Unofficial Power Bi Python API

Table of Contents

• Overview
• Resources
• Architecture
• Setup
• Authentication
• Quick Start
• Samples
• Usage
• Support These Projects

Overview

Version: 0.1.2

Power BI is a business analytics service by Microsoft. It aims to provide interactive visualizations and business intelligence capabilities with an interface simple enough for end users to create their own reports and dashboards. It is part of the Microsoft Power Platform. This library allows you to use the Power BI Rest API from python. Along with providing the different endpoints, it will also handle the authentication process for you.

Resources

• Power BI App Registration Portal
• Power BI Rest API Documentation

Architecture

The library follows a layered design:

PowerBiClient          ← Entry point: creates authenticated session, exposes services
  ├── PowerBiAuth      ← MSAL-based auth: handles login, token refresh, credential persistence
  ├── PowerBiSession   ← HTTP layer: builds headers/URLs, executes requests, raises on errors
  └── Service classes  ← One per API area (Dashboards, Datasets, Reports, …)
        └── make_request()  → PowerBiSession.make_request()  → requests.Session

Layer	Module	Responsibility
Client	powerbi.client	Lazy-initializes each service, owns the session lifecycle, context manager
Auth	powerbi.auth	Wraps msal.ConfidentialClientApplication, handles OAuth 2.0 code flow + silent SSO
Session	powerbi.session	Adds Authorization header, builds REST URLs, calls requests, raises HTTPError with details
Services	powerbi.dashboards, powerbi.datasets, …	One class per API area; methods map 1-to-1 to REST endpoints
Utilities	powerbi.utils	Data-model classes (Dataset, Table, Column, Measure, Relationship, etc.)
Enums	powerbi.enums	Typed constants (ColumnDataTypes, DatasetModes, DataSourceType, etc.)

Setup

Setup - Requirements Install:

For this particular project, you only need to install the dependencies, to use the project. The dependencies are listed in the requirements.txt file and can be installed by running the following command:

pip install -r requirements.txt

After running that command, the dependencies should be installed.

Setup - Local Install:

If you are planning to make modifications to this project or you would like to access it before it has been indexed on PyPi. I would recommend you either install this project in editable mode or do a local install. For those of you, who want to make modifications to this project. I would recommend you install the library in editable mode.

If you want to install the library in editable mode, make sure to run the setup.py file, so you can install any dependencies you may need. To run the setup.py file, run the following command in your terminal.

pip install -e .

If you don't plan to make any modifications to the project but still want to use it across your different projects, then do a local install.

pip install .

This will install all the dependencies listed in the setup.py file. Once done you can use the library wherever you want.

Setup - PyPi Install:

To install the library, run the following command from the terminal.

pip install python-power-bi

Setup - PyPi Upgrade:

To upgrade the library, run the following command from the terminal.

pip install --upgrade python-power-bi

Authentication

This library uses MSAL (Microsoft Authentication Library) with a Confidential Client flow, which is the recommended approach for server-side / backend applications.

How it works

1. Register an app in the Power BI App Registration Portal (or Azure AD). Note your Client ID, Client Secret, and Redirect URI.

2. First run — the library opens a browser-based authorization prompt. After you sign in, paste the redirect URL back into the terminal. The resulting tokens are saved to a local JSON file (power_bi_state.jsonc).

3. Subsequent runs — the library loads the saved tokens and attempts a silent SSO. If the access token is still valid, no interaction is needed. If it has expired, the refresh token is used automatically to obtain a new access token.

Configuration

Copy the example config and fill in your credentials:

cp config/config.ini.example config/config.ini

[power_bi_api]
client_id = <your Azure AD app client id>
client_secret = <your Azure AD app client secret>
redirect_uri = https://localhost:44300/
group_id = <your workspace / group id>

Note: config/config.ini is git-ignored and will never be committed.

Quick Start

Working with Datasets

from powerbi import PowerBiClient

power_bi_client = PowerBiClient(
    client_id="<client_id>",
    client_secret="<client_secret>",
    scope=["https://analysis.windows.net/powerbi/api/.default"],
    redirect_uri="https://localhost:44300/",
    credentials="config/power_bi_state.jsonc",
)

# List all datasets in a workspace.
datasets_service = power_bi_client.datasets()
datasets = datasets_service.get_datasets_in_group(group_id="<group_id>")

Working with Reports

reports_service = power_bi_client.reports()

# Get all reports in a workspace.
reports = reports_service.get_reports_in_group(group_id="<group_id>")

# Export a report to PDF.
reports_service.export_to_file_in_group(
    group_id="<group_id>",
    report_id="<report_id>",
    file_format="PDF",
)

Working with Pipelines

pipelines_service = power_bi_client.pipelines()

# List deployment pipelines.
pipelines = pipelines_service.get_pipelines()

# Deploy all content from Development → Test.
pipelines_service.deploy_all(
    pipeline_id="<pipeline_id>",
    source_stage_order=0,          # Development
    options={"allowOverwriteArtifact": True},
)

Samples

The samples/ directory contains working examples for every service:

Sample	Service
use_client.py	Client initialization
use_available_features.py	Available Features
use_capacities.py	Capacities
use_dashboards_service.py	Dashboards
use_dataflows.py	Dataflows
use_dataflow_storage.py	Dataflow Storage Accounts
use_datasets.py	Datasets
use_gateways_service.py	Gateways
use_groups_service.py	Groups
use_imports.py	Imports
use_pipelines.py	Pipelines
use_push_datasets.py	Push Datasets
use_reports_service.py	Reports
use_template_apps_service.py	Template Apps
use_users_service.py	Users
use_utils.py	Utility classes

Usage

Here is a simple example of using the powerbi library.

from pprint import pprint
from configparser import ConfigParser
from powerbi.client import PowerBiClient

# Initialize the Parser.
config = ConfigParser()

# Read the file.
config.read('config/config.ini')

# Get the specified credentials.
client_id = config.get('power_bi_api', 'client_id')
redirect_uri = config.get('power_bi_api', 'redirect_uri')
client_secret = config.get('power_bi_api', 'client_secret')

# Initialize the Client.
power_bi_client = PowerBiClient(
    client_id=client_id,
    client_secret=client_secret,
    scope=['https://analysis.windows.net/powerbi/api/.default'],
    redirect_uri=redirect_uri,
    credentials='config/power_bi_state.jsonc'
)

# Initialize the `Dashboards` service.
dashboard_service = power_bi_client.dashboards()

# Add a dashboard to our Workspace.
dashboard_service.add_dashboard(name='my_new_dashboard')

# Get all the dashboards in our Org.
pprint(dashboard_service.get_dashboards())

Support These Projects

Patreon: Help support this project and future projects by donating to my Patreon Page. I'm always looking to add more content for individuals like yourself, unfortuantely some of the APIs I would require me to pay monthly fees.

YouTube: If you'd like to watch more of my content, feel free to visit my YouTube channel Sigma Coding.

Questions: If you have questions please feel free to reach out to me at coding.sigma@gmail.com