README.md

March 27, 2026 · View on GitHub

pbi-search

A CLI for searching and fetching Power BI and tabular modeling documentation as markdown

Searches across Tabular Editor docs, DAX.guide, SQLBI, Microsoft Learn (Power BI + Fabric), the TE blog, and Data Goblins. All output is clean markdown.

Installation

cargo install pbi-search

Prebuilt binaries for macOS and Linux are available on the Releases page.

Quick start

# Sync the local manifest cache (required before first search)
pbi-search sync

# Search everything
pbi-search search "calculated columns"

# Fetch any doc as markdown
pbi-search fetch https://dax.guide/calculate/

Sources

ID	Name	Content
`te-docs`	Tabular Editor Docs	GitHub markdown — features, how-tos, KB, references, tutorials
`ms-learn`	Microsoft Learn	Power BI and Fabric sections — queried live via public MCP endpoint
`dax-guide`	DAX.guide	~1,000 DAX function reference pages
`te-blog`	Tabular Editor Blog	Blog posts (local markdown or remote sitemap)
`sqlbi`	SQLBI	Up to 50 articles from sqlbi.com
`data-goblins`	Data Goblins	Power BI posts from data-goblins.com

CLI reference

All commands return markdown by default. Add --json for structured output.

`search`

pbi-search search <QUERY> [--source <ID>]... [--json] [--excerpts] [--limit <N>] [--quiet]

Flag	Description
`--source <ID>`	Restrict to one or more sources (repeatable). Omit to search all.
`--json`	Structured output: `{ "results": [...], "warnings": [...] }`
`--excerpts`	Fetch a 500-char content excerpt per result (adds network latency)
`--limit <N>`	Max results (default: 10)
`--quiet`	Suppress progress output — for pipelines and agent contexts

# All sources
pbi-search search "row context vs filter context"

# Tabular Editor docs
pbi-search search "creating measures" --source te-docs
pbi-search search "BPA rules" --source te-docs --excerpts

# DAX function reference
pbi-search search "CALCULATE" --source dax-guide
pbi-search search "iterator functions" --source dax-guide --excerpts

# Microsoft Learn — Power BI and Fabric (live, no sync needed)
pbi-search search "row level security" --source ms-learn
pbi-search search "DirectLake" --source ms-learn --json

# SQLBI articles
pbi-search search "calculated column performance" --source sqlbi
pbi-search search "DAX query plans" --source sqlbi --excerpts

# Tabular Editor blog
pbi-search search "semantic model" --source te-blog

# Data Goblins
pbi-search search "calculation groups" --source data-goblins

# Multiple sources
pbi-search search "measures vs columns" --source te-docs --source dax-guide --json
pbi-search search "DAX" --json --quiet | jq '.results[0].url'

`fetch`

pbi-search fetch <URL-OR-PATH> [--section <HEADING>] [--max-chars <N>] [--json]

Fetches a document and returns it as markdown. Source is auto-detected from the URL. GitHub blob URLs are normalised to raw automatically.

Flag	Description
`--section <HEADING>`	Extract only the matching markdown section
`--max-chars <N>`	Truncate output to N Unicode characters
`--json`	Output `{ "url", "source", "content", "truncated" }`

# Tabular Editor docs — bare path or full URL
pbi-search fetch features/creating-measures
pbi-search fetch https://docs.tabulareditor.com/features/creating-measures
pbi-search fetch features/kb/DAX0001 --section "How to fix"

# DAX.guide function pages
pbi-search fetch https://dax.guide/calculate/
pbi-search fetch https://dax.guide/sumx/ --max-chars 3000

# SQLBI article
pbi-search fetch https://www.sqlbi.com/articles/understanding-dax-query-plans/

# Tabular Editor blog post
pbi-search fetch https://tabulareditor.com/blog/announcing-tabular-editor-3

# Data Goblins post
pbi-search fetch https://data-goblins.com/power-bi/calculation-groups-basics

# Microsoft Learn
pbi-search fetch https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/transform-model/desktop-calculated-columns
pbi-search fetch https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/fabric/data-warehouse/intro --max-chars 5000

# JSON output for agents
pbi-search fetch https://dax.guide/calculate/ --json
pbi-search fetch features/creating-measures --json | jq '.content'

`sync`

pbi-search sync [--source <ID>]...

Refreshes the local manifest cache. Idempotent. ms-learn is remote-only and cannot be synced.

pbi-search sync                                        # all sources
pbi-search sync --source te-docs
pbi-search sync --source dax-guide --source sqlbi

`sources`

pbi-search sources [--json]

Lists all sources with sync status and entry counts.

pbi-search sources
pbi-search sources --json
pbi-search sources --json | jq '.[] | select(.stale) | .id'

Configuration

Config file: ~/Library/Application Support/pbi-search/config.json (macOS) · ~/.config/pbi-search/config.json (Linux)

Override location via env: TE_DOCS_CONFIG_DIR=/path/to/dir

{
  "github_token": "ghp_...",
  "te_blog_local_path": "/path/to/te-blog-content/articles",
  "http_timeout_secs": 10,
  "max_results": 10,
  "stale_after_days": 7,
  "source_stale_overrides": { "dax-guide": 30, "te-blog": 3 },
  "ms_learn_filter_paths": ["/power-bi/", "/fabric/", "/analysis-services/"],
  "default_sources": ["te-docs", "ms-learn", "dax-guide", "te-blog"]
}

github_token raises the GitHub API rate limit from 60 to 5,000 req/hr — recommended for frequent syncs.

Agent use

All commands support --json. The --quiet flag suppresses progress on stderr.

Search response:

{
  "results": [
    {
      "source": "te-docs",
      "source_name": "Tabular Editor Docs",
      "title": "Creating Measures",
      "url": "https://docs.tabulareditor.com/features/creating-measures",
      "section": "Features",
      "excerpt": "Measures are DAX expressions...",
      "_score": 0.92
    }
  ],
  "warnings": ["sqlbi: manifest is 9 days old — run 'pbi-search sync --source sqlbi'"]
}

Fetch response:

{
  "url": "https://dax.guide/calculate/",
  "source": "dax-guide",
  "content": "# CALCULATE\n\n...",
  "truncated": false
}

Exit codes: 0 = success · 1 = error

Notes

ms-learn calls https://learn.microsoft.com/api/mcp — the same public endpoint used by the VS Code Copilot extension. No API key required.
Live integration tests (hits real URLs): cargo test --features live_tests --test live

Kurt Buhler · Data Goblins · part of Tabular Editor