by MinaSaad1
Power BI CLI - Direct .NET TOM interop for token-efficient AI agent usage, built for Claude Code
# Add to your Claude Code skills
git clone https://github.com/MinaSaad1/pbi-clipipx install pbi-cli-tool # 1. Install (handles PATH automatically)
pbi-cli skills install # 2. Register Claude Code skills (one-time setup)
pbi connect # 3. Connect to Power BI Desktop
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.
Install and set up pbi-cli from https://github.com/MinaSaad1/pbi-cli.git
Claude will clone, install, connect, and set up skills automatically.
pip install pbi-cli-tool
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
python -c "import site; print(site.getusersitepackages().replace('site-packages','Scripts'))"
Add the printed path to your system PATH, then restart your terminal. We recommend pipx to avoid this entirely.
Ask Claude to work with your Power BI semantic model. Requires pbi connect.
Ask Claude to build and manage your Power BI reports. No connection needed -- works directly on PBIR files.
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Two layers, one CLI:
.pbip projects.All config lives in ~/.pbi-cli/:
~/.pbi-cli/
config.json # Default connection preference
connections.json # Named connections
repl_history # REPL command history
Bundled DLLs ship inside the Python package (pbi_cli/dlls/).
After running pbi-cli skills install, Claude Code discovers 12 Power BI skills. Each skill teaches Claude a different area. You don't need to memorize commands.
pbi connect)| Skill | What you say | What Claude does | |-------|-------------|-----------------| | DAX | "What are the top 10 products by revenue?" | Writes and executes DAX queries, validates syntax | | Modeling | "Create a star schema with Sales and Calendar" | Creates tables, relationships, measures, hierarchies | | Deployment | "Save a snapshot before I make changes" | Exports/imports TMDL, manages transactions, diffs snapshots | | Security | "Set up RLS for regional managers" | Creates roles, filters, perspectives | | Docs | "Document everything in this model" | Generates data dictionaries, measure inventories | | Partitions | "Show me the M query for the Sales table" | Manages partitions, expressions, calendar config | | Diagnostics | "Why is this query so slow?" | Traces queries, checks model health, benchmarks |
| Skill | What you say | What Claude does | |-------|-------------|-----------------| | Report | "Create a new report project for Sales" | Scaffolds PBIR reports, validates structure, previews layout | | Visuals | "Add a bar chart showing revenue by region" | Adds, binds, updates, bulk-manages 32 visual types | | Pages | "Add an Executive Overview page" | Manages pages, bookmarks, visibility, drillthrough | | Themes | "Apply our corporate brand colours" | Applies themes, conditional formatting, colour scales | | Filters | "Show only the top 10 products" | Adds page/visual filters (TopN, date, categorical) |
27 command groups covering both the semantic model and the report layer.
| Category | Commands |
|----------|----------|
| Queries | dax execute, dax validate, dax clear-cache |
| Model | table, column, measure, relationship, hierarchy, calc-group |
| Deploy | database export-tmdl, database import-tmdl, database export-tmsl, database diff-tmdl, transaction |
| Security | security-role, perspective |
| Connect | connect, disconnect, connections list, connections last |
| Data | partition, expression, calendar, advanced culture |
| Diagnostics | trace start/stop/fetch/export, model stats |
| Report | report create, report info, report validate, report preview, report reload |
| Pages | report add-page, report delete-page, report get-page, report set-background, report set-visibility |
| Visuals | visual add/get/list/update/delete, visual bind, visual bulk-bind/bulk-update/bulk-delete, visual where |
| Filters | filters list, filters add-categorical/add-topn/add-relative-date, filters remove/clear |
| Formatting | format get/clear, format background-gradient/background-conditional/background-measure |
| Bookmarks | bookmarks list/get/add/delete/set-visibility |
| Tools | setup, repl, skills install/list/uninstall |
Use --json for machine-readable output (for scripts and AI agents):
pbi --json measure list
pbi --json dax execute "EVALUATE Sales"
pbi --json visual list --page overview
Run pbi <command> --help for full options.
For interactive work, the REPL