🚀 Automating Power BI Documentation: Introducing PBI-DOCS

❓ Why is Power BI Documentation So Hard?

Power BI developers and analysts often struggle with documenting their datasets, reports, and dataflows. While the platform offers robust visualization and analytics capabilities, extracting metadata and generating structured documentation is a tedious and manual process.

This is exactly why I developed PBI-DOCS, a Python-based solution that automates Power BI documentation.

🔥 What is PBI-DOCS?

PBI-DOCS is a Python script that extracts metadata from Power BI using:

✅ Power BI REST APIs (with Service Principal authentication)

✅ DAX Studio CLI (to extract dataset details)

✅ Power BI Desktop (to handle PRO user datasets)

The script automatically generates structured documentation, including dataset schemas, relationships, measures, and even exports PBIX files when needed.

🛠️ How Does It Work?

Instead of manually navigating through Power BI and copying metadata, PBI-DOCS follows a streamlined process:

1️⃣ Extract tenant metadata (datasets, workspaces, reports, dataflows)

2️⃣ Run DAX queries on datasets to retrieve tables, columns, and measures

3️⃣ Export PBIX files for datasets without XMLA access

4️⃣ Generate structured documentation in DOCX format

Here's a simplified flow:

💡 Why Should You Use It?

✅ Saves hours of manual documentation work

✅ Supports both premium and PRO users

✅ Provides structured, reusable documentation

✅ Free & Open Source

📊 What Does the Generated Documentation Look Like?

The script generates structured documentation in multiple formats, including:

✅ A Power BI report for quick analysis

✅ Word (.docx) files with detailed metadata documentation

Here’s an example of the Power BI report created using the extracted metadata:

With these outputs, you can easily analyze datasets, relationships, and measures in both interactive and structured formats!

📥 Get Started!

The project is fully open-source. You can find all details in the GitHub repo below 👇

🔗GitHub: PBI-DOCS - Massively document your entire Power BI Tenant with Python, REST APIs, and DAX Studio

I also recorded a step-by-step video demonstrating how to use it:

📺 Watch on YouTube: 🚀 PBI-DOCS - Massively document your Power BI Tenant with Python, REST APIs, and DAX Studio!

🔴 The video is currently in Portuguese with English subtitles, but I’m planning to record an English version.

📢 Would you find that useful? Let me know in the comments!

🚀 Let’s Build It Together!

💬 I’d love to hear your feedback! Have ideas for improvements? Drop a comment below!

⭐ Found it useful? Give the repo a star on GitHub and share it with your network!

🚀 Let’s keep pushing the boundaries of Microsoft Fabric and Microsoft Power BI communities!