — see RAG. Connected integrations contribute through live knowledge actions rather than a separate sync.