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CSA Loom — the Microsoft Fabric experience for Azure tenants where Fabric isn't yet available: lakehouses, warehouses, notebooks, semantic models, Activator rules, Data Agents, across Commercial, GCC, GCC-High, and DoD IL5

plan — parity with Microsoft Fabric IQ Plan / Anaplan-style EPM/CPM

Source UI: - Fabric IQ Plan (preview) overview — https://learn.microsoft.com/fabric/iq/plan/overview - Planning sheets (key capabilities) — https://learn.microsoft.com/fabric/iq/plan/planning-overview#key-capabilities - Set up scenarios — https://learn.microsoft.com/fabric/iq/plan/planning-how-to-set-up-scenarios - Writeback / persist data — https://learn.microsoft.com/fabric/iq/plan/planning-writeback/planning-how-to-persist-data - Intelligence sheets — https://learn.microsoft.com/fabric/iq/plan/intelligence-overview - Roles in plan — https://learn.microsoft.com/fabric/iq/plan/overview-roles - Anaplan connected-planning (drivers, breakback, versions) — https://www.anaplan.com/

No-Fabric rule. Everything below is the Azure-native default. Planning cells persist to Cosmos; governed writeback MERGEs into Azure SQL; actuals come from a Loom semantic model (AAS/XMLA) or Synapse/ADX. A real Fabric capacity is never required (.claude/rules/no-fabric-dependency.md).

Honest re-grade (2026-06-29). The prior version of this doc graded the editor "A, zero ❌" against an 18-row inventory that mostly enumerated what Loom already built. Measured against the full Fabric IQ Plan + Anaplan inventory below, the structural EPM core (multidimensional cube, hierarchies/roll-ups, user formulas, breakback/spreading, drivers, versions/snapshots) is absent and several polish surfaces (Intelligence gallery, comments, export, writeback logs) are thin or missing. Real grade today: C+ / B-. This doc is the roadmap to true parity.

Last verified: 2026-07-01 against current code (apps/fiab-console/lib/editors/phase4/plan-editor.tsx + _plan-model.ts). The P0 structural-EPM core has since landed: a Model tab (dimensions + user measures), member hierarchies with roll-up/drill-down, and a guided Formula builder over a no-eval token AST — so those rows flip ❌→✅ below. Breakback/spreading, drivers, versions/snapshots, and AI Copilot remain ❌.

Real feature inventory

A. Planning sheet — data model

  1. Multi-dimensional cube — rows AND columns can each carry one or more dimensions (Account, Department, Product, Entity, Time), not a fixed "line item × period" grid.
  2. Hierarchies + roll-up / drill-down — members nest (Region → Country → Store); parents auto-aggregate children; expand/collapse; drill to leaf.
  3. Member management — add/rename/reorder/indent members; template rows across a hierarchy level.
  4. Measures — reusable measures (SUM/AVG/COUNT/min/max) over the cube.

B. Planning sheet — business logic

  1. Formula rows — Excel-style expressions referencing other rows/cells.
  2. Calculated columns — per-period computed columns (growth %, YoY, run-rate).
  3. Quick formulas — one-click common calcs (% of total, cumulative, growth).
  4. Driver-based planning — a driver row feeds dependent rows through a formula.
  5. Spreading / allocation — distribute a value down to cells evenly, by weight, by growth %, or by an existing distribution.
  6. Breakback (top-down) — edit a parent/subtotal; the delta pushes back to children proportionally.

C. Planning sheet — exploration

  1. Filtering & sorting; Top N ranking; grouping rows/columns; adjustable column widths/layout; hierarchy navigation.

D. Scenarios & versions

  1. Scenarios — create multiple what-if scenarios; compare; per-scenario writeback (all / selected); close scenario.
  2. Versions & snapshots — snapshot a plan state; version management; compare A↔B; rolling forecast (lock actuals, forecast the tail).
  3. Scenario security — per-scenario access control.

E. Forecasting & analytics

  1. Forecast management; what-if simulations; rolling forecasts.
  2. Variance (plan vs actuals vs forecast) with Δ and Δ%.
  3. Trend analysis.

F. PowerTable

  1. Large dimensional grid bound 1:1 to SQL; sort/filter/inline-edit.
  2. Import from CSV / Excel / JSON; export.
  3. Two-way writeback.

G. Intelligence sheets

  1. 100+ chart types, Gantt, KPI cards, tables on a storyboard canvas.
  2. IBCS formatting; pixel-perfect export to Excel / PDF.
  3. Canvas- and data-point-level annotations; threaded comments; @mentions.
  4. Compare actuals vs plans; reusable measures across sheets.

H. InfoBridge (data integration)

  1. Consolidate from multiple sources; transformations (merge/append/pivot/ group); real-time integration; data mapping between sheets.

I. Writeback & persistence

  1. Multiple destinations; add/manage; decimal precision + text length config; autowriteback.
  2. Writeback logs — milestones, payload size, duration, per-run detail; export.

J. Collaboration

  1. Notes/annotations; comment threads; @mentions; email notifications; comment digests; comments column + comments pane.

K. Governance

  1. Roles — Planner / Stakeholder / Viewer capability matrix.
  2. Approval workflows — define flow, assign approvers, review/approve, request adjustments.

L. AI

  1. AI-assisted planning / Copilot ("AI-ready foundation", AI-assisted decisions).

Loom coverage

# Capability Status Notes / backend
1 Multi-dimensional cube (row AND column dimensions) ✅ built (caveat) PlanModelPanel Model tab + addDimension (plan-editor.tsx:1713/1735); PlanDimension.axis (_plan-model.ts:523); column-axis members validated/persisted but the grid still pivots periods as columns
⅔ Hierarchies, roll-up/drill-down, member mgmt ✅ built roll-up lineItemValueAt sums children (_plan-model.ts:817); expand/collapse toggleCollapse (plan-editor.tsx:752); indent/outdent + DimensionMembersEditor (:1650)
4 Measures (user-defined, SUM/AVG/COUNT/MIN/MAX + scope) ✅ built (caveat) PlanMeasure/addMeasure (_plan-model.ts:534, plan-editor.tsx:1740); defined/validated/persisted, not yet evaluated into a cube-output surface
5/7 Formula rows + quick formulas ✅ built FormulaBuilderDialog guided palette (plan-editor.tsx:1462) over evalFormula recursive-descent AST, no eval (_plan-model.ts:664); quick formulas qf* (:765-792)
12 Scenarios (branch/rename/delete, per-scenario cells) ✅ built PlanningSheetPanel; cloneScenarioCells/dropScenarioCells; Cosmos
16 Variance plan vs actuals (Δ, Δ%) ✅ built computeVariance; variance overlay + Intelligence report
15/17 Forecast (OLS) + trend ✅ built forecastPeriods/linearFit; PlanTrendChart
18 PowerTable: flat SQL-bound grid, sort/filter/inline-edit ✅ built PlanPowerTablePanel; flattenPlanCells
20 Two-way writeback (MERGE) + load-from-SQL ✅ built /api/items/plan/[id]/writeback; plan-backing-store (real Azure SQL)
25 (partial) InfoBridge line-item→source mapping, push to actuals ✅ built PlanInfoBridgePanel; applyMappingsToActuals (no merge/append/pivot/group transforms)
30 Approval workflow (real Office365 Logic App + callback) ✅ built /approval + /approval-callback; plan-approval-client
— Semantic-model bind for actuals + Azure SQL provisioning ✅ built PlanSettingsFlyout; /binding
21 (partial) Intelligence: KPI cards + trend chart + variance table + Gantt ⚠️ thin KPI cards + one visual each; no chart gallery/storyboard
11 Top N / grouping / hierarchy nav / column width ⚠️ partial hierarchy nav built (expand/collapse/indent); Top N, grouping UI, column width missing
6 Calculated columns ❌ MISSING only built-in Total column + formula rows (no user calc-column construct)
8 Driver-based planning ❌ MISSING no named-driver primitive
9/10 Spreading/allocation + breakback ❌ MISSING no spread()/breakback() in _plan-model.ts
13 Versions & snapshots, compare, rolling forecast ❌ MISSING no snapshot route/container, no compare A↔B
14/29 Scenario security + roles (Planner/Stakeholder/Viewer) ❌ MISSING —
19 Import CSV/Excel/JSON ❌ MISSING —
22 Export to Excel / PDF ❌ MISSING —
23/28 Comments, annotations, @mentions, comments pane ❌ MISSING —
26/27 Multiple destinations, decimal/text config, autowriteback, writeback logs ❌ MISSING single hard-coded dbo.loom_plan_cells, no logs
25 (rest) InfoBridge transforms (merge/append/pivot/group), sheet-to-sheet ❌ MISSING mapping only
31 AI-assisted planning / Copilot ❌ MISSING computed (non-AI) planInsights only; DataAgent* imports are unrendered dead leftovers

Build plan

P0 — structural EPM core (this is most of the "basic" complaint)

  1. Multi-dimensional cube + hierarchies + roll-ups (#1,#2,#3,#4).
  2. UI: extend PlanningSheetPanel into a dimension-aware grid. Add a "Model" left rail listing row and column dimensions as chips; a Fluent Tree first column with expand/collapse carets for nested members; indent/outdent + reorder; parent rows bold + read-only (auto roll-up). TileGrid for the dimension-manager dialog. Loom tokens, EmptyState, elevation.

  3. Backend: extend _plan-model.ts with PlanDimension/PlanMember {id,label,parentId,level} and a pure rollup(sheet,scenario) aggregating leaf cells up the parent chain (vitest-covered). Cosmos state grows dimensions[]; SQL writeback gains dimension_path columns — same plan-backing-store MERGE, no new Azure service.

  4. Formula rows + calculated columns + quick formulas (#5,#6,#7).

  5. UI: a "Formula" line-item kind whose editor opens a guided Formula builder dialog (function palette + row/measure token picker + live preview, mirroring the ADF/Synapse expression-builder pattern — NOT freeform per loom_no_freeform_config). A "Quick formula" Menu per row (% of total, cumulative, growth %, YoY).

  6. Backend: a safe token-AST evaluator in _plan-model.ts (row refs + arithmetic + SUM/AVG/IF, no eval), evaluated client-side and re-validated server-side in the writeback route. Pure, vitest-covered.

  7. Model editor (cube) tab + validation (#4 dimensions/measures/hierarchies).

  8. UI: new Model (6th) tab — TileGrid of dimension + measure cards; "Validate model" → MessageBar summary; section headers (Title3/Caption1), Fluent icons, shadow4→shadow16 hover per web3-ui.
  9. Backend: new POST /api/items/plan/[id]/model validates member-parent integrity, measure refs, and formula cycles over Cosmos state — no external service.

P1 — planning depth + polish

  1. Spreading / allocation + breakback (#9,#10).
  2. UI: cell/total right-click Menu → "Spread evenly / by growth % / by weight"; editing a parent opens a breakback Dialog (proportional vs even).

  3. Backend: spread() + breakback() pure helpers in _plan-model.ts, vitest-covered; Cosmos persist.

  4. Driver-based planning (#8).

  5. UI: mark a row Driver (Badge); dependents reference it in the Formula builder; a "Drivers" mini-panel lists drivers + dependents.

  6. Backend: reuse the formula evaluator; topological recompute on driver edit.

  7. Versions & snapshots + rolling forecast (#13).

  8. UI: Versions flyout — "Snapshot now", list (timestamp/author/total), "Compare A↔B" diff table, "Restore"; rolling-forecast toggle locking periods ≤ today as actuals.

  9. Backend: snapshots = immutable state copies in a Cosmos plan-snapshots container (createIfNotExists); compare is a pure diff.

  10. Intelligence gallery (#21,#22,#24) — uplift the thin Intelligence tab.

  11. UI: a visual gallery (TileGrid of line/bar/area/KPI-card/waterfall/ Gantt/table) + a storyboard canvas reusing the report-editor canvas-node-kit; extend the existing KPI strip into a card gallery; IBCS number-format toggle.

  12. Backend: all client-computed from plan cells (periodSeries, forecastPeriods); export below.

  13. Export to Excel / PDF / CSV (#22).

  14. UI: ribbon "Export" SplitButton.

  15. Backend: GET /api/items/plan/[id]/export?format=xlsx|pdf|csv — exceljs for xlsx, print-HTML→PDF (or pdf-lib), streamed download. Real bytes.

  16. Writeback logs + destinations + decimal/text config + autowriteback (#26,#27).

  17. UI: Settings flyout gains a Destinations table (target db, table, decimal precision, text length) + a Writeback logs table (run id, ts, rows, duration, status) with a detail Drawer.

  18. Backend: plan-backing-store records each run into dbo.loom_plan_writeback_log; GET /writeback?logs=1 returns runs; autowriteback = persisted flag firing writeback on save.

  19. Comments / annotations / @mentions (#23,#28).

    • UI: a Comments pane (Drawer) + comments-column toggle; threaded replies; @mention combobox over tenant users; Badge count.
    • Backend: Cosmos plan-comments container; @mention via the existing user/graph lookup; optional email via the approval Logic App.

  20. Import CSV/Excel/JSON into PowerTable (#19).

    • UI: PowerTable "Import" Button → file Dialog + column-mapping step.
    • Backend: POST /api/items/plan/[id]/import parses with papaparse/ exceljs, maps to cells, MERGEs. Honest errors.

P2 — governance + AI

  1. Roles + scenario security (#14,#29).

    • UI: a Sharing/Roles dialog (Planner/Stakeholder/Viewer) + per-scenario access list, reusing share-dialog.tsx.
    • Backend: role grants on the item; enforced in the BFF routes per the roles capability matrix.

  2. AI-assisted planning / Copilot (#31).

    • UI: a collapsible side Plan Copilot (reuse the console side-Copilot) — "explain this variance", "draft next-quarter forecast", "what drives the OpEx jump".
    • Backend: Azure OpenAI via the shared aoai-chat-client (single AOAI client per EH Phase-0), grounded on plan cells/variance. No Fabric Copilot.

  3. Top N / grouping / hierarchy nav / column layout (#11) — folded into the P0 cube grid work.

  4. InfoBridge transformations (#25 rest) — merge/append/pivot/group + sheet-to-sheet mapping via a dropdown-driven transform-step builder (no freeform).

Backend per control (existing, preserved)

  • Plan CRUD + cell/scenario/sheet edits → PATCH /api/items/plan/[id] (Cosmos).
  • Semantic-model picker + backing provision → GET/POST /api/items/plan/[id]/binding.
  • Writeback / read-back → POST/GET /api/items/plan/[id]/writeback → plan-backing-store (Azure SQL MERGE/SELECT; honest 503 gate on LOOM_PLAN_BACKING_SQL_*).
  • Intelligence → pure client compute over plan cells/tasks (_plan-model).
  • Approval → POST /api/items/plan/[id]/approval (Azure-native Logic App). No Fabric / Power Automate.