Create an internal OneLake shortcut

In this article, you learn how to create a OneLake shortcut inside a Fabric item. You can use a lakehouse or a Kusto Query Language (KQL) database as the source for your shortcut.

For an overview of shortcuts, see OneLake shortcuts. To create shortcuts programmatically, see OneLake shortcuts REST APIs.

Prerequisite

A lakehouse or KQL database in OneLake. If you don't have one of these, create a test lakehouse by following these steps: Create a lakehouse.

Create a shortcut

1. Open your lakehouse or KQL database.

2. Right-click on a directory within the Explorer pane.

3. Create a new shortcut from the menu.

   • In a lakehouse, select New shortcut, New table shortcut, or New schema shortcut depending on your lakehouse settings.
   • In a KQL database, select + > New > OneLake shortcut.

   👁 Screenshot showing where to select New shortcut from the Lake view.
   

Select a source

1. Under Internal sources, select Microsoft OneLake.

   👁 Screenshot of the New shortcut window showing available shortcut sources. The option titled OneLake is highlighted.
   

2. Select the data source that you want to connect to, and then select Next.

   👁 Screenshot of the Select a data source type window showing the available data sources to use with the shortcut. The Next button is highlighted.
   

3. Expand Files or Tables to view the available subfolders. Subfolders in the tables directory that contain valid Delta or Iceberg tables are indicated with a table icon. Files or unidentified folders in the tables section are indicated with a folder icon.

   👁 Screenshot that shows the expanded Tables and Files directories of a lakehouse.
   

4. Select one or more subfolders to connect to, then select Next.

   You can select up to 50 subfolders when creating OneLake shortcuts.

   👁 Screenshot of the New shortcut window showing the data in the lakehouse.
   

5. Review your selected shortcut locations. Use the edit action to change the default shortcut name. Use the delete action to remove any undesired selections. Select Create to generate shortcuts.

   👁 Screenshot of the New shortcut window showing selected shortcut locations and providing the option to delete or rename selections.
   

The lakehouse automatically refreshes. The shortcut appears under the selected directory in the Explorer pane. You can differentiate a regular file or table from the shortcut from its properties. The properties have a Shortcut Type parameter that indicates the item is a shortcut.

👁 Screenshot showing a Lake view list of folders that display the shortcut symbol.

Edit a shortcut

Editing shortcuts requires write permission on the item being edited. The admin, member, and contributor roles grant write permissions.

1. To edit a shortcut, right-click on the shortcut and select Manage shortcut.

2. In the Manage shortcut view, you can edit the following fields:

   • Name

   • Target connection

     Not all shortcut types use the target connection feature.

   • Target location and Target subpath

     Both of these fields are editable by selecting the Target location.

   • Shortcut location

   👁 Screenshot that shows the Manage shortcut view.
   

You can also edit shortcuts by using the OneLake shortcuts REST APIs.

Remove a shortcut

To delete a shortcut, select the ... icon next to the shortcut file or table and select Delete. To delete shortcuts programmatically, see OneLake shortcuts REST APIs.

Related content

• Create an Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 shortcut
• Create an Amazon S3 shortcut
• Use OneLake shortcuts REST APIs