topic Asset Bundles + GitHub Actions: why does bundle deploy re-create UC schema and volume every run? in Administration & Architecture

Asset Bundles + GitHub Actions: why does bundle deploy re-create UC schema and volume every run?

Ale_Armillotta — Fri, 20 Feb 2026 23:31:25 GMT

Hi everyone,
I’m working with Databricks Asset Bundles and deploying via GitHub Actions (CI/CD). I’m seeing behavior I don’t fully understand.

On every pipeline run (fresh git checkout/pull and then databricks bundle deploy to the same target environment), the deploy tries to create again my Unity Catalog resources — specifically a schema and a volume. I’d expect the deployment to be mostly idempotent and only apply deltas, but it looks like it re-applies the “create” actions each time.

A few questions:

Is this expected behavior for Asset Bundles (i.e., deploy always “ensures” resources exist, so it may attempt creation every run)?
Does the bundle keep any state or resource tracking across runs, or is it purely declarative each time (especially in CI like GitHub Actions)?
Are there recommended patterns to avoid re-creating / re-attempting creation of UC schema/volume on every deploy (e.g., separating infra from app deploy, using mode: production, structuring targets differently, etc.)?

If useful, I can share:

a simplified databricks.yml snippet (resources + targets),
the relevant GitHub Actions step,
and the exact deploy logs/error message.

The strange thing is that also the documentation on databricks says that the resoruces into databricks.yml won't destroy the ones already created.

Thanks!

Re: Asset Bundles + GitHub Actions: why does bundle deploy re-create UC schema and volume every run?

Ale_Armillotta — Fri, 20 Feb 2026 23:44:52 GMT

I just tried to change the schema and the deploy is ok, because the DAB creates the Volume and schema. I tried a second time and also this time is ok. I'm not understanding why before it didn' work. Not it's just for my interest

Re: Asset Bundles + GitHub Actions: why does bundle deploy re-create UC schema and volume every run?

stbjelcevic — Mon, 23 Feb 2026 02:23:41 GMT

Hi @Ale_Armillotta ,

To answer each of your questions:

Is this expected behavior for Asset Bundles
- Yes, deploy is declarative and will attempt “create” whenever the bundle’s tracked state doesn’t already include that resource (names aren’t used to correlate).
Does the bundle keep any state or resource tracking across runs, or is it purely declarative each time
- Yes, bundles persist state in the workspace and track resources by ID. If the bundle identity or state doesn’t match across runs, it treats resources as new.
Are there recommended patterns to avoid re-creating / re-attempting creation of UC schema/volume on every deploy
- Use bind for preexisting resources, keep a stable bundle name/target/workspace and deployer, avoid dev prefixes in CI, preview with bundle plan, and optionally separate UC infra with lifecycle.prevent_destroy.