## Connect SharePoint as knowledge source

URL: https://docs.atlan.com/apps/knowledge-sources/sharepoint

> Connect SharePoint to Atlan through OneLake shortcuts or Microsoft Graph so agents can read your document libraries as context.

# Connect SharePoint as knowledge source 

You can connect SharePoint so that Atlan agents read your document libraries. Atlan reaches SharePoint through one of two routes, both read-only and both using an app registered in your own Microsoft Entra tenant:

* **OneLake shortcuts:** Atlan reads the SharePoint shortcuts you already built in a Microsoft Fabric lakehouse. Your app needs no SharePoint permission. If you already run Atlan's Fabric connector, you can reuse its app.
* **Microsoft Graph:** Atlan reads the SharePoint sites you grant to your app, directly through Microsoft Graph.

Agents read files live on each run. Atlan doesn't sync or index your SharePoint content.

## Choose route

| | OneLake shortcuts | Microsoft Graph |
| --- | --- | --- |
| How Atlan reads | Through SharePoint shortcuts in a Fabric lakehouse | Directly from the SharePoint sites you grant |
| Needs | Microsoft Fabric, with SharePoint shortcuts in a lakehouse | An Entra app with `Sites.Selected`, admin consent, and a grant per site |
| SharePoint permission on your app | None | `Sites.Selected` only |
| What agents can do | List shortcuts, list files, read | List sites, list files, search, read |
| Citations link to the SharePoint file | No | Yes |
| Where reads run | On your Fabric capacity, in its region | Microsoft Graph |
| Setup time | About 5 minutes reusing the Fabric connector app, about 15 minutes with a new app | About 20 minutes |

Choose **OneLake shortcuts** when Fabric is already in place and your shortcuts expose the folders you want, especially if you already run the Atlan Fabric connector. Choose **Microsoft Graph** when you need search and citations back to SharePoint, or you don't use Fabric.

> **Info: One route per connection**
>
> You can switch routes later. Saving the other route replaces the connection, and agents keep reading through the current one until you save.

## Prerequisites

Before you begin, make sure you have:

* Permission to create integrations in Atlan. If you can't see **Settings** → **Integrations**, ask a workspace admin or [raise a support request](https://docs.atlan.com/llms/platform/submit-request/submit-request/llms.txt)
* The Microsoft admins for your route:

| Route | Microsoft roles needed |
| --- | --- |
| OneLake shortcuts, reusing the Fabric connector app | Fabric workspace admin |
| OneLake shortcuts, new app | Fabric admin, Fabric workspace admin, and someone who can register apps in Entra |
| Microsoft Graph | Someone who can register apps in Entra, plus a Global Administrator or Privileged Role Administrator for admin consent |

For OneLake shortcuts you also need:

* A Fabric lakehouse that already holds SharePoint shortcuts for the folders you want agents to read
* To reuse an app: an Atlan Fabric connection that signs in with a service principal, and that you administer. You administer it if you're an Atlan workspace admin, hold the connection's admin role, or are listed, directly or through a group, in its connection admins. Fabric connections that sign in through APIM or a Secure Agent can't be reused; set up a new app instead

For Microsoft Graph you also need the URL of each SharePoint site agents need to read. Microsoft has no API that lists the sites granted to an app, so Atlan keeps the list you add.

## Start setup

1. In your Atlan workspace, click **Settings** from the left sidebar.
2. Under **Team**, click **Integrations**.
3. Click the **MCP** filter, find **SharePoint**, and click **Connect**. On a connected source, click **Manage connection**. If SharePoint isn't listed, it isn't turned on for your workspace yet; [raise a support request](https://docs.atlan.com/llms/platform/submit-request/submit-request/llms.txt) to enable it.
4. On the **Route** step, choose **OneLake shortcuts** or **Microsoft Graph**, then click **Next**.

The wizard has four steps on either route: **Route**, **Set up in Fabric** or **Set up in Entra**, **Your app**, and **Shortcuts** or **Sites**. Follow the section for your route.

## Connect through OneLake shortcuts

Atlan reads the SharePoint shortcuts already in your lakehouse. The shortcut's own SharePoint connection does the reading, and Atlan's app is checked only against OneLake, so there is no admin consent or per-site grant. The app can read only the shortcuts you select.

On the **Set up in Fabric** step, choose how Atlan signs in:

* **Set up a new app** (default): register a separate app for SharePoint, for example if your security team wants a dedicated identity.
* **Reuse my Fabric connector app:** Atlan already holds this app for your Fabric connector. No new app, secret, or Entra consent.

### Option 1: Reuse Fabric connector app

The Fabric connector setup already covered the app registration, its secret, and the **Service principals can use Fabric APIs** tenant setting. What's left takes about 5 minutes with a workspace admin.

In Fabric:

1. **Give the Fabric connector app read access to the lakehouse.** In the workspace that holds your SharePoint shortcuts, open **Manage access** and add the app as **Viewer**. Then in the lakehouse, open **Manage OneLake security** → **DefaultReader** and add the app. If your Fabric connection already crawls this workspace, the app is probably a Viewer already; the **Shortcuts** step tells you if a role is missing.
2. **Check that OneLake is open to apps outside Fabric.** In the **Fabric admin portal** → **Tenant settings**, keep **Users can access data stored in OneLake with apps external to Fabric** turned on. It's on by default.

In Atlan:

1. Select **Reuse my Fabric connector app**, then click **I have done this**. If the option is disabled, none of your Fabric connections can be reused: they sign in through APIM or a Secure Agent, or you don't administer them.
2. On **Your app**, Atlan shows **Using the app from your Fabric connection** with the connection's name when there is one reusable connection. With several, pick the one whose app you granted in Fabric.
3. Click **Verify app**. Atlan reads that connection's credentials itself and checks them with Microsoft.
4. Continue to [Pick your shortcuts](#pick-your-shortcuts).

Atlan reads the Fabric connection's credentials each time it signs in, so rotating the Fabric connector's secret needs no change in SharePoint.

> **Warning: The connection follows whoever saved it**
>
> If the person who saved the SharePoint connection loses admin rights on the Fabric connection, agents stop reading SharePoint until another admin of that Fabric connection opens **Manage connection** and saves again.

### Option 2: Set up new app

This takes about 15 minutes with a Fabric admin and a workspace admin.

In Microsoft Entra and Fabric:

1. **Register an app.** In the Entra admin center, go to **App registrations** → **New registration**. Single tenant, no redirect URI. Add no API permissions: this route needs none, so there is nothing to consent to.
2. **Create a client secret.** Go to **Certificates & secrets** → **New client secret**. Copy the **Value** straight away; Microsoft shows it once.
3. **Let service principals use Fabric.** In the **Fabric admin portal** → **Tenant settings**, turn on **Service principals can use Fabric APIs**, and keep **Users can access data stored in OneLake with apps external to Fabric** on. If either setting is limited to security groups, add the app to one of them.
4. **Give the app read access to the lakehouse.** In the workspace that holds your SharePoint shortcuts, open **Manage access** and add the app as **Viewer**. Then in the lakehouse, open **Manage OneLake security** → **DefaultReader** and add the app. Viewer alone isn't enough; DefaultReader is read-only.

In Atlan:

1. Click **I have done this**.
2. On **Your app**, keep **Set up a new app** selected and fill in:

| Field | Where to find it |
| --- | --- |
| **Directory (tenant) ID** | Entra → **App registrations** → your app → **Overview** |
| **Application (client) ID** | Same **Overview** page as the tenant ID |
| **Client secret value** | The secret's **Value** from step 2, not its Secret ID |

3. Click **Verify app**. Atlan checks the credentials with Microsoft before it looks at your lakehouse.

### Pick your shortcuts {#pick-your-shortcuts}

1. In Fabric, open the lakehouse that holds your SharePoint shortcuts and copy its address from the browser. Atlan accepts the Fabric portal URL, such as `https://app.fabric.microsoft.com/groups/<workspace-id>/lakehouses/<lakehouse-id>`, a `onelake.dfs.fabric.microsoft.com` URL, or an `abfss://` URI.
2. Paste it into **Lakehouse address** and click **List shortcuts**. Atlan lists each SharePoint and OneDrive shortcut in the lakehouse with its path, such as `Files/<shortcut-name>`, and checks which ones your app can read.
3. Select the shortcuts agents may read. Only shortcuts marked **Readable** can be selected. For any other status, see [Shortcut and site statuses](#shortcut-and-site-statuses).
4. Click **Save**. Atlan checks every selected shortcut again with your app before it stores the connection.

> **Warning: Who sees what**
>
> Every user of an agent with this source can read every selected shortcut. The shortcut reads SharePoint as whatever identity its Fabric connection uses, so review that identity before you select a shortcut.

## Connect through Microsoft Graph

Atlan reads SharePoint directly through an app with the `Sites.Selected` application permission. The app reads with nobody signed in, and only the sites you grant it.

> **Warning: Consent alone grants nothing**
>
> Until a site is granted to the app, the app can read nothing, even with admin consent. The **Sites** step builds the grant request for you.

### Set up in Entra

This takes about 20 minutes.

1. **Register an app.** In the Entra admin center, go to **App registrations** → **New registration**. Supported account types: this organizational directory only. No redirect URI.
2. **Add the `Sites.Selected` permission.** Go to **API permissions** → **Add a permission** → **Microsoft Graph** → **Application permissions** → `Sites.Selected`. Choose **Application**, not **Delegated**. Nothing else is needed.
3. **Grant admin consent.** Go to **API permissions** → **Grant admin consent**. This needs a Global Administrator or Privileged Role Administrator.
4. **Create a client secret.** Go to **Certificates & secrets** → **New client secret**. Copy the **Value** straight away; Microsoft shows it once.
5. **Grant the app each site.** You do this in the **Sites** step. Keep the Entra tab open.

> **Warning: Don't add `Sites.Read.All`**
>
> `Sites.Read.All` gives the app every site in your tenant and overrides the per-site boundary that `Sites.Selected` sets. Request `Sites.Selected` only.

### Your app

1. Click **I have done this**.
2. Fill in **Directory (tenant) ID** and **Application (client) ID** from Entra → **App registrations** → your app → **Overview**, and **Client secret value** with the secret's **Value**.
3. Click **Verify app**. Atlan checks the credentials with Microsoft before you add any sites.

### Add and grant sites

1. Add the full URL of each site agents must read, such as `https://<your-org>.sharepoint.com/sites/<site-name>`. The root site isn't accepted.
2. For each site, click **Grant request**. Atlan builds the two calls that grant your app read access to that site. Run them in [Graph Explorer](https://developer.microsoft.com/graph/graph-explorer), signed in as someone who can open the site, with `Sites.FullControl.All` consented for Graph Explorer. That consent is for the person running the request, not for your app.

 ```
 GET https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/sites/<your-org>.sharepoint.com:/sites/<site-name>

 POST https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/sites/<site-id>/permissions
 {
 "roles": ["read"],
 "grantedToIdentities": [
 { "application": { "id": "<client-id>", "displayName": "Atlan SharePoint" } }
 ]
 }
 ```

 Use the `id` returned by the `GET` as `<site-id>` in the `POST`. Someone who can't open the site gets a 403.
3. Click **Check sites**. Each granted site shows **Readable**.
4. Click **Save**. Atlan checks every site again with your app before it stores the connection.

If sites were granted to the app earlier, **Find sites already granted** scans every site in your tenant for ones your app can read. It's slow on large tenants, so prefer adding site URLs.

> **Warning: Who sees what**
>
> Every user of an agent with this source can read every granted site. The site list is the access boundary, so grant only sites that everyone using the agent may read.

## Validate results

* The **SharePoint** card in **Settings** → **Integrations** lists the shortcuts or sites agents can read. Atlan checked each one with your app before storing it.
* **SharePoint** appears as a selectable source when you create or edit an agent.
* Run a **sample run** on an agent that uses SharePoint. Cited results confirm the agent can read your files.

## Manage connection

Open the **SharePoint** card and click **Manage connection**. Nothing changes until you save.

* **Add or remove shortcuts or sites:** go to the last step, change the selection, and save.
* **Switch route:** on the **Your app** step, click **Switch to Microsoft Graph** or **Switch to OneLake shortcuts**. Saving replaces the connection.
* **Rotate your app's secret:** create a new secret in Entra, paste its **Value** into **Client secret value**, then verify and save. Atlan never shows a saved secret, so paste it again whenever you save this step.
* **Rotate the Fabric connector's secret:** nothing to do here. Atlan reads the Fabric connection's credentials each time it signs in.

If Microsoft later refuses the app, the **SharePoint** card shows a banner. For your own app, the secret has probably expired: open **Manage connection** and enter a new one. For a reused Fabric app, fix that Fabric connection first, then open **Manage connection** and save again.

## Troubleshooting

### Shortcut and site statuses {#shortcut-and-site-statuses}

| Status | Route | Cause | Fix |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| **Your app cannot read this yet** | OneLake | OneLake refused your app | Add the app to the lakehouse's **DefaultReader** role, then list again |
| **Shortcut is broken** | OneLake | The SharePoint folder behind the shortcut is gone, or the shortcut's connection no longer signs in | Fix the shortcut in Fabric |
| **Not granted to your app yet** | Graph | The site hasn't been granted to your app | Run the grant request, then check again |
| **No site at this address** | Graph | The URL doesn't match a site | Check the URL, including the `/sites/` part |
| **Not a SharePoint site address** | Graph | The URL isn't a SharePoint site URL | Enter a full site URL such as `https://<your-org>.sharepoint.com/sites/<site-name>` |
| **Could not check** | Both | Microsoft didn't answer cleanly. On OneLake, your Fabric capacity may be paused | Try again in a moment |
| **Not checked yet** | Both | Saved earlier, not checked in this session | Click **List shortcuts** or **Check sites** |

A shortcut whose name contains `;` or `\` can't be stored. Rename it in Fabric.

### App verification errors

These appear when you click **Verify app** or **Save**.

| What you see | Cause | Fix |
| --- | --- | --- |
| "That secret was rejected" | The secret's Secret ID was pasted, or the secret has expired | Paste the secret's **Value**, or create a new secret |
| "That secret has expired" | The client secret passed its expiry date | Create a new secret in Entra and paste its **Value** |
| "No app with that client ID exists in that tenant" | The two IDs come from different apps or tenants | Copy both IDs from the same app's **Overview** page |
| "That tenant ID wasn't found" or "Use the Directory (tenant) ID" | A domain name or wrong ID was entered | Paste the **Directory (tenant) ID** |
| "The app has none of the application permissions this source needs" | Graph route: `Sites.Selected` is missing or not consented | Add `Sites.Selected` under **Application permissions** and grant admin consent |
| "Fabric refused the app" | OneLake route: the app lacks workspace or OneLake access | Add the app to the workspace as **Viewer** with the **DefaultReader** role, and turn on **Service principals can use Fabric APIs** |
| "No lakehouse with that ID in that workspace" | OneLake route: the lakehouse address is wrong | Copy the lakehouse address again from the browser |
| "You don't manage this Fabric connection" | Reuse: you aren't an admin of that Fabric connection | Ask the connection's admin or a tenant admin to connect SharePoint with it, or set up a new app |
| "This connection signs in through Azure API Management" or "This connection has no stored credential to reuse" | Reuse: the Fabric connection uses APIM, a Secure Agent, or no service principal | Set up a new app |
| "That Fabric connection was not found" or "The Fabric connection this uses was removed" | Reuse: the Fabric connection was deleted or archived | Reconnect SharePoint with another Fabric connection or a new app |
| "Whoever connected SharePoint no longer manages this Fabric connection" | Reuse: the person who saved the connection left or lost the admin role | An admin of that Fabric connection opens **Manage connection** and saves again |

If saving fails because your app can't read a shortcut or site, it lost access after you checked it. Fix the access, check again, and save.

## Limits

* **File types with text extraction:** PDF, DOCX, PPTX, XLSX, TXT, MD, CSV, TSV, JSON, XML, LOG, YAML, HTML, and ASPX. Files of other types are listed but not read.
* **Text per file:** agents read up to the first 60,000 characters of each file. Very large files may be cut short.
* **OneLake shortcuts:** no search and no SharePoint links in citations. Reads run on your Fabric capacity in its region, and fail while the capacity is paused.

## Need help

If you need assistance after reviewing this page, contact [Atlan support](https://docs.atlan.com/llms/platform/submit-request/submit-request/llms.txt).

## See also

- [Knowledge sources](https://docs.atlan.com/llms/platform/knowledge-sources/llms.txt): how connections and access work
- [Create an agent from a template](https://docs.atlan.com/llms/platform/context-agents-studio/create-an-agent-from-a-template/llms.txt): use this source in an agent

_Last updated: 26 October 2026._

---

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