Working with Power BI reports using pbir

CLI for exploring, building, managing, formatting Power BI reports. All commands use pbir.

IMPORTANT: ALWAYS use pbir CLI commands to inspect and modify reports. NEVER write, replace, copy, or patch report JSON files directly. If the CLI does not expose a required mutation, stop and report the missing capability; do not fall back to file editing. Reading JSON through pbir cat, pbir get, or read-only examples is allowed.

IMPORTANT: FIRST Read and adhere to the mental model in MENTAL-MODEL.md.

When pbir is missing

Install it with uv tool install pbir-cli (or pip install pbir-cli). That is the route to use in every ordinary case, including when the command is missing entirely.

bin/fetch.sh downloads a self-contained portable build instead. Reach for it only when pbir is not installed and installing it is not possible: no network access to PyPI, no Python, or a locked-down machine that forbids installs. A portable build does not update with uv tool upgrade, so preferring it when a normal install would have worked leaves the user on a stale CLI. If an install failed, fix the install rather than routing around it.