Share your thoughts on Power BI Project files (PBIP) and Fabric Git Integration

[RuiRomanoMS]

Hit Reply to tell us about your experience with Power BI Project files (PBIP) and Fabric Git Integration for Power BI Semantic Models and Reports so we can continue to improve.

For example:

• What changes would you like to see?
• What are your main challenges/issues?
• Any suggestions for additional settings or capabilities?

Thanks,

-Power BI team

[jol]

@RuiRomanoMS
Just saved a Power BI report using the PBIR enhanced format in Power BI Desktop, Version: 2.146.1133.0 64-bit (August 2025).

The visual.json files each reference the schema 

"https://developer.microsoft.com/json-schemas/fabric/item/report/definition/visualContainer/2.2.0/sch...". However I'm getting an error in VS Code as there is no schema found at that address.

Thanks

[jaryszek]

Using it but it is almost impossible to work with multiple developers. 
Try to add or remove pages and merge change by git automatically. 

your changes will be replaced. 

Idea is good, practice (as always wtihin Microsoft environment) is not that good. 

Best,
Jacek

[andyclap]

This is my biggest complaint too. If adding a whole - completely independent - new page to a report, can't even be merged, what chance is there that anything more complex will be possible. The report format needs to be designed from the ground up with this in mind. Non-pixel-based layout containers (flex style) need to be added to allow logical rearrangement. One of my reports decided to replace every single id last week. /sigh/
Carrying on like this is an absolute dead-end.
The semantic-model format is OK though 😉

[EduardD]

@RuiRomanoMS 

I created a PBIX report in the desktop, published and downloaded it back multiple times. 

Yesterday I made some changes in TMDL view, stored file in PBIX, then refreshed in the desktop and published PBIX to the Power BI service. 

Now I cannot download the file back to the desktop - download process starts but ends with error. 

Any ideas how to resiolve the issue? I still have a pbix desktop file but publishing from Desktop is no longer a reversable process for the  file.
Any ideas how to fix it, or it is by design one way street?
Thnak you.

[EduardD]

Resolved. The issue was in Power BI desktop July 2025. Retruned back to June version now I can publish and howload the report back

[RuiRomanoMS]

Do you mind opening a bug for this one? I cannot repro...

[JakeJess]

Hi,

We have been working with the PBIP and the Fabric Git Integration for quite some time now. A couple of questions that have come up within our development team:

- Sometimes we get changes to our reports/semantic models in Power BI Service. As our workflow is setup by working locally to Azure DevOps and then updating our workspaces in PBI Service. When we get the changes from PBI Service we can't see what the changes are only that there are changes, It would be great to be able to see what the changes are made in PBI Service before committing changes to Azure DevOps as our workflow only works from the other direction. Our question here is, why does Microsoft push changes to PBI Service that we cannot review before committing or undoing them to Azure DevOps?

- We also wonder when TMDL format will be GA and no longer i Public Preview as this is something we are looking forward to. 

[gtdoug]

What is the use case where it makes sense to update in the PBI Service directly?  I believe the only way to address this currently is to prevent those changes through governance.  It sounds like your team is pretty mature, so I would think you would want review, comments, and association with work items before committing to source control.  Changes to the PBI Service are a long way off from that!

[JakeJess]

Maybe I was unclear but that is my point. We don't want to commit from PBI Service at all, especially items that we cannot review what the changes are. 

[mike_honey]

The way I imagine it, there wouldnt be much duplication.  After the "file" is opened, the PBIP files do not need to be read or written if a PBIX file is being updated. I would rather have the reverse of what you proposed - an Export as PBIP option that will update the PBIP files from the PBIX.  There could also be a prompt for this when closing the "file".

This would surely be a simpler and less error-prone process than the current requirement to co-ordinate live updates to multiple PBIP JSON files while the user works.  That code was already written and tested a decade ago - seems very solid.  Instead the PBIP code can concentrate on the bulk sync/update task. That only needs to run on open and close for a typical session.

[mike_honey]

I think a minor change to the UI and the way the files are organised would ease the pressure on this change and help it get finalised and out to GA quicker:

- add the PBIP format select to the CURRENT FILE section of the options, so we can select file-by-file whether to use PBIP and in what format (PBIR and TMDL options)

- when a PBIP format is selected, still create a PBIX file. The PBIP content would go in a subfolder.

- when the user opens a PBIX with a subfolder of PBIP content, the UI should check for differences and present the user with a list, to approve or reject.

With those changes in place, the PBIX file can be thought of as the "compiled" version of the solution, and can always be trusted as being up-to-date. It is the only file that needs to be shared, published or read by third-party tools, which simplifies all of those scenarios.

For the vast majority of Power BI Desktop users, PBIP can be a format that they only need to worry about when they have a specific need. Pro-Developer types can have PBIP on all the time, run CI/CD, Git integration etc to their hearts content.  But the reality is the vast majority of current Power BI Desktop users will never use Git or similar, and have no interest in coding the json content.

The PBIP format can then be free to evolve, without the pressure of being the main storage format.

[RuiRomanoMS]

Thanks for your feedback and ideas. Please also create an idea in Fabric Ideas - Microsoft Fabric Community

Regarding using PBIX and PBIP simultaneously, I understand the request, but I’m concerned that it might create more issues than benefits due to duplication. When working in PBIP, you always have the option to save as PBIX. While this does alter the save workflow, what if we provided an "Export as PBIX" option from PBIP? Would that help?

[Ferfren]

Hello, we are a development team. Our workflow is as follows: we use the new .pbip project format in Git, with Azure DevOps, synchronized in a workspace called "Development." Then we use Deployment Pipelines to deploy to the test workspace and later to the production workspace.

We are encountering an issue where using then new format .pbip whit the Deployment pipelines, results in an error. This error does not provide any details; it only includes the GUIDs of the operation:

• Operation IDa95548bf-35a9-4de8-829f-7ac8c4ac6317
• Correlation IDacec632a-8aff-116d-6b7a-e0bc846eff1b
• Request IDba95b513-b606-4e8c-78a4-b9112c05e62d
• Time16/1/2025, 7:50:19
• Service version13.0.24852.33
• Client version2412.1.22075-train
• Cluster URIhttps://wabi-south-central-us-redirect.analysis.windows.net/

[Ferfren]

Thanks! 

[RuiRomanoMS]

We are working to provide more details in situations like these. 
In the meantime, please open a support ticket they can help provide more details into what is going on.

[mike_honey]

Tried the PBIR format but ran into the limitations about not being able to "Save As" back to PBIX or true PBIP format. This made the whole thing too much of a leap-of-faith for me - a one-way journey to a preview format.

For now went back to the PBIP format and was able to get what I needed done (copying pages) within the monster report.json file.

[RuiRomanoMS]

Are you referring to the "Save as Copy" in service limitation? If not, which limitation are you referring to? You should be able to convert between PBIP and PBIX with PBIR format.

[mike_honey]

WRT https://learn.microsoft.com/en-au/power-bi/developer/projects/projects-report#pbir-considerations-an...

• Once a report is converted from PBIR-Legacy to PBIR, it isn't possible to roll it back.

• Converting a PBIP file to a PBIX file using the "Save As" feature embeds the PBIR report within the PBIX file, carrying over all PBIR limitations to the PBIX.

[Devale1]

i think i was able to workaround this issue:
1. by converting the PBIR into a PBIT (template)

2. and then to open the PBIT and save as PBIX.

[mike_honey]

Thanks @Devale1 for coming up with that.  But from my testing, the resulting PBIX file still has an embedded PBIR. If you open the PBIR->PBIT->PBIX file as a zipped folder structure, you will see sub-folders like \Report\definition\pages.  Those do not exist in a standard PBIX, I understand that to be traces of the PBIR format.