Power BI as Code: The Setup AI Needs for Your Reports

This video walks through saving a regular .pbix as a Power BI Project (PBIP) so your report and semantic model land on disk as a folder of text — PBIR JSON for the report layer and TMDL for the model — which is the format AI tools like Claude and Copilot can actually read, reason about, and edit. What you'll learn Enable the three preview features in Power BI Desktop that make PBIP usable for AI workflows (PBIP save option, TMDL semantic model, enhanced report metadata) Save an existing .pbix as a PBIP project and understand what changed on disk Read the .Report folder: how PBIR represents your report as files and folders of JSON Read the .SemanticModel folder: how TMDL captures your data model as plain-text files Use TMDL triple-slash (`///`) comments as model descriptions that round-trip from AI edits back into Desktop Covered PBIP project format, PBIR report definition, TMDL semantic model, Power BI Desktop preview features, .Report and .SemanticModel folder layout, triple-slash descriptions Tools Power BI Desktop (with the PBIP save option, TMDL semantic-model format, and enhanced report metadata preview features enabled) Visual Studio Code (any recent version — used purely as a file-and-folder browser plus a text viewer) Prerequisites Working familiarity with Power BI Desktop: opening a .pbix, building basic reports, navigating the model view Comfortable browsing files and folders on disk No prior experience with JSON, TMDL, or any kind of version control required Chapters 0:00 — Text vs. binary 0:11 — Why this matters for Power BI developers 1:55 — What we'll do today 2:05 — Enable the PBIP preview features 3:04 — Save the .pbix as a PBIP project 4:11 — What landed on disk: project root tour 5:37 — The .Report folder (PBIR + JSON) 11:13 — The .SemanticModel folder (TMDL) 15:42 — TMDL descriptions are triple-slash comments 17:47 — Proof-of-concept: pasting TMDL into a chat model 19:18 — Wrap-up and what's next Resources Power BI projects (PBIP) overview — Microsoft Learn: https://learn.microsoft.com/power-bi/... PBIR format reference — Microsoft Learn: https://learn.microsoft.com/power-bi/... TMDL overview — Microsoft Learn: https://learn.microsoft.com/analysis-...