Function App Not Retrieving Data from Fabric Data Agent After Deployment

[Ipshita Ghosh (ipshitag)]

Problem
The Azure Function App, after being deployed, is unable to retrieve data from the Data Agent configured in Microsoft Fabric. This issue does not occur when running the Function App locally.

What Have I Done
Created a Data Agent in Microsoft Fabric.
Integrated the Data Agent with an AI Foundry Agent.
Verified that the Function App can successfully fetch data from the Data Agent when run locally.
Turned on the Managed Identity to the Function App.
Assigned the Managed Identity the Azure AI Developer and Administrator roles.
Confirmed that AI Foundry is able to retrieve data from the Data Agent as expected.

What Is Expected
After deploying the Function App to Azure, it should be able to retrieve data from the Data Agent in the same way it does during local testing.

[Amy Boyd (amynic)]

Hi Ipshita Ghosh (@ipshitag) thank you for asking this question, we have reached out to the Product group to gather further information and guidance

[Ipshita Ghosh (ipshitag)]

Thanks, additionally we tried testing it app service and fast api, but it still fails (works locally but not when deployed)

[Ipshita Ghosh (ipshitag)]

Got a response from the product team: this is a known issue—Fabric doesn't support service principals yet. The team is aware of it and is working on a solution, but there’s currently no timeline.

Thanks Amy Boyd (@amynic) for engaging. Hopefully this helps clarify the current situation for others who run into the same issue.

[Amy Boyd (amynic)]

Thank you for the update here and helping the rest of the community!

[Ali Asgar Juzer (aliasgarjh)]

Here's a sample repo that demonstrates how to use MS Fabric Data Agents as knowledge sources in Azure AI Service Agents, and then use the Agent from a web app - https://github.com/aliasgarjh/fabric-data-agent-chat. The basic flow is to use the logged in user's Entra ID generated token for establishing a client connection and conversation thread with the agent. This will enable user pass-through authentication and correctly use the MS Fabric Data Agent knowledge source for agentic applications like chat with your data.

[Ipshita Ghosh (ipshitag)]

This looks excellent. I'll take a look at it.