Programmability and extensibility overview
Note
The new and improved Power Platform admin center is now in public preview! We designed the new admin center to be easier to use, with task-oriented navigation that helps you achieve specific outcomes faster. We'll be publishing new and updated documentation as the new Power Platform admin center moves to general availability.
Microsoft Power Platform administrators often have the need to orchestrate and automate routine activities for their tenant. This can be accomplished in a variety of ways using the tools outlined below.
Note
Programmability tools are currently developed API-first, meaning new properties and functionality is first exposed in the latest API versions made available. They're later taken into updates to our Power Platform CLI, PowerShell cmdlets, and connectors. In the future, this becomes synchronized across all available tools automatically.
Customer management plane vs customer data plane
Historically, Power Platform administrators have had disparate APIs from which to manage their tenant and its resources within the platform. This included an API for managing environments, another API for managing Power Apps, and yet another for managing Power Automate flows. With Power Platform API, Microsoft is collecting, harmonizing, and ultimately providing a single API surface from which customers can manage these resources.
The customer management plane is where tenant-level resources and environments are surfaced. This includes operations like creating environments (with or without Dataverse), managing billing policies for Pay-as-you-go, querying and reporting on capacity consumption, and so on. These capabilities are surfaced under Power Platform API and more features will be added regularly.
The customer data plane is for interacting with data and records stored inside of an environment database. This database is most commonly referred to as Microsoft Dataverse of which includes its own rich OData-based API. Operations using Dataverse APIs include retrieving data from a table, using functions and actions, and executing batch operations.
Ultimately, customers have two primary APIs: one for the management plane and one for the data plane. This documentation is strictly for the management plane available as Power Platform API and tools that make use of it.
Available tools
Several programmability tools are available for administrators. These gradually increase in complexity and also capability. Over time, more libraries will become available in various programming languages. To keep up with the latest updates, review the release plans.
Power Platform API
Use the API reference for the customer management plane capabilities of Power Platform admin center. Learn more in Get started with Power Platform API.
Power Platform for Admins V2 connector
The new Power Platform for Admins V2 connector is generally available for use in both Power Automate and Logic Apps. It's a strongly-typed representation of the Microsoft Power Platform API.
Power Platform CLI
Microsoft Power Platform CLI is a simple, one-stop developer CLI that empowers developers and ISVs to perform various operations in Microsoft Power Platform related to environment lifecycle, authentication, and work with environments, solution packages, portals, code components, and so on.
PowerShell cmdlets
PowerShell is a common automation tool at organizations worldwide. For more information, see Get started with PowerShell for Power Platform administrators.
Next steps
Regardless of which tool you choose, review the following articles to get started: