powerbi-desktop-mcp

CLI tool to install, configure and extend the Power BI Desktop MCP Server for Claude Desktop and Claude Code.

Registers a single combined MCP server that gives Claude access to:

• All Microsoft Power BI modeling tools (connect, query, modify semantic models)
• extract_dax — extract all DAX measures and calculated columns from any open Power BI file
• CLI commands to extract and translate DAX from the terminal

npm Package: https://www.npmjs.com/package/powerbi-desktop-mcp

Quick Start

npx powerbi-desktop-mcp install

This downloads Microsoft's MCP server, extracts it, and asks whether to configure Claude Desktop and/or Claude Code. After that, restart Claude and you're ready.

CLI Commands

install

Downloads powerbi-modeling-mcp.exe from the VS Code Marketplace and configures Claude.

npx powerbi-desktop-mcp install

# Custom install directory
npx powerbi-desktop-mcp install --dir "D:\MyMCPServers\PowerBI"

# Pin a specific version
npx powerbi-desktop-mcp install --mcp-version 0.4.0

During install you'll be asked:

  Configure Power BI MCP for Claude:
    Configure Claude Desktop? [Y/n]
    Configure Claude Code?    [Y/n]

Options:

-d, --dir <path>          Install directory (default: C:\MCPServers\PowerBIModelingMCP)
-v, --mcp-version <ver>   MCP version to install (default: 0.4.0)

Note: Close Claude Desktop and Claude Code before reinstalling to avoid file-lock errors.

status

Check whether the MCP server is installed and registered in Claude's config.

npx powerbi-desktop-mcp status

uninstall

Remove the MCP server files and clean up Claude config entries.

npx powerbi-desktop-mcp uninstall

extract-dax

Extract all DAX measures and calculated columns from a Power BI model and save them to a .dax file.

Power BI Desktop must be running with your file open.

# Extract from an open Power BI Desktop file
powerbi-desktop-mcp extract-dax --file "SalesReport"

# Extract from a Fabric workspace
powerbi-desktop-mcp extract-dax --workspace "Sales Workspace" --model "Sales Model"

# Save to a specific path
powerbi-desktop-mcp extract-dax --file "SalesReport" --output ./measures.dax

# Extract only measures or only calculated columns
powerbi-desktop-mcp extract-dax --file "SalesReport" --type measures
powerbi-desktop-mcp extract-dax --file "SalesReport" --type columns

# Print to stdout
powerbi-desktop-mcp extract-dax --file "SalesReport" --output stdout

Options:

-f, --file <name>           Power BI Desktop window title (partial, case-insensitive)
-w, --workspace <name>      Fabric workspace name
-m, --model <name>          Semantic model name (required with --workspace)
-o, --output <path>         Output file path (prompted if not specified)
-t, --type <type>           all | measures | columns  (default: all)
-d, --install-dir <path>    MCP server install directory

Either --file OR both --workspace and --model must be provided.

--file does a case-insensitive substring match on the Power BI Desktop window title. --file "Sales" will match SalesReport - Power BI Desktop. If no match is found, available window titles are listed.

translate-dax

Extract DAX from a Power BI model and translate it to Qlik Sense QVS format using the Claude API. Useful for migrating from Power BI to Qlik Sense.

Prerequisites:

• Power BI Desktop must be running with your file open
• An Anthropic API key set as ANTHROPIC_API_KEY

# Translate all DAX from an open file
powerbi-desktop-mcp translate-dax --file "SalesReport"

# Save to a specific path
powerbi-desktop-mcp translate-dax --file "SalesReport" --output ./sales-qlik.qvs

# Translate from a Fabric workspace
powerbi-desktop-mcp translate-dax --workspace "Sales Workspace" --model "Sales Model"

Options:

-f, --file <name>         Power BI Desktop window title (partial, case-insensitive)
-w, --workspace <name>    Fabric workspace name
-m, --model <name>        Semantic model name (required with --workspace)
-o, --output <path>       Output .qvs file path (prompted if not specified)
-d, --install-dir <path>  MCP server install directory

Set the API key:

# PowerShell
$env:ANTHROPIC_API_KEY="sk-ant-..."

# bash/zsh
export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY="sk-ant-..."

# CMD
set ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-...

Output format — the generated .qvs file has two sections:

// ============================================================
// QLIK SENSE EXPRESSIONS  (translated from Power BI DAX)
// ============================================================

// [Total Sales]  (Table: Sales)
// DAX:  SUM(Sales[Amount])
Sum(Amount)

// [% of Total]  (Table: Sales)
// DAX:  DIVIDE(SUM(Sales[Amount]), CALCULATE(SUM(Sales[Amount]), ALL(Sales)), 0)
// NOTE: ALL() translated using TOTAL keyword
If(Sum(TOTAL Amount)=0, 0, Sum(Amount)/Sum(TOTAL Amount))


// ============================================================
// QVS LOAD SCRIPT  (calculated columns)
// ============================================================

LOAD
    *,
    // [Profit Margin]  (Table: Sales)
    // DAX:  [Profit]/[Revenue]
    Profit/Revenue AS [Profit Margin]
FROM [your-data-source] (qvd);

Complex DAX patterns are translated as closely as possible. The AI adds // NOTE: comments on lines that may need manual review. Always validate output before using it in production.

Using with Claude Desktop / Claude Code

After install, Claude gets access to a single MCP server with everything built in:

| Tool | What Claude can do | |------|-------------------| | connect_to_desktop | Connect to an open Power BI Desktop file | | table_operations | List, get and modify tables | | measure_operations | List, get, create and update DAX measures | | column_operations | List, get and modify columns | | relationship_operations | Manage model relationships | | extract_dax | Extract all DAX measures and calculated columns, ready to translate | | (+ all other Microsoft tools) | Full modeling capabilities |

Example prompts:

• "Connect to SalesReport in Power BI Desktop"
• "List all measures in the Sales table"
• "Extract all DAX from my model and translate it to Qlik Sense"
• "Create a new measure called Profit Margin = DIVIDE([Profit], [Revenue])"

Requirements

• Windows (win32-x64)
• Node.js >= 18
• Power BI Desktop (must be open when connecting)

Manual Configuration

If you skipped automatic configuration during install, add the entry manually.

Config file locations:

• Claude Desktop: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
• Claude Code: %USERPROFILE%\.claude.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "powerbi-desktop-mcp": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["powerbi-desktop-mcp", "serve", "--install-dir", "C:\\MCPServers\\PowerBIModelingMCP"],
      "env": {}
    }
  }
}

Adjust --install-dir if you used a custom install path.

About

This package installs and wraps Microsoft's Power BI Modeling MCP Server, adding extra tools and CLI commands on top.

Official MCP Server (by Microsoft)

• GitHub: microsoft/powerbi-modeling-mcp
• VS Code Extension: Power BI Modeling MCP
• License: MIT

What Microsoft's server supports

• Build and modify semantic models with natural language
• Execute bulk operations across hundreds of objects
• Apply modeling best practices
• Enable agentic workflows with TMDL and Power BI Project files
• Query and validate DAX against your semantic models

What this package adds

• Automatic download and installation of the MCP server
• One-step configuration for Claude Desktop and Claude Code
• extract_dax MCP tool — extracts all DAX in one call for Claude to translate
• extract-dax CLI — save DAX to a file from the terminal
• translate-dax CLI — translate DAX to Qlik Sense QVS via Claude API

Contributing

Issues for the underlying MCP server: microsoft/powerbi-modeling-mcp/issues