Pbi CLI

Give Claude Code the Power BI skills it needs.
  Install once, then just ask Claude to work with your semantic models and reports.

  Why pbi-cli •
  Get Started •
  Modeling •
  Reporting •
  Skills •
  All Commands •
  Contributing

Why pbi-cli?

  Cumulative downloads, refreshed daily from pypistats.org via GitHub Actions.

Get Started

Open Power BI Desktop with a .pbix file, run the three commands above, and start asking Claude.
Requires: Windows with Python 3.10+ and Power BI Desktop running.

Alternative: give Claude the repo URL

Claude will clone, install, connect, and set up skills automatically.

Using pip instead of pipx?

On Windows, pip install often places the pbi command in a directory that isn't on your PATH.

Fix: Add the Scripts directory to PATH

Add the printed path to your system PATH, then restart your terminal. We recommend pipx to avoid this entirely.

Semantic Model Layer

Ask Claude to work with your Power BI semantic model. Requires pbi connect.

Create measures in bulk

Debug broken DAX

Snapshot and restore your model

Audit your model for issues

Test row-level security

Report Layer

Ask Claude to build and manage your Power BI reports. No connection needed -- works directly on PBIR files.

Build a report in 6 steps

Visuals, pages, themes, filters

32 visual types

Architecture

Two layers, one CLI:

- Semantic Model layer -- Direct in-process .NET interop from Python to Power BI Desktop via TOM/ADOMD. No MCP server, no external binaries, sub-second execution.
- Report layer -- Reads and writes PBIR (Enhanced Report Format) JSON files directly. No connection needed. Works with .pbip projects.

Desktop Auto-Sync

Configuration details

All config lives in ~/.pbi-cli/:

Bundled DLLs ship inside the Python…