powerbi-measure-tool 0.2.0

Find, remove, copy, and convert measures in Power BI PBIP/TMDL projects

Power BI Measure Tool

A command-line tool for managing measures in Power BI PBIP projects using the TMDL format.

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Features

Mode	What it does
Clean	Scan for unused measures across your semantic model and optionally delete them
Copy	Copy or move measures between projects or tables with automatic structure detection
Convert	Convert between .pbix and project folders via the external pbi-tools CLI

Copy mode scenarios (auto-detected)

• Same project → different table — reorganise measures between tables
• Different project, same table structure — auto-maps identical table names
• Different project, different tables — guided interactive table mapping

DAX formatting

All measures are cleaned before writing: dedented, trailing whitespace removed, blank lines collapsed. formatString and description metadata are preserved; ephemeral properties like lineageTag are intentionally dropped so the target file gets fresh ones from Power BI.

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Requirements

• Python 3.8+
• Power BI project saved in PBIP format with TMDL enabled (File → Options → Preview features → Store semantic model in TMDL format)
• Convert mode only: the external pbi-tools CLI on your PATH (or pointed at via --pbi-tools / the PBI_TOOLS_PATH env var). Clean and Copy modes have no such dependency.

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Installation

pip install powerbi-measure-tool

Or with pipx (recommended for CLI tools — keeps it isolated):

pipx install powerbi-measure-tool

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Usage

Clean mode — find and remove unused measures

# Dry run: show which measures are unused (no files changed)
pbi-measure ./MyWorkspace

# Execute: permanently delete unused measures
pbi-measure ./MyWorkspace --execute

# Treat measures that only appear in unapplied filter panes as unused
pbi-measure ./MyWorkspace --execute --ignore-unapplied-filters

Example output:

══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
  Power BI Measure Tool  v0.2.0
══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
  Source Report : Sales Dashboard.Report
  Source SM     : Sales Dashboard.SemanticModel
  Mode          : 🔍  DRY RUN — no files will be changed
══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

📊  Measures found:
    • 24 in SemanticModel (TMDL)
    • 0 report-level
    • 24 total

🔄  Analysing usage...

────────────────────────────────────────────────────
  Status      Table             Measure             Source
────────────────────────────────────────────────────
  ✅ USED     Sales             Total Revenue       semantic_model
  ✅ USED     Sales             Gross Profit        semantic_model
  ...
  ❌ UNUSED   Sales             Old KPI Draft       semantic_model
────────────────────────────────────────────────────

  Total: 24  |  ✅ Used: 23  |  ❌ Unused: 1

💡  Run with --execute to permanently delete the 1 unused measure(s).

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Copy mode — copy or move measures between projects / tables

# Interactive selection (prompts you to pick measures from a numbered list)
pbi-measure ./SourceWorkspace --copy --target ./TargetWorkspace

# Cherry-pick specific measures by name
pbi-measure ./SourceWorkspace --copy --target ./TargetWorkspace \
    --measures "Total Revenue" "Gross Profit" "YTD Sales"

# Copy all measures
pbi-measure ./SourceWorkspace --copy --target ./TargetWorkspace --all-measures

# Copy all and execute (--execute required to write files)
pbi-measure ./SourceWorkspace --copy --target ./TargetWorkspace --all-measures --execute

# Overwrite measures that already exist in the target
pbi-measure ./SourceWorkspace --copy --target ./TargetWorkspace \
    --all-measures --overwrite --execute

# Reorganise: move measures to a different table in the same project
pbi-measure ./MyWorkspace --copy --target ./MyWorkspace \
    --measures "Total Revenue" --execute

Interactive selection example:

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│           Step 1 — Select Measures to Copy               │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

  📋  Sales
    [  1]  Gross Profit  (#,0.00)
    [  2]  Total Revenue  (#,0.00)
    [  3]  YTD Sales  (#,0.00)

  📋  Targets
    [  4]  Revenue Target
    [  5]  Variance to Target

  Syntax: single (3), range (3-7), list (1,3,5-8), or 'all'
  Enter 'q' to quit.

  Your selection: 1,2,4

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Convert mode — .pbix ↔ project folder

Convert mode wraps the external pbi-tools CLI, so it must be installed and on your PATH (or passed via --pbi-tools / PBI_TOOLS_PATH). Like the other modes, it is a dry run by default — it prints the exact pbi-tools command it would run, and only touches disk with --execute.

# Extract a .pbix into a source-control-friendly project folder (pbix → pbip)
pbi-measure ./Report.pbix --to-pbip --out ./MyProject --execute

# Compile a project folder back into a .pbix / .pbit (pbip → pbix)
pbi-measure ./MyProject --to-pbix --out ./out --execute

# Force a thin (report-only) project to compile to .pbix
pbi-measure ./ThinReport --to-pbix --format pbix --overwrite --execute

# Point at a specific pbi-tools executable
pbi-measure ./Report.pbix --to-pbip --pbi-tools "C:/tools/pbi-tools.exe" --execute

Honest caveats:

• --to-pbip produces pbi-tools' PbixProj (TMDL) layout — source-control equivalent to Microsoft PBIP, but not byte-identical to Power BI Desktop's "Save as .pbip" output.
• --to-pbix auto-detects the format: a project containing a data model compiles to a .pbit template (opening it in Desktop triggers a refresh), while a report-only project compiles to a real .pbix. Regenerating a full .pbix with embedded data requires Power BI Desktop and is out of scope for an offline tool. Pass --format pbix|pbit to override auto-detection.

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Path formats accepted

The path and --target arguments accept either:

• A workspace folder containing both .Report and .SemanticModel subfolders
• A .Report folder directly

MyWorkspace/                        ← pass this
├── Sales Dashboard.Report/
└── Sales Dashboard.SemanticModel/

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How unused measure detection works

The tool performs a multi-pass analysis:

1. Pass 1 — scans all report JSON files (pages, visuals, bookmarks) for structured Measure references and DAX string expressions
2. Pass 2+ — marks any measure referenced in the DAX of an already-used measure as used (handles measure-calls-measure chains)
3. Repeats until no new used measures are found
4. Anything still unmarked → UNUSED

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Changelog

See CHANGELOG.md for the full version history.

Contributing

Bug reports and pull requests are welcome at GitHub.

1. Fork the repo
2. Create a feature branch: git checkout -b my-feature
3. Commit your changes: git commit -m 'Add my feature'
4. Push and open a PR

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License

MIT — see LICENSE.