Lesson 04 of 7 · Direct Lake
Read the lake. Don't copy it.
Import makes a copy. DirectQuery asks every time. Direct Lake reads the lake straight into memory.
What does refresh do?
In an model, refresh copies every row from the source into the model. The kit's gold tables are now Delta tables in the lake, and the model is .
What does 'refresh' do in Direct Lake?
Three modes, one morning
Three copies of the kit's report, one per storage mode, all on the same gold tables. Make things happen and watch what each shows.
📦 Import
📡 DirectQuery
🌊 Direct Lake
Gold is at version 1. Every report shows version 1.
Two flavours of Direct Lake
There are two kinds: and . For a new model like the kit's, OneLake is the usual choice.
Can fall back to DirectQuery when it can't answer from memory
Can use tables from more than one Fabric item
Can mix in Import tables in the same model
Uses the SQL endpoint for schema and security checks
Generally available since March 2026
Two honest questions
After a reframe, the first person to open one visual waits a little longer. Why?
The kit's tables are small: a few thousand rows. Is Direct Lake required to use Fabric?
Three things to keep
- 1 reads Delta tables from the lake. Refresh is : seconds, not a copy.
- 2Use for new models. It never falls back to DirectQuery.
- 3Direct Lake is a choice. Import is still fine for small tables.