@pbiplint/core

The linter behind pbiplint: parse TMDL and PBIR, build the semantic model and the report, run the best-practice rules, rank the findings, and format them. Pure TypeScript with no dependencies, no Node APIs, and no network access, so it runs in a browser tab as well as in Node 20.19 or later (or 22.12 or later).

lint(files) takes both parts of a Power BI project, .tmdl files for the model and the report's JSON (paths relative to each part's root), and returns findings for both, layers saying which part was read, facts for "Report at a glance", and diagnostics for what a reader of the results must know about the input, such as a file that could not be read. Either part alone is valid input; with both parts, each is also checked against the other, for example the report for fields the model does not have and the model for columns and measures the report never reaches.

import { formatText, lint } from "@pbiplint/core";

const result = lint([
  { path: "definition/model.tmdl", text: modelTmdl },
  { path: "definition/tables/Sales.tmdl", text: salesTmdl },
]);

console.log(formatText(result)); // or formatJson, formatMarkdown, formatSarif
for (const group of result.groups) console.log(group.rule.id, group.findings.length, group.rule.url);

result.groups is ranked by severity, then category, then count, exactly as the command line and the website show it. Every rule has a page at https://pbiplint.com/rules/<slug>; group.rule.url points at it.

The optional second argument, lint(files, options), takes the config, the rules to run, and what the caller's input reader found besides the files. config is a pbiplint.config.json object. rules lists the rules to run in place of the default set, defaultRules. diagnostics are the reader's notices, such as a file it could not read, carried onto the result. absent gives, per layer, why the reader left that layer out, for the skipped line. unreadPaths lists, per layer, the files and folders the reader could not read, each relative to its part's root in forward slashes and a folder with a trailing /; a path that is not a file the layer reads (a .tmdl file for the model, a file isReportFile accepts for the report) is read as a folder. The layer then knows what it lacks, so no finding or fact states what was not read.

The model rules are literal ports of the Microsoft Best Practice Analyzer ruleset, verified against Tabular Editor. The report rules are the 11 base rules of PBI Inspector by Nat Van Gulck, ported and verified against fab-inspector's command line, and pbiplint's own rules for the report and for the model and report together. A port keeps its source's quirks on purpose, apart from six documented deviations from PBI Inspector, and each rule's page documents them.

For the command line, install pbiplint. Source, issues, and contributing: https://github.com/pbiplint/pbiplint.

License

Copyright (C) 2026 McKinley Consulting. GNU Affero General Public License, version 3 or later; see LICENSE. The vendored Microsoft ruleset and PBI Inspector rule metadata are MIT-licensed; see NOTICE. The name pbiplint and its logo are trademarks of McKinley Consulting.