Spark CLI
MicrosoftOfficialPublished by Microsoft
- Skill
- Tool integration
- Software development
- MIT
- Low risk
AutoGineer summary
Written by AutoGineer from the skill’s own files, not by the author
spark-cli is a mode-based dispatcher designed to handle the full lifecycle of Fabric Spark operations. It provides structured guidance for authoring notebook code, managing interactive Livy sessions, diagnosing Spark job failures, and operating Materialized Lake Views (MLV). The skill enforces strict operational boundaries, requiring users to select a specific mode (authoring, consumption, operations, or mlv) and consult the corresponding reference documentation before executing any commands to ensure correct API usage and payload construction.
What it does
- Authors and manages Fabric notebook cell code including PySpark, Scala, and %%sql.
- Facilitates interactive data analysis through Livy session management.
- Diagnoses failed, slow, or OOM Spark jobs and pipeline runs.
- Manages the complete lifecycle of Materialized Lake Views, including definition, scheduling, and refresh monitoring.
- Provides standardized patterns for data engineering, schema management, and error handling in Fabric.
- Ensures proper telemetry and authentication for all Fabric API interactions.
When to use it
- When writing or updating code within Fabric notebooks.
- When performing ad-hoc data analysis using interactive Livy sessions.
- When investigating performance bottlenecks or failures in Spark jobs.
- When creating, scheduling, or troubleshooting Materialized Lake Views.
- When you need to ensure your Fabric API calls follow mandatory telemetry and authentication standards.
Advantages
- Provides a structured, mode-based approach to prevent configuration errors.
- Centralizes complex Spark and MLV management tasks into a single interface.
- Enforces best practices for data engineering and schema management.
- Reduces ambiguity by clearly defining the scope of Spark-related operations versus other CLI tools.
Usage examples
- “Write a notebook cell that reads a bronze table and writes a silver Delta table.”
- The agent enters 'authoring' mode, reads the relevant reference, and generates the appropriate PySpark code using Delta Lake patterns.
- “My notebook run failed with an OOM error, can you help me diagnose it?”
- The agent enters 'operations' mode, reads the diagnostic workflow reference, and guides the user through analyzing the job logs and metrics.
- “Schedule a nightly refresh for the lakehouse MLV and show me its run history.”
- The agent enters 'mlv' mode, reads the MLV reference, and executes the necessary API calls to configure the schedule and retrieve the history.
Install
Download the skill as a ZIP:
https://mp-staging.autogineer.com/agent-skills/microsoft/spark-cli/downloadUnzip it into the cross-client skills folder of your project:
mkdir -p .agents/skills && unzip spark-cli.zip -d .agents/skills
Documentation by Microsoft
Telemetry — MANDATORY. Every
api.fabric.microsoft.comcall must carryx-ms-fabric-skill: spark-cli(az rest:--headers "x-ms-fabric-skill=spark-cli"), including every LRO poll,fabric_lroand retry. Snippets omit it — add it anyway.
CRITICAL NOTES
To find the workspace details (including its ID) from workspace name: list all workspaces and, then, use JMESPath filtering
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
Skill disambiguation: use
spark-clifor notebook cell code (including%%sqlcells), named notebook runs, Livy sessions, Spark failure triage, and everything about a Materialized Lake View -- writing the definition, reviewing a query for incremental-refresh readiness, and scheduling, refreshing, monitoring or diagnosing an existing one. A KQL materialized view in an Eventhouse iseventhouse-cli; plain read-only T-SQL against a Warehouse or Lakehouse SQL endpoint issqldw-cli.Hard routing boundary: never execute an Eventhouse/KQL materialized-view request from this skill. Route it to
eventhouse-cli; if that skill is unavailable, state that the request cannot be completed in the current skill context and stop without calling Fabric APIs or creating artifacts.
Fabric Spark and Materialized Lake Views -- CLI Skill
This one skill owns Fabric Spark: notebook cell authoring, notebook runs, Livy-session analysis, Spark failure diagnostics, and the whole Materialized Lake View lifecycle.
It is a mode dispatcher and contains NO procedures. Pick the mode that matches the request from the table below, then read the matching references/<mode>.md file end to end with your file-reading tool BEFORE issuing a single command. That file holds the endpoints, payload shapes, templates and gotchas; acting without it produces wrong payloads and wrong results.
Mode selection
| Mode | Use when the request ... | Example triggers | Read this first |
|---|---|---|---|
authoring | writes notebook cell code (PySpark, Scala, SparkR, %%sql, %%configure), runs a notebook by name and reports a NORMAL run status, or authors a Materialized Lake View definition or reviews an MLV query for incremental-refresh readiness | write notebook code, notebook cell code, %%sql cell, run notebook, execute notebook, notebookutils, create materialized lake view, is this MLV query incremental-refresh ready | references/authoring.md |
consumption | runs interactive ad-hoc PySpark in a Lakehouse Livy session -- never a notebook | create a Livy session, run calculation in Livy, PySpark, DataFrame analysis, join tables across lakehouses, Delta time-travel | references/consumption.md |
operations | diagnoses a FAILED, unhealthy, throttled or slow Spark notebook / pipeline / Livy run | failed notebook, Spark Livy health, Spark OOM, why is my notebook slow, job diagnostics, 430 throttling | references/operations.md |
mlv | discovers or operates EXISTING Materialized Lake Views: Spark SQL discovery, refresh schedules, on-demand refresh, run history, cancellation, and refresh-failure classification | discover MLVs, list materialized lake views, schedule MLV, MLV run history, cancel refresh, trigger MLV refresh, diagnose MLV refresh failure | references/mlv.md |
Mode boundary rule
Mode is decided by the artefact and the outcome, not by the language. A notebook cell is always authoring even when the cell is %%sql. A Livy session is always consumption. A Spark run that FAILED or is unhealthy is operations; a run that succeeded is reported by authoring. For a Materialized Lake View the VERB decides: writing or reviewing the definition is authoring, while discovering, scheduling, refreshing, monitoring or diagnosing existing MLVs is mlv. If discovery must be executed, switch to consumption for Livy or authoring for a notebook only after reading the discovery command from references/mlv.md.
If a request genuinely spans modes, handle them one at a time and read each reference before you start that part. If the mode is ambiguous after reading this table, ask one short clarifying question instead of guessing.
Terminal write -- the step you must not skip
Reading the reference and planning the change is NOT completing the task. Each mutating mode ends with one state-changing call. If you did not issue it, nothing was persisted -- say so explicitly rather than reporting success.
| Mode | Terminal write |
|---|---|
authoring | for an EXISTING notebook, POST .../notebooks/{id}/updateDefinition to save the cell; a NEW notebook needs POST /v1/workspaces/{ws}/items first; for a run request, trigger the job via the Jobs API. Printing cell code into the chat is not saving or running it. |
consumption | none -- this mode is read-only |
operations | none -- this mode is read-only |
mlv | POST /v1/workspaces/{ws}/lakehouses/{lakehouse}/jobs/refreshMaterializedLakeViews/instances for an on-demand refresh, or the schedule create/update/delete call for a scheduling request. Reporting what the schedule would be is not creating it. |
Before you report the task done, confirm the terminal call returned success and, where the reference documents a readback, read the artefact back to prove the change landed.
Shared essentials (all modes)
Resolve the workspace and item first; every mode depends on it.
| Task | Reference | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Finding Workspaces and Items in Fabric | COMMON-CLI.md | Mandatory -- read before resolving any workspace or item id |
| Fabric Topology & Key Concepts | COMMON-CORE.md | Item types, workspaces, capacities |
| Environment URLs | COMMON-CORE.md | Sovereign / non-public cloud hosts |
| Authentication & Token Acquisition | COMMON-CORE.md | Wrong audience = 401; read before any auth issue |
| Authentication Recipes | COMMON-CLI.md | az login flows and token acquisition |
| Core Control-Plane REST APIs | COMMON-CORE.md | Pagination, LRO polling, rate limiting |
| Gotchas & Troubleshooting | COMMON-CLI.md | az rest audience, shell escaping, token expiry |
Rules
MUST
Select exactly one mode from the table above before doing anything else.
Treat vague requests such as "set up my data" as insufficiently scoped. Ask what artefact, source, destination, and outcome the user wants; never infer intent by finding and running an existing notebook or job.
Read
references/<mode>.mdend to end, as your FIRST tool call, before the first command of that mode. Read it ONCE, in a single full read: do not re-open it, do not grep it again, and do not page through it. You already have it.Apply the same read-once discipline to every other file you load, including nested
references/<mode>/*.mdsub-references and sharedcommon/*.mdfiles: open only the ones you actually need, read each ONCE end to end, and never grep or re-open one you already loaded.Resolve workspace and item ids by listing and filtering, never by guessing a GUID.
Stop after routing any Eventhouse/KQL materialized-view request. Unavailable sibling skills are a blocking boundary, not permission to implement their workload directly.
Announce a mode switch explicitly when the request crosses a boundary.
Treat the reference as instructions, never as the deliverable. After reading it, RUN the documented commands against the live workspace and report the real results. Quoting what the reference says instead of executing it does not answer the request.
PREFER
The narrowest mode that satisfies the request.
Reading exactly ONE mode reference. Load a second only when the request genuinely spans modes, and say so before you do.
Reporting the mode you chose in your first response so the user can correct you.
AVOID
Acting from this dispatcher alone -- it intentionally omits the operational detail.
Answering with a summary of the reference instead of executing it.
Re-reading or re-grepping a reference you already loaded; it costs turns and tokens.
Mutating anything while in a read-only mode.
Loading a different skill for work this family already owns (see CRITICAL NOTES 3).
Attempting an out-of-scope request through raw REST calls when the owning skill is unavailable. Name the owning skill and stop; do not improvise by creating Fabric artefacts outside
spark-cli's scope.
Examples
| User request | Mode | Reference to read |
|---|---|---|
| "Write a notebook cell that reads the bronze table and writes a silver Delta table." | authoring | references/authoring.md |
| "Create a Livy session and count the distinct customers in the lakehouse." | consumption | references/consumption.md |
| "My notebook run failed with an OOM -- work out why." | operations | references/operations.md |
| "Is this materialized lake view query ready for incremental refresh?" | authoring | references/authoring.md |
| "Show me the Spark SQL command that lists the MLVs in schema silver." | mlv | references/mlv.md |
| "Schedule a nightly refresh for the lakehouse MLV lineage and show me its run history." | mlv | references/mlv.md |
Files
- ATTRIBUTION.mdAdded by AutoGineer863 B
- LICENSELicence file added by AutoGineer1.1 KiB
- SKILL.md10.1 KiB
- apm.yml430 B
- references/authoring.md32.9 KiB
- references/authoring/resources/data-engineering-patterns.md24.3 KiB
- references/authoring/resources/development-workflow.md7.4 KiB
- references/authoring/resources/infrastructure-orchestration.md10.4 KiB
- references/authoring/resources/materialized-lake-view-patterns.md20.1 KiB
- references/authoring/resources/mlv-incremental-refresh-patterns.md11.4 KiB
- references/authoring/resources/notebook-api-operations.md14.2 KiB
- references/consumption.md12.3 KiB
- references/mlv.md32.8 KiB
- references/operations.md20.3 KiB
- references/operations/automated-diagnostic-workflow.md12.7 KiB
- references/operations/diagnostic-workflow.md7.3 KiB
- references/operations/job-diagnostics.md17.7 KiB
- references/operations/jobinsight-api.md7.2 KiB
- references/operations/performance-patterns.md17.4 KiB
- references/operations/pipeline-diagnosis.md20.8 KiB
- references/operations/session-health.md8.7 KiB
- references/operations/spark-history-server.md6.5 KiB
references/operations/session-health.md
Session Health
Scope: Monitor and manage Livy session lifecycle in Microsoft Fabric — detect idle/zombie sessions, assess resource usage, and recover from session failures. All examples use
az restagainst the Fabric API.
Livy Session Lifecycle
Session States
Livy sessions in Fabric follow a defined state machine. Understanding the states and expected transition times is critical for diagnosing stuck sessions.
| State | Description | Expected Duration | Action if Stuck |
|---|---|---|---|
not_started | Session created but not yet submitted | < 5 seconds | Check API response for errors |
starting | Spark application launching | 10–30s (Starter Pool) / 2–5 min (custom) | Check capacity; see Starting Stuck below |
idle | Ready for statements | Indefinite (until timeout) | Normal — submit statements |
busy | Executing a statement | Depends on workload | Monitor statement progress |
shutting_down | Graceful shutdown in progress | < 30 seconds | Wait; do not force-kill |
dead | Session terminated (normal or error) | Terminal state | Create a new session |
killed | Session killed externally | Terminal state | Investigate cause; create new session |
error | Session failed to start or crashed | Terminal state | Read logs; fix config; create new session |
success | Batch session completed | Terminal state | N/A (batch only) |
Expected Startup Times
| Pool Type | Cold Start | Warm Start (Starter Pool) |
|---|---|---|
| Starter Pool | 10–30 seconds | 3–5 seconds |
| Custom Pool (Small) | 2–4 minutes | N/A |
| Custom Pool (Large) | 3–6 minutes | N/A |
Starting Stuck Diagnosis
If a session stays in starting beyond the expected time:
# Check how long the session has been starting
az rest --method get --resource "$FABRIC_RESOURCE_SCOPE" \
--url "$FABRIC_API_URL/workspaces/$workspaceId/lakehouses/$lakehouseId/$LIVY_API_PATH/sessions/$sessionId" \
--query "{state:state, appId:appId, log:log[-5:]}" --output json| Indicator | Likely Cause | Resolution |
|---|---|---|
No appId assigned after 2 min | Capacity exhausted or throttled | Check capacity usage; wait or scale up |
appId assigned but still starting | Executor allocation slow | Check pool size; reduce executor count |
| Error in last log lines | Configuration error | Read log; fix session config |
Idle and Zombie Session Detection
Sessions that remain idle consume capacity units even when unused. Zombie sessions are sessions that lost their owning process but remain allocated.
List All Sessions with State
Workspace-level listing: To list Spark applications across an entire workspace (not just one lakehouse), use the Workspace and Item-Level Session Listing API which supports filtering by time range, submitter, and application state.
# Get all sessions for a specific lakehouse
az rest --method get --resource "$FABRIC_RESOURCE_SCOPE" \
--url "$FABRIC_API_URL/workspaces/$workspaceId/lakehouses/$lakehouseId/$LIVY_API_PATH/sessions" \
--query "sessions[].{id:id, name:name, state:state, appId:appId}" \
--output tableIdentify Idle Sessions
# Filter for idle sessions only
az rest --method get --resource "$FABRIC_RESOURCE_SCOPE" \
--url "$FABRIC_API_URL/workspaces/$workspaceId/lakehouses/$lakehouseId/$LIVY_API_PATH/sessions" \
--query "sessions[?state=='idle'].{id:id, name:name, appId:appId}" \
--output tableClean Up Idle Sessions
Before cleaning up, verify no active work depends on these sessions:
# Delete a specific idle session
az rest --method delete --resource "$FABRIC_RESOURCE_SCOPE" \
--url "$FABRIC_API_URL/workspaces/$workspaceId/lakehouses/$lakehouseId/$LIVY_API_PATH/sessions/$sessionId"Batch cleanup of all idle sessions:
# List idle session IDs, then delete each
az rest --method get --resource "$FABRIC_RESOURCE_SCOPE" \
--url "$FABRIC_API_URL/workspaces/$workspaceId/lakehouses/$lakehouseId/$LIVY_API_PATH/sessions" \
--query "sessions[?state=='idle'].id" --output tsv | while read sid; do
echo "Deleting idle session: $sid"
az rest --method delete --resource "$FABRIC_RESOURCE_SCOPE" \
--url "$FABRIC_API_URL/workspaces/$workspaceId/lakehouses/$lakehouseId/$LIVY_API_PATH/sessions/$sid"
doneDetect Zombie Sessions
A zombie session is one in idle or busy state but with no recent statement activity. Check the last statement timestamp:
# Get session statements to detect zombies
az rest --method get --resource "$FABRIC_RESOURCE_SCOPE" \
--url "$FABRIC_API_URL/workspaces/$workspaceId/lakehouses/$lakehouseId/$LIVY_API_PATH/sessions/$sessionId/statements" \
--query "statements[-1:].{id:id, state:state, code:code}" --output jsonIf the session has zero statements or the last statement completed long ago, the session is likely a zombie — safe to delete.
Session Resource Monitoring
Check Session Configuration
# View memory and core allocation for a session
az rest --method get --resource "$FABRIC_RESOURCE_SCOPE" \
--url "$FABRIC_API_URL/workspaces/$workspaceId/lakehouses/$lakehouseId/$LIVY_API_PATH/sessions/$sessionId" \
--query "{driverMemory:driverMemory, driverCores:driverCores, executorMemory:executorMemory, executorCores:executorCores, numExecutors:numExecutors}" \
--output jsonMonitor Executor Usage via Livy Statement
Submit a PySpark diagnostic snippet to an idle session:
cat > /tmp/body.json << 'DIAG'
{
"code": "import json\nsc = spark.sparkContext\nexecs = sc._jsc.sc().getExecutorMemoryStatus()\nresult = {\n 'total_executors': len(execs),\n 'driver_memory_status': str(list(execs.entrySet().iterator().next())),\n 'default_parallelism': sc.defaultParallelism,\n 'dynamic_allocation': sc.getConf().get('spark.dynamicAllocation.enabled', 'unknown')\n}\nprint(json.dumps(result, indent=2))",
"kind": "pyspark"
}
DIAG
az rest --method post --resource "$FABRIC_RESOURCE_SCOPE" \
--url "$FABRIC_API_URL/workspaces/$workspaceId/lakehouses/$lakehouseId/$LIVY_API_PATH/sessions/$sessionId/statements" \
--body @/tmp/body.json --output jsonCheck Active Capacity Consumption
Session resource usage contributes to capacity consumption. Use the capacity APIs to see overall utilization:
# Get capacity utilization (requires admin permissions)
az rest --method get --resource "$FABRIC_RESOURCE_SCOPE" \
--url "$FABRIC_API_URL/capacities" \
--query "value[].{name:displayName, id:id, sku:sku, state:state}" \
--output tableSession Recovery Patterns
When to Create a New Session vs Retry
| Session State | Recovery Action |
|---|---|
dead (after timeout) | Create a new session — the old one cannot be restarted |
dead (after error) | Read error from logs first, fix config, then create new session |
error | Session failed to start — check capacity and config before retry |
killed | Investigate who/what killed it; create new session with same config |
idle (but unresponsive) | Try submitting a simple statement; if no response in 60s, kill and recreate |
Create Replacement Session
When recreating a session, preserve the original configuration:
# Get the old session's config (if still accessible)
az rest --method get --resource "$FABRIC_RESOURCE_SCOPE" \
--url "$FABRIC_API_URL/workspaces/$workspaceId/lakehouses/$lakehouseId/$LIVY_API_PATH/sessions/$oldSessionId" \
--query "{driverMemory:driverMemory, driverCores:driverCores, executorMemory:executorMemory, executorCores:executorCores, conf:conf}" \
--output json > /tmp/old-session-config.json
# Create new session with same config
cat > /tmp/body.json << 'EOF'
{
"name": "recovery-session",
"driverMemory": "56g",
"driverCores": 8,
"executorMemory": "56g",
"executorCores": 8,
"conf": {
"spark.dynamicAllocation.enabled": "true",
"spark.fabric.pool.name": "Starter Pool"
}
}
EOF
az rest --method post --resource "$FABRIC_RESOURCE_SCOPE" \
--url "$FABRIC_API_URL/workspaces/$workspaceId/lakehouses/$lakehouseId/$LIVY_API_PATH/sessions" \
--body @/tmp/body.json --query "{id:id, state:state}" --output jsonSession Keep-Alive Pattern
To prevent idle timeout on long-running diagnostic sessions, submit periodic no-op statements:
# Keep-alive: run every few minutes to prevent session timeout
cat > /tmp/body.json << 'EOF'
{"code": "spark.sparkContext.applicationId", "kind": "pyspark"}
EOF
az rest --method post --resource "$FABRIC_RESOURCE_SCOPE" \
--url "$FABRIC_API_URL/workspaces/$workspaceId/lakehouses/$lakehouseId/$LIVY_API_PATH/sessions/$sessionId/statements" \
--body @/tmp/body.json --output jsonRequirements and compatibility
Works with: Claude Code, Claude apps, OpenAI Codex, GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Gemini CLI, Kiro, OpenCode, Goose, Amp, Roo Code, JetBrains Junie, Factory Droid, Devin (ex-Windsurf), Mistral Vibe, OpenHands, Letta
“Works with” means the tool reads the open Agent Skills format; a skill written for one tool may use features others lack.
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Attribution and licence
- Published by
- Microsoft
- Publisher
- Microsoft (Official)
- Source
- microsoft/skills-for-fabric · skills/spark-cli · commit f8fac11
- Licence
- MIT License (redistribution allowed)
- LICENSE (added by AutoGineer from LICENSE)
- ATTRIBUTION.md (written by AutoGineer)
- Synced
- Also distributed in
- microsoft/skills-for-fabric
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The ZIP holds the skill’s files, its licence files and an ATTRIBUTION.md. Download spark-cli.zip