PBI Project Lens

Understand your Power BI project.

Open PBI Project Lens in desktop Edge or Chrome. No installation or account is needed.

A read-only investigation workspace for Power BI projects. Explore the structure, usage and dependencies of your Power BI project across semantic models, reports and Power Query. Your source project is not changed.

Start with your project

1. Save a Power BI Project (PBIP) using the structured PBIR report and TMDL model formats. See preparation guidance if you currently have a PBIX.
2. Open the tool and choose the folder containing the .pbip file and its report and model folders.
3. Select Run analysis, then Open investigation. Review apparently unused objects inside Model Objects; use Downloads & exports for portable outputs.
4. Export a catalogue or usage mapping when you want to work with the metadata in a spreadsheet.

After saving changes in Power BI Desktop, use Analyse again to read the current folder, including added, changed and deleted files. If you used the alternate folder picker, choose the folder again: that picker supplies a snapshot that cannot be refreshed in place.

See using PBI Project Lens for browser limits, exports and local command-line/Windows options.

What you can investigate

• Where columns and measures appear in report pages, visuals, filters, sorting and supported formatting expressions.
• Dependencies through calculations and model structure, including relationships, security metadata, perspectives and calculation groups.
• How Power Query queries feed the model and one another, recognised parameters and connectors, and bounded static column-lineage evidence.
• Report structure and navigation, including bookmarks, drillthrough, tooltips and hidden items.
• Selected accessibility settings and narrow theme comparisons that support manual review.

Custom visual instance bindings are read from ordinary report metadata. Recognised visual packages are packaging, not automatically a reason to qualify every unused result; their executable code and runtime behaviour are not analysed.

The tool reads metadata. It does not run DAX or M, contact data sources, reproduce Power BI rendering, or assess refresh performance. Power Query column lineage follows supported static transformations; missing lineage is not proof of no use. Accessibility review is not WCAG certification. Theme Review reports saved values and limited comparisons, not manual editing history or final rendered appearance.

See what PBI Project Lens analyses and the rule catalog.

Results and exports

Output	Use it for
Investigation viewer	Explore model objects, lineage, Power Query, relationships, security, report structure, findings and Analysis scope. Opens from the completed analysis in a new tab.
Full HTML download	A self-contained portable report using the existing report layout, also used by CLI and Desktop.
Apparently unused review	Investigate the focused set inside Model Objects. A separate portable HTML download remains for sharing or offline review. Apparently unused does not mean safe to delete; Power Query context remains separate.
Data Catalogue CSV	One row per eligible developer-authored column or measure, including objects with no detected usage. Choose metadata such as usage, confidence, counts, user-facing evidence and descriptions.
Usage Mapping CSV	One row per logical direct report usage: where and how an object is referenced, with optional technical provenance. This is not a transitive dependency export.
Semantic Usage CSV	The existing fixed technical export, including semantic usage, Power Query column evidence, review flags, ClassificationConfidence and QualifyingLimitations.

Data Catalogue and Usage Mapping offer selectable columns in the browser and Windows Export Builder. The command-line tool also supports a JSON inventory.

Used, unused and incomplete evidence

Usage has five states: Directly used, Indirectly used, Structurally required, Only used by unused items, and Apparently unused.

Confidence is separate. Established means this scan identified no limitation that qualifies that object's state within the analysed scope. QualifiedByLimitation, shown as Checks limited, means missing or partly understood metadata could affect that result. Only the results a limitation could actually affect are qualified; the usage state itself does not change. Analysis Coverage explains the causes for the affected model.

Apparently unused is a review candidate, never permission to delete. Other reports, external consumers and runtime behaviour may use an object that this project does not mention. A CSV review flag does not override its confidence. See usage classification.

Local and read-only

Your project is processed locally in your browser. Application code does not upload selected project files or generated results. Loading the site still requests application assets from its static host; opening the investigation loads same-origin viewer assets and transfers a ViewerSnapshot locally.

Generated outputs can contain sensitive project metadata. In particular, the detailed HTML includes full Power Query expressions, which may contain paths, server names or hard-coded values. Review exports before sharing them.

Read Privacy for the exact boundary and verification steps, and Security for vulnerability reporting.

Build or contribute

The same Core and Reporting libraries serve the browser, command-line and Windows applications. The repository includes synthetic regression projects and documented Desktop persistence fixtures.

Start with Contributing, architecture, testing and hosting. Local builds require the SDK pinned in global.json; browser users do not need it.

The product brand is PBI Project Lens; existing technical identifiers and repository URLs remain stable. See the branding compatibility note.

Licence

PBI Project Lens is open-source software licensed under the MIT License.