deprecated
Credential passthrough
Credential passthrough is deprecated, replaced by Unity Catalog (deprecated May 2024).
Credential passthrough Unity Catalog
Cluster-level authentication that let a notebook reach cloud storage as the person running it, using the identity they logged into Databricks with instead of a shared workspace role.
- It worked by having the cluster borrow your login identity, so the same notebook reached different buckets depending on who pressed run.
- It could not coexist with Unity Catalog - ticking the passthrough checkbox switched Unity Catalog off on that cluster, which is a fairly loud hint about which one had a future.
- Its deprecation is pinned to a runtime version rather than a calendar date: from Databricks Runtime 15.0 on it is deprecated, with removal promised in some future version.
- Category
- Data governance
- Also known as
- IAM credential passthrough, ADLS credential passthrough, passthrough clusters
- Verified
- 2026-08-20