Skip to main content
cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

The Power BI Data Visualization World Championships is back! Get ahead of the game and start preparing now! Learn more

Reply
ruialves
Regular Visitor

API exploration - How to get model metadata

Hello,

 

On Report Server, i noticed using F12 Developer options that i could see something similar to report Layout (whem pbix decompressed) if i see the following link :

https://server/powerbi/api/explore/reports/{report id}/modelsAndExploration?preferReadOnlySession=true

 

My question is if there is an API GET (or POST method) where i can retrieve the metadata of model - Example : measures code, partitions, power query code, with the objective to build an automatic model documentation solution.

 

What i would look is something like :

https://server/powerbi/api/explore/reports/{report id}/measures or https://server/powerbi/api/explore/reports/{report id}/datamodel

 

Thanks

Rui

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION
d_gosbell
Super User
Super User

The full public, documented API is published here https://app.swaggerhub.com/apis/microsoft-rs/pbirs/2.0# and there are no methods in there that return the model metadata. Although you will not find the modelsAndExploration endpoint in there either as this must be an internal, undocumented endpoint. 

 

However becuase PBIRS does not offer a web editing experience I do not believe you will even find an undocumented API to get the model metadata

View solution in original post

3 REPLIES 3
Anonymous
Not applicable

How can I obtain token for these APIs? Im unable to access these APIs because of the tokens. Could anyone tell me something regarding this?


@Anonymous wrote:

How can I obtain token for these APIs? Im unable to access these APIs because of the tokens. Could anyone tell me something regarding this?


The on-prem report server does not require or support the use of tokens for authentication. They use NTLM/Kerberos auth by default.

 

Just doing a quick google for "Power BI REST API authentication" turned up the following which may help

https://community.powerbi.com/t5/Developer/REST-API-Get-Access-Token/m-p/1895937 

d_gosbell
Super User
Super User

The full public, documented API is published here https://app.swaggerhub.com/apis/microsoft-rs/pbirs/2.0# and there are no methods in there that return the model metadata. Although you will not find the modelsAndExploration endpoint in there either as this must be an internal, undocumented endpoint. 

 

However becuase PBIRS does not offer a web editing experience I do not believe you will even find an undocumented API to get the model metadata

Helpful resources

Announcements
November Power BI Update Carousel

Power BI Monthly Update - November 2025

Check out the November 2025 Power BI update to learn about new features.

Fabric Data Days Carousel

Fabric Data Days

Advance your Data & AI career with 50 days of live learning, contests, hands-on challenges, study groups & certifications and more!

FabCon Atlanta 2026 carousel

FabCon Atlanta 2026

Join us at FabCon Atlanta, March 16-20, for the ultimate Fabric, Power BI, AI and SQL community-led event. Save $200 with code FABCOMM.