pbi-semantic-doc 0.5.7

Automatic documentation generator and analyzer for Power BI semantic models (TMDL) and reports (PBIR)

pbi-semantic-doc

Automatic documentation generator and analyzer for Power BI projects.

Built with ❤️ by ViciusLio in collaboration with Claude AI (Anthropic).

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If your Power BI project lives in a Git repository as a .pbip project, this tool can:

• Document semantic models (TMDL format) — tables, columns, measures, relationships, DAX patterns, complexity index
• Analyze reports (PBIR and PBIR-Legacy) — pages, visuals, bookmarks, visual type distribution, complexity index

Zero configuration. Zero external dependencies. Drop it into any pipeline.

pip install pbi-semantic-doc

# Document a semantic model — writes DOC_MyProject.md next to the .SemanticModel folder
pbi-semantic-doc ./MyProject.SemanticModel

# Same but as a self-contained, printable HTML file
pbi-semantic-doc ./MyProject.SemanticModel --format html

# Analyze a report
pbi-semantic-doc ./MyProject.Report --analyze-report

# Both in one document (from the .pbip project folder)
pbi-semantic-doc ./MyProject --combined

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Why this exists

Power BI semantic models have become real codebases. With .pbip projects and TMDL, every table, measure, and relationship is a text file you can version, review, and diff. The tooling around that workflow is still catching up: there is no built-in way to generate human-readable documentation from a semantic model without opening Power BI Desktop or paying for a third-party service.

pbi-semantic-doc fills that gap. It is a plain Python CLI tool you can drop into any pipeline — a pre-commit hook, a GitHub Action, a local script — and get documentation that stays in sync with your model automatically.

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Installation

pip install pbi-semantic-doc

Or from source:

git clone https://github.com/ViciusLio/pbi-semantic-doc
cd pbi-semantic-doc
pip install -e .

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Usage

Semantic Model Documentation

# Basic — writes DOC_<ModelName>.md next to the .SemanticModel folder
pbi-semantic-doc ./MyProject.SemanticModel

# Specify a custom output path
pbi-semantic-doc ./MyProject.SemanticModel --output ./docs/MODEL.md

# Point to the .pbip parent folder (auto-discovers the .SemanticModel subfolder)
pbi-semantic-doc . --output MODEL.md

# Suppress console output (useful in CI)
pbi-semantic-doc ./MyProject.SemanticModel --quiet

Report Analysis

# Markdown output (default) — writes DOC_<ReportName>.md next to the .Report folder
pbi-semantic-doc ./MyProject.Report --analyze-report

# JSON output for programmatic use
pbi-semantic-doc ./MyProject.Report --analyze-report --format json --output analysis.json

# Text summary to console
pbi-semantic-doc ./MyProject.Report --analyze-report --format text

Combined Analysis

# Single unified document with Semantic Model + Report sections
pbi-semantic-doc ./MyProject --combined

# Custom output path
pbi-semantic-doc ./MyProject --combined --output ./docs/FULL.md

# JSON combined output
pbi-semantic-doc ./MyProject --combined --format json --output analysis.json

CLI reference

Flag	Description
PATH	Path to .SemanticModel, .Report, or .pbip project folder
--analyze-report	Analyze report instead of semantic model
--combined	Produce a single document covering both semantic model and report
--format	Output format: md (default), html, json, text
--output, -o	Output file path (default: DOC_<name>.md / .html next to the input folder)
--quiet, -q	Suppress console output

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Output

File naming and placement

Mode	Default output location
Semantic model (md)	DOC_<ModelName>.md — next to the .SemanticModel folder
Semantic model (html)	DOC_<ModelName>.html — next to the .SemanticModel folder
Report	DOC_<ReportName>.md / .html — next to the .Report folder
Combined	DOC_<ProjectName>.md / .html — inside the .pbip project folder

Example: running against Artificial Intelligence Sample.SemanticModel produces DOC_Artificial_Intelligence_Sample.md in the parent folder.

Document structure

Each generated Markdown document includes:

• Table of Contents — GitHub-compatible anchor links to every section and table; always visible at the top
• Overview — complexity index, table/column/measure/relationship counts, storage mode summary
• Data Sources — connector type, connection string, and Power Query (M) steps per table partition
• Relationships — collapsible table with cardinality, cross-filter direction, and active/inactive status
• Row Level Security — always visible; DAX filter expression per role
• Tables — one collapsible section per table: columns (type, hidden, description), measures (DAX + auto description)
• Measures Index — collapsible A–Z index of all measures with their home table

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Expected folder structure

MyProject/
├── MyProject.pbip
├── DOC_MyProject.md              ← combined output lands here
├── MyProject.SemanticModel/
│   └── definition/
│       ├── model.tmdl
│       ├── relationships.tmdl
│       └── tables/
│           ├── Sales.tmdl
│           └── Calendar.tmdl
└── MyProject.Report/
    └── definition/
        ├── version.json
        ├── pages/                    # PBIR format (new)
        │   └── Page1/
        │       ├── page.json
        │       └── visuals/
        │           └── Visual1/
        │               └── visual.json
        ├── bookmarks/
        │   └── Bookmark1.bookmark.json
        ├── reportExtensions.json
        └── report.json               # PBIR-Legacy format (old)

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Features

Semantic Model Documentation

• Parses standard TMDL folder structure (.pbip projects, Power BI Desktop)
• Documents tables, columns (data types, descriptions, hidden status), measures (full DAX), and relationships
• Generates automatic DAX pattern descriptions when no manual description is present
• Extracts model name from the .SemanticModel folder name
• Correctly handles Power Query #"Step Name" quoted identifiers (e.g. #"Changed Type", #"Removed Columns")
• Navigable output: Table of Contents + collapsible <details> sections (renders natively on GitHub/GitLab)
• Complexity Index — normalized 0–1 score per model (see below)

Report Analysis

• Supports PBIR (folder-based, new) and PBIR-Legacy (report.json) formats
• Classifies all standard and custom visual types
• Detects mobile layouts, drill-through pages, hidden pages, filters
• Identifies custom marketplace visuals by name
• Complexity Index — normalized 0–1 score per report (see below)
• Outputs Markdown, JSON, and plain text

HTML Output (--format html)

• Self-contained single .html file — all CSS and JavaScript embedded, no external assets
• Print to PDF: @media print expands all collapsible sections automatically — open in any browser, hit Ctrl+P, choose "Save as PDF"
• Collapsible <details>/<summary> sections (identical structure to .md output)
• "Expand All / Collapse All" toolbar buttons for quick browser navigation
• Covers all modes: model-only, report-only, and combined (--combined)

Measure Lineage (HTML output)

For every measure, the HTML output includes a collapsible Lineage section that is computed automatically from the DAX expression and the model's relationship graph — no naming conventions or manual annotations required:

• Base tables — fact/dimension tables directly aggregated by this measure (including transitive dependencies through nested [Measures])
• Compatible tables — all tables reachable via the relationship graph; these are the dimensions you can safely use as slicers for this measure
• Incompatible tables — tables with no relationship path to the measure's base tables; using them as slicers has no effect or gives wrong results
• Filter-removed tables — tables explicitly cleared with ALL(), ALLEXCEPT(), or ALLSELECTED()
• Measure dependencies — direct and transitive [MeasureName] references, resolved via BFS (cycle-safe)
• Flags — time intelligence, USERELATIONSHIP, TREATAS

General

• Zero external dependencies — pure Python 3.9+ stdlib
• Installable via pip; works as a CLI or Python library
• CI/CD ready (GitHub Actions, pre-commit hooks)
• Windows-compatible (Unicode on cp1252 terminals)

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Complexity Index

Both the semantic model and the report get a normalized 0–1 complexity score.

Semantic Model

Dimension	Weight	Reference maximum
Visible tables	20%	30 tables
Measures	30%	150 measures
Measure DAX complexity (avg)	30%	—
Relationships	10%	50 relationships
Columns	10%	300 columns

Measure DAX complexity is itself a 0–1 score per measure, combining:

• Expression length (40%) — normalized to 500 characters
• Detected pattern count (60%) — CALCULATE, VAR, time intelligence, iterators, filter modifiers, RANKX, SWITCH, USERELATIONSHIP (max 5 distinct categories)

Report

Dimension	Weight	Reference maximum
Pages	25%	50 pages
Visuals	45%	300 visuals
Bookmarks	20%	30 bookmarks
Report-level measures	10%	10 measures

A score of 0.5 (50%) indicates a moderately complex model or report. Both scores are always in the 0–1 range.

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DAX pattern recognition

Automatic measure descriptions are generated by inspecting DAX expressions. Recognized patterns:

Category	Functions
Aggregations	SUM, AVERAGE, COUNT, DISTINCTCOUNT, MIN, MAX
Iterators	SUMX, AVERAGEX, COUNTX, FILTER
Time intelligence	TOTALYTD, TOTALMTD, SAMEPERIODLASTYEAR, DATEADD, PARALLELPERIOD
Context modification	CALCULATE, ALL, ALLEXCEPT, KEEPFILTERS
Variables	VAR/RETURN
Safe division	DIVIDE
Conditional logic	IF, SWITCH
Ranking	RANKX, TOPN
Cross-table	RELATED, USERELATIONSHIP

Manual descriptions in Power BI Desktop always take precedence over auto-generated ones.

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Roadmap

v0.5 ✅ — Measure Lineage

• Automatic measure lineage: per-measure compatibility analysis in HTML output — base tables, compatible/incompatible dimensions, filter-removal tracking, transitive measure dependencies, time intelligence flags
• Two new stdlib-only modules: dax_analyzer.py (stateless regex Layer 1) and lineage.py (model-aware BFS Layer 2+3)
• Zero new dependencies — pure Python stdlib

v0.4 ✅ — HTML Output

• Self-contained HTML output (--format html): navigable in browser, printable to PDF via Ctrl+P
• Zero new dependencies — pure Python stdlib

v0.3 ✅ — Data Sources & Power Query

• Data source discovery: connection strings, server/database names, SharePoint/OneLake endpoints
• Power Query (M) extraction: full M expression per table partition with step-level breakdown
• Custom query detection: flag tables using Value.NativeQuery or inline SQL
• Dataflow & lakehouse references: identify Dataflow, Fabric Lakehouse, Warehouse sources
• Navigable docs: Table of Contents + collapsible sections + DOC_<name>.md naming
• Unified combined document: single file with Semantic Model + Report sections

v0.6 — Deep Model Analysis

• Column lineage: trace which measures reference which columns across tables
• Unused columns: detect columns not referenced in any measure, relationship, or visual
• Hidden object inventory: report on all hidden tables and columns

v0.6 — Report Deep Dive

• Visual-to-measure mapping: detect which measures each visual uses (from prototypeQuery)
• Filter analysis: page-level and visual-level filters with target fields and values
• Theme extraction: color palette and font settings from theme files
• Tooltip page detection: pages used exclusively as tooltip layers

Future

• Pre-commit hook configuration helper
• VS Code extension wrapper

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Contributing

Issues and pull requests are welcome at github.com/ViciusLio/pbi-semantic-doc.

pip install pytest
pytest tests/ -v   # 259 tests

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License

MIT — see LICENSE.