Pbip

PBIP Project Format

PBIP (Power BI Project) is the developer-mode file format for Power BI. It decomposes a .pbix binary into human-readable text files organized in folders, enabling source control, external editing, and multi-author collaboration.

General, critical guidance

• This skill covers project structure, not report editing. Use te for the semantic model and pbir for every report mutation. Never hand-edit PBIR JSON.
• PBIX is a black box; PBIP is transparent. PBIX is a single binary that cannot be diffed or edited externally. PBIP splits the same content into text files. Convert between them with File > Save As in PBI Desktop.
• Thick vs thin reports: A thick report bundles .Report/ + .SemanticModel/ in the same project (definition.pbir uses byPath). A thin report has .Report/ only, connecting to a remote model via byConnection. Thin reports are preferred for managed/shared BI.
• A project can contain multiple items. Multiple .Report/ and .SemanticModel/ folders can coexist. The .pbip file is optional -- open definition.pbir directly.
• UTF-8 without BOM. All files must be saved as UTF-8 without BOM. A BOM prefix causes parse errors in some tools.
• Git line endings: PBI Desktop writes CRLF. Configure core.autocrlf or * text=auto in .gitattributes to normalize.
• 260-char Windows path limit. Use short root paths. Deep nesting of page/visual GUIDs can exceed this limit.
• Desktop reload is selective. Use pbir desktop refresh for supported report/model changes; close and reopen Desktop for theme changes.
• Rename cascades are cross-cutting. Rename model objects with te mv --save, then update each report with pbir fields replace or replace-table and validate both sides.
• SparklineData metadata selectors embed Entity references in compact strings that do not follow the standard SourceRef.Entity JSON structure. Easy to miss.
• DAX query files exist in TWO locations: <Name>.SemanticModel/DAXQueries/ and <Name>.Report/DAXQueries/. Always check both during renames.

Working with PBIX Files

Treat PBIX as an opaque Desktop artifact. Do not unzip it, patch its internals, reconstruct PBIR from its contents, or invoke an unapproved extraction engine. Microsoft licensing/EULA questions around third-party engine redistribution are unresolved for this project.

Use Power BI Desktop File > Save As > Power BI Project (.pbip), then work on the resulting .Report folder with pbir and on the semantic model with te. If Desktop conversion is not available, stop and ask for a PBIP/PBIR source artifact rather than inventing a conversion path.

PBIX vs PBIP

Project Structure

The .Report/ folder is required in a PBIP. The .SemanticModel/ folder is optional — a thin report has only .Report/ and points at a remote semantic model via definition.pbir byConnection.

The .pbi/ subfolders in both items (localSettings.json, editorSettings.json, cache.abf, etc.) are all optional — they are per-user/per-machine runtime state generated by Power BI Desktop. A freshly authored PBIP from an external tool may not have any of them, and the project still opens fine in Desktop.

<ProjectName>/
+-- <Name>.pbip                              # Entry point (references .Report folder) — optional
+-- .gitignore                               # Recommended; excludes .pbi/localSettings.json and cache.abf
+-- <Name>.SemanticModel/                    # OPTIONAL — absent for thin reports
|   +-- .pbi/                                # All contents OPTIONAL, per-user runtime state
|   |   +-- localSettings.json               # User-specific (gitignored)
|   |   +-- editorSettings.json              # Editor settings (committed)
|   |   +-- cache.abf                        # Data cache (gitignored)
|   |   +-- unappliedChanges.json            # Pending Power Query changes
|   |   +-- daxQueries.json                  # DAX query view tab settings
|   |   +-- tmdlscripts.json                 # TMDL view script tab settings
|   +-- definition.pbism                     # SM entry point (required if .SemanticModel exists)
|   +-- definition/                          # TMDL format (preferred) — see tmdl skill
|   +-- model.bim                            # TMSL format (legacy alt to definition/, mutually exclusive)
|   +-- diagramLayout.json                   # SM diagram (no external edit)
|   +-- DAXQueries/                          # .dax files from DAX query view
|   +-- TMDLScripts/                         # .tmdl files from TMDL view
|   +-- Copilot/                             # Copilot tooling metadata
|   +-- .platform                            # Fabric identity (displayName, logicalId)
+-- <Name>.Report/                           # REQUIRED
|   +-- .pbi/                                # OPTIONAL runtime state
|   |   +-- localSettings.json               # User-specific (gitignored)
|   +-- definition.pbir                      # Report entry point (required for PBIR format)
|   +-- definition/                          # PBIR format — see pbir-format skill
|   |   +-- report.json
|   |   +-- version.json
|   |   +-- pages/
|   |   |   +-- pages.json
|   |   |   +-- <page-slug>/                 # See "Page folder naming" below
|   |   |   |   +-- page.json
|   |   |   |   +-- visuals/...
|   +-- report.json                          # PBIR-Legacy format (legacy alt to definition/)
|   +-- mobileState.json                     # Mobile layout (no external edit)
|   +-- semanticModelDiagramLayout.json      # Diagram positions (table renames)
|   +-- CustomVisuals/                       # Private custom visual metadata
|   +-- StaticResources/
|   |   +-- SharedResources/                 # Base themes, shared resources
|   |   |   +-- BaseThemes/<name>.json       # Resolution path: <report>/StaticResources/SharedResources/<item.path>
|   |   +-- RegisteredResources/             # Custom themes, images, .pbiviz files
|   +-- DAXQueries/                          # .dax files from report DAX query view
|   +-- .platform                            # Fabric identity

Page folder naming

Power BI Desktop uses opaque 20-character hex slugs for new page, visual, bookmark, and filter folders by default (e.g. 847663d71e27e0840063). Per Microsoft docs, these can be renamed to friendly names but the replacement must satisfy:

• Regex: ^[\w-]+$ — word characters (letters, digits, underscore) or hyphen only.
• No spaces, no dots, no other punctuation. Names outside this set are silently ignored by Power BI Desktop and the page/visual vanishes from the loaded report. This is the hardest bug class to diagnose because there is no error dialog.
• Folder name and name field must match exactly (case-sensitive). The folder may be bare (<slug>/) or suffixed (<slug>.Page/) — both forms are valid on disk. pbir-cli uses the .Page suffix in its CLI path syntax; current Desktop saves omit the suffix.
• pages.json.pageOrder entries must reference the slug, not the display name. activePageName must be one of the entries in pageOrder.
• Restart Desktop after external rename. PBI Desktop does not detect file changes while open.

Rename pages with pbir pages rename; it owns the cross-report reference updates. Do not rename a folder or patch the related JSON by hand.

SharedResources path resolution

Items listed in resourcePackages[] are resolved relative to:

<Report>/StaticResources/<package_type>/<item.path>

For a SharedResources package with an item { "path": "BaseThemes/Fluent2-CY26SU03.json" }, Power BI Desktop looks for:

<Report>/StaticResources/SharedResources/BaseThemes/Fluent2-CY26SU03.json

Missing resource files are a common blocking error. If report.json declares themeCollection.baseTheme.type = "SharedResources" and points at a resource that doesn't exist on disk, the report will not open. validate_pbip.py checks this explicitly.

What to Read for Common Tasks