Pbir report workflow

PBIR Report Workflow

End-to-end workflow for building Power BI reports from a published semantic model using pbir CLI. Requires the model to already exist in a Fabric/Power BI workspace.

Workflow Steps

1. Gather requirements (KPIs, filters, granularity, audience)
2. Discover model fields and data types
3. Create project folder + scaffold report
4. Rename default page (do not add a new one)
5. Measure the scaffold (existing visuals, theme, canvas size) before computing layout
6. Plan layout arithmetic from the measured scaffold
7. Add visuals row-by-row with explicit coordinates
8. Bind fields and set sort direction explicitly
9. Add report-level and page-level filters
10. Apply bespoke formatting only when theme is insufficient
11. Validate, then publish

Rules

• Visuals must NOT overlap
• Favor theme changes over per-visual overrides
• Favor extension measures (_Fmt) with theme tokens (good/bad) for conditional formatting
• Always create reports inside a named project folder
• Run pbir validate after every mutation
• Use PascalCase for project / report / page / visual names
• Edit PBIR JSON directly via Claude Code or pbir set — do NOT use Tabular Editor
• Do NOT add PBI_* annotations manually

Step 1 — Requirements & Model Discovery

pbir model                                                               # List reports + models
pbir model "Sales.Report" -d                                             # Model definition
pbir model "Sales.Report" -d -t Sales                                    # Filter to table
pbir model "Sales.Report" -q "EVALUATE VALUES('Date'[Year])"             # Query for filter values

Ask the user (via AskUserQuestion) to confirm:

• Which KPIs to surface (measures + targets)
• Trend granularity (daily / weekly / monthly / quarterly)
• Categorical breakdowns
• Detail table/matrix hierarchies
• Report-level vs page-level filters

Step 2 — Scaffold Report

mkdir -p SalesDashboard && cd SalesDashboard
pbir new report "Sales.Report" -c "MyWorkspace/Sales.SemanticModel"
pbir pages rename "Sales.Report/Page 1.Page" "Overview"
pbir pages active-page "Sales.Report" "Overview"

Resulting layout:

SalesDashboard/
  Sales.pbip
  Sales.Report/
    definition.pbir
    definition/
      version.json
      report.json
      pages/
        pages.json
        Overview/
          page.json
          visuals/Title.Visual/visual.json
    StaticResources/

Step 3 — Measure the Scaffold Before Laying Out

pbir new report produces a default page with some combination of a pre-placed title textbox, a baked-in theme, and canvas defaults. Exact coordinates, theme name, and visual positions depend on the CLI version and the chosen --from-template. Before planning anything, read the actual scaffold instead of assuming:

pbir cat "Sales.Report/Overview.Page"                                    # Full page.json (width, height, displayOption)
pbir ls  "Sales.Report/Overview.Page"                                    # Existing visuals on the page
pbir tree "Sales.Report" -v                                              # Every visual + bindings
pbir cat "Sales.Report/theme"                                            # Active theme name + palette

From the output, record:

1. Canvas width / height from page.json (often 1280 x 720 but templates may override).
2. Every existing visual's position.x, position.y, position.width, position.height. For bulk reads use jq '.position' <path>/visual.json across the visuals/ folder.
3. The tallest y + height among existing visuals — the first safe y for a new row you add.
4. Active base and custom theme names — so you don't accidentally re-apply a default over meaningful styling.

All subsequent coordinates should be derived from those measured values, not hardcoded from this doc.

Step 4 — Layout Math (3-30-300)

Every layout starts from four constants: (page_width, page_height, margin, gap).

Example (1280 x 720 canvas with margin=24, gap=16):

usable_width  = page_width  - (2 * margin) = 1232
usable_height = page_height - (2 * margin) = 672
3 equal columns = (usable_width - 2*gap) / 3 = 400
2 equal columns = (usable_width - gap) / 2 = 608

Substitute your measured page_width / page_height — do not hardcode 1280/720.

3-30-300 visual hierarchy — design for three viewing distances:

Distance	View	Payload
3 seconds	Glance	Headline KPIs + target delta
30 seconds	Scan	Trend direction + top-1 breakdown
300 seconds	Investigate	Detail table with hierarchies + conditional formatting

Standard 3-row composition — compute each row from the measured scaffold:

Row	Content
Top region	Existing title / header visuals already in the scaffold
Row 1	3 KPI visuals side-by-side
Row 2	Line chart + bar chart (2 columns)
Row 3	Full-width tableEx detail

Row heights, the gap between rows, and y offsets all come from the measured scaffold plus your chosen margin / gap. Verify the total fits inside page_height before placing any visual.

Step 5 — Add Visuals (Coordinates Explicit)

The coordinates below are illustrative — computed from a measured 1280x720 scaffold with a ~90 px header region, margin=24, gap=16. Substitute values from your actual measurement before running these commands.

# Row 1: KPIs
pbir add visual kpi "Sales.Report/Overview.Page" --title "Revenue" \
  -d "Indicator:Invoices.Turnover" -d "Goal:Invoices.Turnover 1YP" \
  -d "TrendLine:Date.Calendar Month (ie Jan)" \
  --x 24 --y 120 --width 400 --height 140

pbir add visual kpi "Sales.Report/Overview.Page" --title "OrderLines" \
  -d "Indicator:Orders.Order Lines" -d "Goal:Orders.Order Lines 1YP" \
  --x 440 --y 120 --width 400 --height 140

pbir add visual kpi "Sales.Report/Overview.Page" --title "MarginPct" \
  -d "Indicator:Invoices.Selling Margin (%)" -d "Goal:Invoices.Selling Margin (%) 1YP" \
  --x 856 --y 120 --width 400 --height 140

# Row 2: Trend + Breakdown
pbir add visual lineChart "Sales.Report/Overview.Page" --title "MonthlyTrend" \
  --x 24 --y 276 --width 608 --height 208
pbir visuals bind "Sales.Report/Overview.Page/MonthlyTrend.Visual" \
  -a "Category:Date.Calendar Month (ie Jan)" -a "Y:Invoices.Turnover"

pbir add visual barChart "Sales.Report/Overview.Page" --title "ByRegion" \
  -d "Category:Regions.Territory" -d "Y:Invoices.Turnover" \
  --x 648 --y 276 --width 608 --height 208

# Row 3: Detail
pbir add visual tableEx "Sales.Report/Overview.Page" --title "DetailByAccount" \
  --x 24 --y 500 --width 1232 --height 196
pbir visuals bind "Sales.Report/Overview.Page/DetailByAccount.Visual" \
  -a "Values:Customers.Key Account Name" -a "Values:Invoices.Turnover" -a "Values:Orders.Order Lines"

Step 6 — Spacing Sanity-Check

After placing visuals, verify the arithmetic yourself:

left_margin + usable_width + right_margin == page_width
top_region + Σ(row_heights) + (n-1) * gap + bottom_margin == page_height

If either equation fails, adjust before saving. pbir tree "Sales.Report" -v lists every visual's position in one command.

Step 7 — Sort, Filters, Theme Overrides

# Charts auto-sort descending by first measure. Set explicitly after bind.
pbir visuals sort "Sales.Report/Overview.Page/ByRegion.Visual" \
  -f "Invoices.Turnover" -d Descending

# Report-level filters (apply to all pages)
pbir add filter Date Year     -r "Sales.Report" --values 2025
pbir add filter Geography Region -r "Sales.Report"

# Page-level filters
pbir add filter Products Category -p "Sales.Report/Overview.Page"

Step 8 — Title Hierarchy

Distribute meaning across the title hierarchy — never say the same thing twice.

Level	Content
Page title (textbox)	The subject — "OrderLines"
Visual titles	The differentiator — "byKeyAccount", "MonthlyTrend"
Subtitles	Hide — almost always redundant

pbir visuals subtitle "Sales.Report/Overview.Page/MonthlyTrend.Visual" --no-show

Hide axis titles when the axis is self-evident (month names on x-axis). Hide category labels on cards when the visual title describes the metric.

Step 9 — Conditional Formatting via Extension Measures

Prefer extension measures returning theme tokens ("good", "bad") over hex strings so the theme can be rebranded centrally.

pbir dax measures add "Sales.Report" -t _Fmt -n "RevenueStatusColor" \
  -e 'IF([Turnover] >= [Turnover 1YP], "good", "bad")' --data-type Text

pbir visuals cf "Sales.Report/Overview.Page/ByRegion.Visual" \
  --measure "dataPoint.fill _Fmt.RevenueStatusColor"

Step 10 — Inferring Time Granularity from Filter Context

Active Filter	Trend Granularity	Date Column
Year (e.g., 2025)	Monthly	Date.Calendar Month (ie Jan)
Quarter	Monthly or Weekly	Date.Calendar Month (ie Jan) / Date.Calendar Week EU
Month	Daily or Weekly	Date.Date / Date.Calendar Week EU
No date filter	Monthly or Quarterly	Date.Calendar Month Year / Date.Calendar Quarter Year

Default to monthly when unsure.

Step 11 — Validate, Publish, Open

pbir validate "Sales.Report"
pbir tree     "Sales.Report" -v
pbir publish  "Sales.Report" "MyWorkspace.Workspace/Sales.Report" -o     # Publish + open
pbir open     "Sales.Report"                                             # Local in Desktop

Common Page Sizes

Type	Width x Height	Use Case
Default (16:9)	1280 x 720	Screen dashboards
Large (16:9)	1920 x 1080	High-density executive dashboards
Letter portrait	816 x 1056	Print/PDF reports
Tooltip	320 x 240	Hover tooltip pages
Custom tall	1280 x 2400	Scrollable operational pages

KPI Target Measures

Use prior-year measures as targets when available. Add via TMDL if missing:

measure 'Turnover 1YP' = CALCULATE([Turnover], DATEADD('Date'[Date], -1, YEAR))

Gotchas

Issue	Cause	Fix
Visual overlaps existing scaffold element	Placed y before measuring scaffold	Run pbir ls + inspect position of every pre-existing visual first
Extra blank page on report open	pbir add page called instead of rename	pbir pages rename "Page 1.Page" "Overview"
Charts show wrong sort order	Default auto-sort not set after bind	pbir visuals sort -f ... -d Descending
Theme overridden by visual formatting	Inline formatting applied	pbir visuals clear-formatting --only-containers -f
Publish 401	Wrong Fabric token audience	az account get-access-token --resource https://api.fabric.microsoft.com
Page doesn't fit canvas	displayOption set to integer	Must be string: "FitToPage" etc.
Extension measure CF not rendering	references.measures missing a dep	Every measure used in DAX must appear in references.measures
Trend chart has wrong granularity	Granularity not matched to filter	Consult granularity table
Right margin looks off	Layout math not verified	Print spacing verification (left + usable + right = width)

Reference

• Microsoft Learn: Power BI reports overview
• Microsoft Learn: Tips for designing a great Power BI report
• Microsoft Learn: Design reports for accessibility
• Comprehensive MS Learn link bundle (design principles / layout / field discovery / filters / CF / publish / time-granularity): references/REFERENCE.md

See also

• pbip-project-structure — project file layout
• pbir-cli — CLI command reference
• pbir-pages — page JSON structure
• fabric-tmdl — TMDL measure authoring