Power BI Deployment Skill

Manage model lifecycle with TMDL export/import, transactions, and version control.

Prerequisites

bash
pipx install pbi-cli-tool
pbi-cli skills install
pbi connect

Connecting to Targets

bash
# Local Power BI Desktop (auto-detects port)
pbi connect

# Local with explicit port
pbi connect -d localhost:54321

# Named connections for switching
pbi connect -d localhost:54321 --name dev
pbi connections list
pbi connections last
pbi disconnect

TMDL Export and Import

TMDL (Tabular Model Definition Language) is the text-based format for version-controlling Power BI models.

bash
# Export entire model to TMDL folder
pbi database export-tmdl ./model-tmdl/

# Import TMDL folder into connected model
pbi database import-tmdl ./model-tmdl/

TMSL Export

bash
# Export as TMSL JSON (for SSAS/AAS compatibility)
pbi database export-tmsl

TMDL Diff (Compare Snapshots)

Compare two TMDL export folders to see what changed between snapshots. Useful for CI/CD pipelines ("what did this PR change in the model?").

bash
# Compare two exports
pbi database diff-tmdl ./model-before/ ./model-after/

# JSON output for CI/CD scripting
pbi --json database diff-tmdl ./baseline/ ./current/

Returns a structured summary:

• tables: added, removed, and changed tables with per-table entity diffs

(measures, columns, partitions, hierarchies added/removed/changed)

• relationships: added, removed, and changed relationships
• model: changed model-level properties (e.g. culture, default power bi dataset version)
• summary: total counts of all changes

LineageTag-only changes (GUID regeneration without real edits) are automatically filtered out to avoid false positives.

No connection to Power BI Desktop is needed -- works on exported folders.

Database Operations

bash
# List databases on the connected server
pbi database list

Transaction Management

Use transactions for atomic multi-step changes:

bash
# Begin a transaction
pbi transaction begin

# Make changes
pbi measure create "New KPI" -e "SUM(Sales[Amount])" -t Sales
pbi measure create "Another KPI" -e "COUNT(Sales[OrderID])" -t Sales

# Commit all changes atomically
pbi transaction commit

# Or rollback if something went wrong
pbi transaction rollback

Table Refresh

bash
# Refresh individual tables
pbi table refresh Sales --type Full
pbi table refresh Sales --type Automatic
pbi table refresh Sales --type Calculate
pbi table refresh Sales --type DataOnly

Workflow: Version Control with Git

bash
# 1. Export model to TMDL
pbi database export-tmdl ./model/

# 2. Commit to git
cd model/
git add .
git commit -m "feat: add new revenue measures"

# 3. Later, import back into Power BI Desktop
pbi connect
pbi database import-tmdl ./model/

Workflow: Inspect Model Before Deploy

bash
# Get model metadata
pbi --json model get

# Check model statistics
pbi --json model stats

# List all objects
pbi --json table list
pbi --json measure list
pbi --json relationship list

Best Practices

• Always export TMDL before making changes (backup)
• Use transactions for multi-object changes
• Test changes in dev before deploying to production
• Use --json for scripted deployments
• Store TMDL in git for version history
• Use named connections (--name) to avoid accidental changes to wrong environment