Loom Plan Editor — Fabric-parity build spec¶

Reference: Microsoft Learn — What is plan (preview)? (/fabric/iq/plan/overview), What are PowerTable sheets in plan (preview)? (/fabric/iq/plan/powertable-overview), Create a planning sheet (/fabric/iq/plan/planning-how-to-get-started), Plan projects with Gantt charts (/fabric/iq/plan/intelligence-how-to-create-gantt-chart), What is Fabric IQ (preview)? (/fabric/iq/overview). Documented 2026-05-26 by catalog agent.

Note on the user prompt: the catalog brief described Plan as "release / deployment plan management" with an ARM Deployment Slots / GitHub Releases backend. That conflates two things. The real Fabric Plan item is the EPM/CPM (Enterprise & Corporate Performance Management) item under Fabric IQ — budgets, forecasts, scenario planning, Gantt charts, PowerTable apps — not Fabric deployment pipelines (which are a separate construct documented in /fabric/cicd/deployment-pipelines/*). This spec documents the real Fabric Plan item. Loom's current PlanEditor is a generic task tracker that maps to neither cleanly.

Overview¶

A Fabric Plan (preview) is a Fabric IQ workload item that brings EPM/CPM directly into Fabric. It unifies budgeting, forecasting, scenario modeling, variance analysis, project planning, and master-data management on top of Fabric semantic models and a Fabric SQL database. The item solves the "spreadsheets-plus-CPM-tool-plus-BI" fragmentation problem by keeping the plan, the historical actuals, and the reporting layer in one governed surface.

A Plan is created from New item → Plan (preview). Creating it auto-provisions a Fabric SQL database in the same workspace to store the plan's metadata. Inside a Plan, the user works with four kinds of sheets — Planning, PowerTable, Intelligence, and InfoBridge — each surfacing a distinct capability.

Fabric Plan UX inventory¶

Page chrome¶

Page title shows the Plan name (editable inline)
Capacity badge, workspace breadcrumb, global action bar
Top-right: Save, Share, Comments, Settings (semantic-model connection, database connection)
Left-rail navigation of sheets — Planning · PowerTable · Intelligence · InfoBridge

New-Plan dialog¶

Name input
Optional description
On Create: provisions a backing Fabric SQL database for plan metadata
Prompt to connect a semantic model (required for planning + intelligence sheets)

Planning sheets¶

Element	Purpose
Sheet grid	Excel-like cell grid for budgeting / forecasting / scenario modeling
Dimensions axis	Bind rows/columns to semantic-model dimensions (time, geography, account, product)
Measures + assumption inputs	Mix of computed measures and user-entered cells; assumptions drive what-if branches
Scenario picker	Switch between baseline, optimistic, pessimistic, custom scenarios
Variance overlay	Compare plan vs actuals from the bound semantic model
Writeback target	Plan values write back to the Fabric SQL database created at item provisioning

PowerTable sheets¶

Element	Purpose
Live table view	Excel-like grid bound to a database table or semantic model with two-way sync
Drag-and-drop builder	No-code app builder for forms, custom views, filters, lookups, calculated columns
Collaboration	Multi-user concurrent editing, `@mentions`, comments, threads, Teams/email notifications
Approval workflow	Configurable row-level approval routing
Permissions	Row-level + column-level security, full audit log, Type-II SCD compliance
Project planning view	Gantt chart, resource allocation, time tracking, task status
Automation	Triggers + webhooks

Intelligence sheets¶

Element	Purpose
Variance reporting	Auto-generated variance analysis over plan-vs-actual
Trend / forecast widgets	Forward-looking analytics on plan data
Gantt chart	Project tasks with start/end, dependencies, milestones, resource assignment
Insights panel	AI-assisted commentary on variance + trends

InfoBridge¶

Connects + integrates plan data with Fabric workloads + external source systems
Keeps planning data aligned with OneLake actuals
Settings pane for source connections, sync cadence, mapping

Semantic-model connection (owner permission required on the model)
Database connection (the auto-provisioned Fabric SQL database)
Tenant + capacity feature toggles (Plan requires specific tenant settings to be enabled)
Region availability check (Plan is preview, gated by region)

Permissions¶

Aligned with workspace roles. Connection-owner permission required on the bound semantic model. Database access governed by the auto-provisioned Fabric SQL database's permissions.

What Loom has today¶

Loom's PlanEditor (apps/fiab-console/lib/editors/phase4-editors.tsx line 774) is D-grade — renders but bears no relationship to the Fabric Plan item:

Single tab: a flat task list (title / owner / due / status / dependsOn)
Status enum: todo | doing | done
Persists tasks[] to Cosmos via the standard item-crud lib
A MessageBar acknowledges: "v2.1: task list persisted. Plan rows save to Cosmos. Semantic-model writeback and approval workflows are deferred to v2.x."
No semantic-model connection, no Fabric-SQL backing store, no planning sheets, no PowerTable, no intelligence sheets, no Gantt, no InfoBridge
No scenario modeling, no variance analysis, no writeback

The current editor is closer to a project-management to-do list than to Fabric Plan. Reusing it as the Plan editor risks a vaporware violation (per .claude/rules/no-vaporware.md) — the surface looks plausible but the item is fundamentally a different thing.

Gaps for parity¶

Auto-provision a backing SQL store — on Plan creation, provision an Azure SQL database (or a Synapse Serverless SQL view, depending on tier) to hold plan metadata + writeback values. Equivalent of Fabric's auto-created Fabric SQL database. Recorded as state.backingDb = { kind, serverId, dbName }.
Semantic-model binding — picker that selects a semantic-model item (Loom's existing semantic-model catalog item). Surface dimensions, measures, scenarios as bindable for planning sheets.
Sheet container — left-rail of sheets with the four kinds (Planning, PowerTable, Intelligence, InfoBridge). Persist state.sheets[] = { id, kind, name, definition }.
Planning sheet — grid editor with dimensions on rows/columns, measures + user-entered assumption cells, scenario picker (baseline / optimistic / pessimistic / custom), variance overlay, writeback to backing SQL.
PowerTable sheet — live grid bound to a SQL table or semantic-model entity; drag-and-drop column builder; forms + filters + custom views; lookups + calculated columns; multi-user editing; comments + @mentions; approval workflow with row routing; row-level + column-level security; audit log; Gantt + resource-allocation views; trigger/webhook automation.
Intelligence sheet — auto-generated variance reports, trend/forecast widgets, Gantt chart with dependencies + milestones, AI insights panel (Copilot Studio agent over plan data).
InfoBridge — connection picker + mapping UX that pulls actuals from OneLake / Synapse / external sources into the plan's backing SQL.
Scenario modeling — branch a plan into named scenarios sharing dimensions but differing on assumption cells; compare side-by-side.
Variance + writeback — at save, write planning-cell values back to backing SQL and trigger variance recomputation against the bound semantic model.
Approval workflow — configurable per-row routing tied to Loom RBAC + (optionally) Power Automate flows.
Audit log — append-only change history per row; surface as a side pane.
Region + tenant gating — Plan is preview-only and region-gated in Fabric; Loom should mirror this with a MessageBar when the workspace's region isn't on the allow list.
Disclosure about scope — given the size of the Plan item, ship a Phase-1 (planning sheet + backing SQL + variance) with a MessageBar marking PowerTable, Intelligence, InfoBridge as Preview / coming soon rather than stubbing them. Per the no-vaporware rule, anything not wired must be a Preview badge with a link to the implementation ticket — not a static tab.

Backend mapping¶

Fabric concept	Loom backend
Create Plan item	✅ `/api/items/plan` (Cosmos CRUD via item-crud lib) — EXTEND to also provision the backing SQL database
Backing SQL database	NEW Azure SQL or Synapse Serverless DB provisioned via ARM at item-creation time. Record `state.backingDb` on the Plan doc.
Semantic-model binding	NEW `state.semanticModelRef = { workspaceId, itemId }`; UI picker reads from Loom catalog `/api/items/list?type=semantic-model`
Sheets collection	NEW `state.sheets[] = { id, kind: 'planning'\|'powertable'\|'intelligence'\|'infobridge', name, definition }`
Planning-sheet cell values	NEW `POST .../[id]/sheets/[sheetId]/writeback` body `{ cells: [{ dimKey, scenario, value }] }` → TDS execute against backing SQL
Scenario branch	NEW `POST .../[id]/scenarios` body `{ name, baseScenario }` → copies assumption cells into a new scenario
Variance compute	NEW `GET .../[id]/variance?scenario=...` → joins plan SQL with semantic-model DAX query (via the existing semantic-model executor)
PowerTable definition + edits	NEW `state.sheets[].definition = { sourceTable, columns, views, approvals, security }`; row-level edits POST to a TDS endpoint against the backing SQL with row-level-security enforcement
Approval routing	NEW `POST .../[id]/approvals/[rowId]/route` → integrates with Loom RBAC; optionally fires a Power Automate flow (existing `power-automate-flow` editor)
Audit log	NEW `state.auditLog[]` append-only, or separate `audit` Cosmos container scoped by Plan id
Intelligence Gantt	NEW read-only render of sheet rows with `startDate / endDate / dependsOn` columns; reuse the existing Loom dashboard rendering for variance charts
InfoBridge connections	EXTEND `/api/connections/[id]` to allow registering a connection as a Plan source; persist mappings in `state.sheets[].definition.sources[]`
Region + tenant gating	EXTEND workspace doc with `region`; Plan editor reads workspace.region against a hard-coded allow list and gates with MessageBar

Required Azure resources¶

✅ Loom Cosmos items container (already)
NEW Azure SQL Database OR Synapse Serverless SQL Pool to host backing planning data — provisioned per Plan item at create time. Bicep: extend platform/fiab/bicep/modules/sql.bicep with a planBackingDb module. Connection string written to Key Vault, referenced via managed identity.
NEW Optional Copilot Studio agent for the Intelligence sheet's AI insights panel — reuse the existing copilot-studio-agent editor + provisioning.
NEW Optional Power Automate flow integration for approval routing — reuse the existing power-automate-flow editor.
✅ Loom semantic-model editor + executor (already) — Plan reuses this for variance + dimension/measure resolution.
✅ Azure Key Vault for backing-SQL connection strings (already in bicep)

Estimated effort¶

4 focused sessions — Plan is genuinely large; Phase-1 ships planning sheet + backing SQL + variance only.

Session 1 (~3h): Backend Phase-1 — backing SQL provisioning at item-create, semantic-model binding, sheets collection schema, planning-sheet writeback endpoint, variance compute endpoint, scenario branching. Cosmos schema migration. Bicep module + KV wiring.
Session 2 (~3h): Frontend Phase-1 — left-rail sheets navigation, planning-sheet grid editor with dimensions + scenarios + variance overlay, semantic-model picker, settings flyout (model + DB connections), region/tenant gate MessageBar. PowerTable / Intelligence / InfoBridge tabs surface a Preview MessageBar with link to the Phase-2 ticket.
Session 3 (~3h): PowerTable Phase-2 — live SQL-bound grid, column/view/form builder, row-level + column-level security, approval routing (Power Automate flow integration), audit log side pane, Gantt + resource-allocation views.
Session 4 (~2.5h): Intelligence + InfoBridge Phase-3 — variance reports, trend widgets, Gantt with dependencies, Copilot Studio agent integration for AI insights, InfoBridge connection mapping UX. UAT harness coverage + A11y audit across all four sheet kinds.

Drops Loom Plan from D (renders a generic task list that bears no relationship to Fabric Plan) to A (real semantic-model-backed EPM/CPM surface with planning + writeback + variance). Honest disclosure: Phase-1 is B-grade until PowerTable + Intelligence + InfoBridge ship in Phases 2-3.