Is there an official way to export ADF ARM Templates via API, Azure CLI, or any terminal-based script?

Question

Is there an official way to export ADF ARM Templates via API, Azure CLI, or any terminal-based script?

Napsty 45

Hi, I’m working on integrating a CI/CD system using Bitbucket as the source repository and Azure DevOps as the deployment pipeline. The setup works well—developers manually export the Azure Data Factory ARM templates and commit them to the Bitbucket repository, which then triggers the pipeline and deploys the templates to the target workspace successfully.

However, I’m looking to automate the ARM template export step. Is there any official or supported method (via REST API, Azure CLI, PowerShell, or any terminal script) to programmatically export the ARM templates from Azure Data Factory?

Automating this step would greatly improve our workflow. Any guidance or workarounds are appreciated. Thank you!

Chandra Boorla 14,665 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-06-16T19:38:20.43+00:00
@Mateo Giraldo Arboleda

Great question, automating the export of ARM templates from Azure Data Factory (ADF) is definitely possible and a smart move for streamlining your CI/CD workflow. It’s great to hear that your CI/CD setup with Bitbucket and Azure DevOps is already working well.

To automate the export of ARM templates from Azure Data Factory, there is an officially supported approach using the Azure Resource Manager REST API, as well as PowerShell. While the Azure CLI doesn’t have a direct command for exporting templates, you can still achieve this using the az rest command to call the REST API.

Option 1 - REST API (Recommended for automation)

ADF supports a dedicated endpoint to export ARM templates:

Endpoint:

POST https://management.azure.com/subscriptions/{subscriptionId}/resourceGroups/{resourceGroupName}/providers/Microsoft.DataFactory/factories/{factoryName}/exportArmTemplate?api-version=2018-06-01

Request Body:

{ "factoryResourceIds": [ "/subscriptions/{subscriptionId}/resourceGroups/{resourceGroupName}/providers/Microsoft.DataFactory/factories/{factoryName}" ] }

This will return a base64-encoded ZIP file containing all ARM templates (pipelines, datasets, linked services, etc.). You can decode and store this file as part of your pipeline automation.

For more details, please refer: Resource Groups - Export Template

Option 2 - Azure PowerShell

If you’re using PowerShell in your build or release pipeline, you can use:

Export-AzDataFactoryV2Template ` -ResourceGroupName "<YourResourceGroup>" ` -DataFactoryName "<YourADFName>" ` -OutputFolder "<LocalPath>"

This will export the templates to a local folder, which you can then commit to your Bitbucket repository.

For additional information, please refer: Use Azure PowerShell to export a template

Option 3 - Azure CLI (via REST)

Although Azure CLI doesn’t have a native ADF export command, you can call the REST API using:

az rest --method post \ --uri "https://management.azure.com/subscriptions/<subscriptionId>/resourceGroups/<resourceGroupName>/providers/Microsoft.DataFactory/factories/<factoryName>/exportArmTemplate?api-version=2018-06-01" \ --body '{ "factoryResourceIds": ["/subscriptions/<subscriptionId>/resourceGroups/<resourceGroupName>/providers/Microsoft.DataFactory/factories/<factoryName>"] }'

For details, please refer: Use Azure CLI to export a template

I hope this information helps. Please do let us know if you have any further queries.

If this answers your query, do click Accept Answer and Yes for was this answer helpful. And, if you have any further query do let us know.

As your feedback is valuable and can assist others in the community facing similar issues.

Thank you.
Napsty 45 Reputation points

2025-06-16T21:16:51.87+00:00

Thank you so much for the detailed response! I haven’t had the chance to try it out yet, but it looks like a great solution and exactly what I was hoping for. I really appreciate the time and effort you put into explaining it.

This will be a big help for improving our CI/CD workflow. I’ll give it a try soon and follow up if I run into any issues. Thanks again!
Napsty 45 Reputation points

2025-06-17T19:31:34.8166667+00:00

@Chandra Boorla Hello, I’ve been testing the REST API to export my Data Factory ARM template, but it seems I need an authentication token to proceed. Could you advise on how to obtain this token?
Chandra Boorla 14,665 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-06-17T19:56:48.1533333+00:00
@Chandra Boorla

Great follow-up! Yes, to call the Azure REST API (like the ADF exportArmTemplate endpoint), you’ll need to authenticate using a Bearer token issued by Azure Active Directory (Azure AD).

Option 1 - Use Azure CLI to Get an Access Token (Fastest for manual testing)

If you're logged into Azure CLI:

az account get-access-token --resource https://management.azure.com

For more details, please refer: az account get-access-token

Output:

It will return a JSON with a field like:

{ "accessToken": "eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJ...<truncated>", ... }

You can then use this token in your REST API request.

Example curl call:

curl -X POST https://management.azure.com/subscriptions/<subId>/resourceGroups/<rg>/providers/Microsoft.DataFactory/factories/<factoryName>/exportArmTemplate?api-version=2018-06-01 \ -H "Authorization: Bearer <accessToken>" \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" \ -d '{ "factoryResourceIds": ["/subscriptions/<subId>/resourceGroups/<rg>/providers/Microsoft.DataFactory/factories/<factoryName>"] }'

Option 2 - Use a Service Principal (for automation/pipelines)

Create an Azure AD App Registration (if you don’t have one)

Assign the app Reader or Contributor access to the Data Factory or Resource Group

Use the following request to get a token:

Example:

curl -X POST https://login.microsoftonline.com/<tenant-id>/oauth2/token \ -H "Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded" \ -d "grant_type=client_credentials&client_id=<client-id>&client_secret=<client-secret>&resource=https://management.azure.com"

The response will contain an access_token you can use just like above.

For additional information, please refer: OAuth 2.0 Client Credentials Grant with Azure AD

Token Lifetime

Access tokens typically last 1 hour, so for long-running tasks or CI/CD pipelines, ensure it’s refreshed as needed. I hope this information helps.
Chandra Boorla 14,665 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-06-18T18:23:14.92+00:00

@Napsty

Just checking in to see if the below suggestion provided by @ Nandan Hegde helped.

If this answers your query, do click Accept Answer and Yes for was this answer helpful. And, if you have any further query do let us know.

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Napsty 45 Reputation points

2025-06-16T21:16:51.87+00:00

Thank you so much for the detailed response! I haven’t had the chance to try it out yet, but it looks like a great solution and exactly what I was hoping for. I really appreciate the time and effort you put into explaining it.

This will be a big help for improving our CI/CD workflow. I’ll give it a try soon and follow up if I run into any issues. Thanks again!
Napsty 45 Reputation points

2025-06-17T19:31:34.8166667+00:00

@Chandra Boorla Hello, I’ve been testing the REST API to export my Data Factory ARM template, but it seems I need an authentication token to proceed. Could you advise on how to obtain this token?
Chandra Boorla 14,665 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-06-18T18:23:14.92+00:00

@Napsty

Just checking in to see if the below suggestion provided by @ Nandan Hegde helped.

If this answers your query, do click Accept Answer and Yes for was this answer helpful. And, if you have any further query do let us know.

Answer 1

Nandan Hegde 36,151 MVP Volunteer Moderator

Similar thread :

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/2285034/how-to-export-full-azure-data-factory-arm-template

Unfortunately ,This is a known limitation. You cannot programmatically export the ARM template.

The export template feature doesn't support exporting Azure Data Factory resources. To learn about how you can export Data Factory resources, see Copy or clone a data factory in Azure Data Factory.

There are a number of similar requests shared here ADF shall be able to export ARM template by powershell as Ideas and feedback, you can upvote or add one too for official MS response.

You can try Power automate recorder to implement that flow if need be :

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-automate/desktop-flows/recording-flow

Chandra Boorla 14,665 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-06-19T18:25:29.0933333+00:00

@Napsty

Just checking in to see if the above suggestion provided by @ Nandan Hegde helped.

If this answers your query, do click Accept Answer and Yes for was this answer helpful. And, if you have any further query do let us know.

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Is there an official way to export ADF ARM Templates via API, Azure CLI, or any terminal-based script?

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