Tabular Editor Documentation & Configuration

Guidance for searching Tabular Editor documentation and understanding TE3 configuration files (.tmuo, Preferences.json, etc.).

Pre-flight

Before using documentation search, verify pbi-search is installed:

bash
pbi-search --version

If the command is not found, inform the user and offer two options:

1. Install pbi-search (recommended): see bin/README.md for install instructions via cargo install or GitHub Releases at data-goblin/pbi-search
2. Search without the CLI: use the microsoft-learn MCP tools (microsoft_docs_search, microsoft_docs_fetch) for Microsoft Learn content, or WebFetch to retrieve docs directly from these sources:

• Tabular Editor docs: https://docs.tabulareditor.com/
• DAX reference: https://dax.guide/<function>/
• SQLBI articles: https://www.sqlbi.com/articles/
• Data Goblins: https://data-goblins.com/

The CLI is strongly preferred; it searches all sources simultaneously and returns clean markdown. The fallback requires manual URL construction and multiple fetches.

Documentation Search

Use the pbi-search CLI — the preferred way to search Tabular Editor docs and related Power BI/DAX resources. It searches Tabular Editor docs, DAX.guide, SQLBI, Microsoft Learn (Power BI + Fabric), the TE blog, and Data Goblins simultaneously, returning clean markdown.

After install, populate the local manifest cache (once):

bash
pbi-search sync        # ~13s

Searching

bash
# Search all sources
pbi-search search "creating measures"

# Search only Tabular Editor docs
pbi-search search "BPA rules" --source te-docs

# Search TE blog + TE docs
pbi-search search "incremental refresh" --source te-docs --source te-blog

# JSON output for structured use in agents
pbi-search search "workspace mode" --source te-docs --json

# Include content excerpts
pbi-search search "calculated columns" --source te-docs --excerpts

Fetching full docs

bash
# Tabular Editor doc by bare path (from search results)
pbi-search fetch features/Best-Practice-Analyzer

# Any supported URL
pbi-search fetch https://docs.tabulareditor.com/features/workspace-mode
pbi-search fetch https://dax.guide/calculate/

# Extract a specific section
pbi-search fetch features/Best-Practice-Analyzer --section "Creating rules"

# Truncate for context budget
pbi-search fetch features/creating-measures --max-chars 3000 --json

Agent search workflow

1. pbi-search search "<topic>" --source te-docs --json — find relevant docs
2. Use the path or url from results: pbi-search fetch <path>
3. No results? Broaden: pbi-search search "<topic>" (all sources)
4. DAX questions: always add --source dax-guide

Available sources

| ID | Content | |----|---------| | te-docs | Tabular Editor docs (features, how-tos, KB, references) | | dax-guide | ~480 DAX function reference pages | | te-blog | Tabular Editor blog | | ms-learn | Microsoft Learn — Power BI + Fabric (live, no sync needed) | | sqlbi | ~370 SQLBI technical articles | | data-goblins | Data Goblins Power BI posts |

Richer search quality (optional)

Default sync builds a fast title-only index. For conceptual queries ("remove filters from column") run once with descriptions:

bash
pbi-search sync --descriptions   # fetches meta descriptions; ~30s extra

Configuration Files (.tmuo)

TMUO files store developer- and model-specific preferences in Tabular Editor 3.

Critical

• TMUO files contain user-specific settings -- never commit to version control
• Credentials are encrypted with Windows User Key -- cannot be shared between users
• Add *.tmuo to .gitignore in all projects
• File naming: <ModelFileName>.<WindowsUserName>.tmuo

Structure

json
{
  "UseWorkspace": true,
  "WorkspaceConnection": "localhost",
  "WorkspaceDatabase": "MyModel_Workspace_JohnDoe",
  "Deployment": {
    "TargetConnectionString": "powerbi://api.powerbi.com/v1.0/myorg/Workspace",
    "TargetDatabase": "MyModel",
    "DeployPartitions": false,
    "DeployModelRoles": true
  },
  "DataSourceOverrides": {
    "SQL Server": {
      "ConnectionString": "Data Source=localhost;Initial Catalog=DevDB"
    }
  }
}

Sections

| Section | Purpose | |---------|---------| | UseWorkspace | Enable workspace database mode | | WorkspaceConnection | Server for workspace database | | WorkspaceDatabase | Workspace database name (unique per dev/model) | | Deployment | Target server, database, and deploy options | | DataSourceOverrides | Override connections for workspace | | TableImportSettings | Settings for Import Tables feature |

Deployment Options

| Field | Type | Description | |-------|------|-------------| | TargetConnectionString | string | Target server connection | | TargetDatabase | string | Target database name | | DeployPartitions | bool | Deploy partition definitions | | DeployModelRoles | bool | Deploy security roles | | DeployModelRoleMembers | bool | Deploy role members | | DeploySharedExpressions | bool | Deploy shared M expressions |

Application Preferences

TE3 stores application-level preferences in %LocalAppData%\TabularEditor3\:

| File | Purpose | |------|---------| | Preferences.json | Application settings (proxy, updates, telemetry) | | UiPreferences.json | UI state (window positions, panel sizes) | | Layouts.json | Saved layout configurations |

References

• references/doc-structure.md -- Detailed documentation structure
• references/url-redirects.md -- Old-to-new URL mapping for broken links
• schema/ -- JSON schemas for tmuo, preferences, layouts, UI preferences
• scripts/validate_config.py -- Validate TE3 config files
• scripts/validate_tmuo.py -- Validate TMUO files

External

• pbi-search on GitHub
• Tabular Editor User Options
• Workspace Mode
• Preferences Reference