Not able to add description to security roles.

Hi terjefjeldstad ,

You've raised an excellent point about a well-known limitation within the Power BI Desktop interface. It is correct that while the underlying Tabular model schema, specifically TMSCHEMA_ROLES, supports a description field for security roles, the Power BI Desktop user interface does not provide a direct way to edit this information. This is a classic example of the Power BI front-end not fully exposing all the capabilities of the powerful Analysis Services engine that it runs on.

The most effective workaround for this is to use an external tool called Tabular Editor. This tool allows you to connect directly to your Power BI model's data structure and modify properties that are otherwise hidden in the standard interface. To do this, you would first need to install Tabular Editor and add it to the "External Tools" ribbon in Power BI Desktop. Once it is set up, you can launch Tabular Editor from your PBIX file, navigate to the "Roles" folder in its explorer pane, and select the specific role you wish to modify. In the properties pane, you will find the "Description" field where you can input your user-friendly explanation. After entering the description, you simply save the changes in Tabular Editor, which writes the metadata directly back to your Power BI file.

Adding these descriptions is, as you mentioned, incredibly valuable for self-documentation and for making the data model more understandable for non-technical personnel. It serves as a crucial bridge between the technical implementation and the business logic the roles are meant to represent. This functionality has been a long-standing feature request from the Power BI community, and you can contribute by voting for this idea on the official Microsoft Fabric Ideas forum, as a higher number of votes increases the likelihood of it being included in a future update.

Best regards,

Hi terjefjeldstad, 

DataNinja777 has the correct approach right now of using Tabular Edditor, however I also suggest you submit an idea for this to be a native feature in Power BI Desktop: https://community.fabric.microsoft.com/t5/Fabric-Ideas/idb-p/fbc_ideas

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Hi terjefjeldstad,
Thanks to tayloramy , DataNinja777    for those inputs on this thread. 

Can you please confirm whether you have raised it in Ideas forum, Please note that Microsoft regularly reviews ideas shared by the community, and your suggestion may be considered for future updates.

Thank you once again, and we encourage you to continue engaging with the Microsoft Fabric Community.

Best regards,

Community Support Team.