What does publishing do in Azure Data Factory do?

Hi @Siddhanth Shetty ,

Welcome to Microsoft Q&A Platform. Thanks for posting the query.

• When data factory is not connected to any repository, it is said to operate in Live mode. In this mode, if you don't publish the changes, those will be lost once you close the session. It is essentially same as "Save" option.
• When data factory is connected to GIT/ADO repository, it is said to operate in GIT mode and is recommended mode by Azure Data Factory(ADF) as it helps in automating the deployments and customize the deployments in various environments using release pipelines and parameters. In this mode, publish option will work from branch designated as "Collaboration branch" while setting up GIT mode in ADF and this will create a branch "adf_publish" that will store consolidated ARM templates which can be used for automating the deployment of ADF. This MS documentation helps explain all these details.
• It is slightly similar to PowerBI in GIT mode as it pushes the changes to a branch in repository and that can be browsed by anyone having access to repository.

Hope this clarifies the query. Please let us know for additional details and we will be glad to assist further.