Power BI Documentation & Live Lineage Studio (pbi-doc-generator v1.0)

Turn Power BI Service Workspaces and local .pbix / .pbip / .xlsx files into clean, searchable HTML documentation with interactive Star-Schema diagrams, auto-formatted DAX catalogs, visual Power Query pipelines, 3-panel end-to-end Live Lineage, and a built-in local Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for AI assistants.

👉 Explore the Live Interactive v1.0 Demo Portal in your browser (no installation required)

Quick Start

Option 1: Portable Windows Download (No Python Required - Recommended for Business Users)

1. Click here to download PBI_Doc_Generator_Windows_Portable.zip directly (or view the Release page).
2. Right-click the downloaded ZIP file and choose Extract All...
3. Open the extracted folder and double-click PBI_Doc_Generator.exe -> your browser opens http://127.0.0.1:8765 automatically.
   (If Windows SmartScreen asks for confirmation on first launch: click More info -> Run anyway.)

Option 2: Install via pip (Python 3.10+ on Windows, macOS & Linux)

pip install "git+https://github.com/djrien-ai/pbi-doc-generator.git"

Launch the local Web Studio from anywhere:

pbi-doc-generator

(Or clone/download the source repository on Windows and double-click Start_Studio.cmd - it automatically installs requirements.txt on first launch.)

[!IMPORTANT]
Power BI Service Workspace Role Prerequisite (Contributor or higher)
To extract full semantic model definitions (tables, relationships, DAX measures, and Power Query M) from Power BI Service workspaces, your Microsoft account must have at least the Contributor role (Contributor, Member, or Admin) in each workspace you want to document.

• Workspaces where you only have the Viewer role will list basic workspace and report inventory, because Microsoft's Fabric getDefinition (TMDL) API blocks Viewer-only accounts (HTTP 403).
• Documenting local .pbix, .pbip, and .xlsx files works 100% offline and requires no Power BI Service permissions.

What Is Inside v1.0

1. Power BI Service Multi-Workspace Scanner (Zero Azure Admin Setup Required)
   • Sign in with your normal Microsoft account (Sign in with Microsoft OAuth 2.0 PKCE in your default browser, plus a fallback Power BI Web Window mode for locked-down corporate tenants, Azure CLI, and Service Principal support for CI/CD).
   • Document 1 or 50+ workspaces into one searchable, 100% offline HTML portal with Grid, List, and By Workspace views, Workspaces & Reports Mapping (highlighting Cross-Workspace Shared Datasets / Thin Reports and Orphan Models), Interactive Live Lineage, and Governance & Health Checks.
2. Unified Local File Support (.pbix, .pbip, .xlsx)
   • Drop or select any local .pbix file, .pbip project (automatically resolves its companion .SemanticModel folder), or Excel PowerPivot .xlsx workbook directly in the browser.
3. Effortless-to-Read Model Documentation
   • Interactive Star-Schema Diagram: Automatically classifies Fact vs. Dimension tables with zoom, pan, fullscreen, and click-to-pin relationship highlighting (contributed by @jakubpokusa).
   • Visual Power Query Pipelines: Displays an easy-to-scan transformation step ribbon (1. Source -> 2. Filtered Rows -> 3. Typed Columns) above collapsible syntax-highlighted M code, recognizing 28+ enterprise connectors (SAP HANA, SAP BW, Snowflake, Databricks, Microsoft Fabric, SQL Server, SharePoint, Excel, BigQuery, and more).
   • Auto-Formatted & Structured DAX Catalog: Defaults to a fast Compact Table overview with a 1-click toggle to Formatted Cards organized by Table -> Display Folder -> Dependency Tier, pretty-printing single-line DAX formulas and linking Reads: / Used by: dependencies.
4. Interactive 3-Panel Live Lineage Explorer
   • Click any upstream database/view, Power Query table, column, DAX measure, or Power BI report to trace live upstream origins and downstream impact with smooth SVG connectors.
5. Built-In Local Model Context Protocol (MCP) Server for AI Assistants
   • Tab 3 of the Web Studio (pbi-doc-generator mcp) exposes 8 read-only MCP tools to VS Code GitHub Copilot, Claude Desktop, Cursor, or Antigravity across all your scanned workspaces and imported local .pbix / .pbip / .xlsx models, with automatic secret masking.

Command-Line Usage (CLI & CI/CD)

# Launch the interactive Web Studio (default)
pbi-doc-generator

# Scan specific workspaces incrementally and generate the offline HTML portal
pbi-doc-generator scan --workspace "Supply Chain"

# Generate an anonymized portal safe for external sharing (hides personal/owner names)
pbi-doc-generator portal --anonymous

# Import a local .pbip, .SemanticModel, .pbix, or .xlsx into the multi-model catalog
pbi-doc-generator import-local ./SalesModel.pbip

# Generate a single standalone HTML file for one .pbix / .pbip / .xlsx
pbi-doc-generator file ./Report.pbix

# Start the stdio MCP server for AI assistants
pbi-doc-generator mcp

Security & Privacy by Design

• 100% Local Execution: Metadata, TMDL definitions, and generated HTML files stay on your machine (127.0.0.1). Zero telemetry or external CDN calls.
• Enforced Read-Only API Guard: PowerBiReadOnlyClient blocks DELETE, PATCH, PUT, and mutating POST requests in code, allowing only GET metadata calls and the read-only Fabric getDefinition endpoint.
• In-Memory Tokens Only: OAuth access tokens live strictly in Python RAM for the active session and are never written to disk.
• Automatic Secret Redaction: Connection passwords, SAS tokens, API keys, and bearer tokens are automatically masked in both HTML pages and MCP responses. See SECURITY.md for details.

Enterprise Integrations & Architecture Audits

The core of pbi-doc-generator is and remains 100% free and open-source under the MIT License. Organizations looking for custom enterprise integrations (automated CI/CD lineage publishing to SharePoint, Confluence, or Microsoft Purview, historical semantic-model drift monitoring, or white-label governance portals) or an independent Power BI Estate & Semantic Model Architecture Audit can inquire via Bohan VOF (connect with Rien Scheerlinck on LinkedIn).

Community & Support

Special thanks to community contributors @jakubpokusa (interactive Mermaid relationship viewer), @okiyuki99 (Xpress9 pbixray support), and @nblankes (TMDL table doc-comment bug report).

If pbi-doc-generator saves your BI team hours of manual documentation or impact analysis, consider starring the repository or supporting ongoing open-source development via GitHub Sponsors on this repository.

License

MIT License - Copyright (c) 2024-2026 Rien Scheerlinck. See LICENSE for full text.