PBIP export option missing for Direct Lake semantic model

Hello TGKiruba,

The behavior you're seeing suggests that Power BI Desktop has opened the semantic model in Viewing Mode rather than the Direct Lake live-edit experience.

According to the Microsoft documentation, Export → Power BI Project (PBIP) is available when you're editing a Direct Lake semantic model in the supported live-edit experience. In that mode, metadata authoring is enabled, changes are applied directly to the remote semantic model, and you can export the model metadata to a PBIP project.

If Desktop only offers:

• Power BI Template
• PDF

and metadata authoring is disabled, I would verify the following prerequisites:

• You're using a recent Fabric-enabled version of Power BI Desktop.
• The semantic model is a Direct Lake model opened using Edit (not simply connected to in viewing mode).
• The tenant has XMLA Endpoint enabled.
• The capacity has XMLA Read/Write enabled.
• Your account has Write permission on the semantic model.
• You have at least Viewer permission on the underlying Lakehouse.

One question from your post caught my attention:
"Is PBIP export currently supported only for Lakehouse-based Direct Lake models?"

Based on the current documentation, PBIP export is documented for Direct Lake semantic models in the live-edit experience. However, I couldn't find documentation stating that PBIP export is restricted only to Lakehouse-based Direct Lake models or that it supports every Direct Lake scenario identically.

If the model satisfies all the documented prerequisites but still opens only in Viewing Mode, I'd suspect either:

• the model isn't being recognized as eligible for Direct Lake live editing, or
• a current product limitation for that specific Direct Lake scenario.

In that case, it would be helpful to know:

• Is the semantic model Direct Lake on OneLake or Direct Lake on SQL?
• Did you open it from the OneLake catalog using Edit, or by connecting to an existing semantic model?

That information would help determine whether you're hitting a documented prerequisite or a current product limitation.

Microsoft references:

Direct Lake in Power BI Project (PBIP): https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/fabric/fundamentals/direct-lake-power-bi-project

Direct Lake in Power BI Desktop: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/fabric/fundamentals/direct-lake-power-bi-desktop

Best regards,
Omkar Shinde
Microsoft Fabric Enthusiast | Power BI Consultant

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