PowerBI Visual Tools (pbiviz)

The easiest way to create custom visuals is by using the PowerBI command line tools which can be easily to installed via NPM. The command line tools provide everything you need to develop visuals and test them in live PowerBI reports and dashboards.

Features:

• Visual project generation
• TypeScript compilation
• Less compilation
• Automatic live reload
• pbiviz packaging (for distribution)

Basic Setup

Before you can get started you'll need to install the tools. This should only take a few seconds.

Dependencies

Before you can run (or install) the command line tools you must install NodeJS.

• NodeJS 18.0+ Required - Download NodeJS

Installation

To install the command line tools simply run the following command

npm install -g powerbi-visuals-tools

To confirm it was installed correctly you can run the command without any parameters which should display the help screen.

pbiviz

How to build a visual?

Refer to our documentation repository

Usage

You can learn more about using these tools in the following guides

• Usage Guide
• Debugging Guide

MCP Server (AI Integration)

PowerBI Visual Tools includes a built-in MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that allows AI assistants like GitHub Copilot, Cursor, and Claude to interact with your visual project directly.

Setup

Run the following command to initialize the MCP configuration:

pbiviz mcp --init

Available Tools

Tool	Description
get_best_practices	Best practices and guidelines for Power BI visual development
check_vulnerabilities	Scan project for security vulnerabilities and dangerous code patterns
prepare_certification	Check if the visual is ready for certification and marketplace submission
list_visual_info	Get info about current visual (name, GUID, API version, capabilities)
get_available_apis	List available Power BI Visual APIs with examples
add_feature	List all features that can be added to a Power BI visual
implement_feature	Get step-by-step implementation guide for a specific feature

Example Prompts

• "Is my visual ready for certification?" — runs prepare_certification
• "Check my visual for security issues" — runs check_vulnerabilities
• "How do I add tooltips to my visual?" — runs implement_feature
• "What APIs are available for data interaction?" — runs get_available_apis

All tools are read-only and local — no data is sent to external services.

For detailed documentation see MCP.md.

PowerBI Visuals Tools Changes

• Change Log

Visuals API Changes

• API Change Log

Contributing

If you would like to contribute please see How To Contribute.