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0002 — Save Power BI in PBIP + TMDL text format

  • Status: Accepted
  • Date: 2026-07-22

Context

Power BI's traditional save format, .pbix, is a single binary file. Binary files are opaque to git: you cannot see what changed between versions, cannot review changes, and cannot merge work. For a project that wants to demonstrate professional, source-controlled BI development, that is a poor fit.

Power BI Desktop now offers the Power BI Project (PBIP) save format, in which the report and its data model are stored as plain text:

  • the semantic model is written in TMDL (Tabular Model Definition Language) — a readable, human-editable format for tables, columns, relationships and DAX measures;
  • the report is stored as JSON (the PBIR format).

Decision

Save the Power BI work as a PBIP project (text) rather than a binary .pbix. Enable the PBIP option in Power BI Desktop before starting.

Consequences

  • ✅ The data model and DAX live in git as readable, diffable code — every change is visible and reviewable.
  • ✅ It signals modern, engineering-grade BI practice to reviewers.
  • ✅ It enables AI-assisted authoring of the model directly in TMDL.
  • ⚠️ PBIP is a relatively new format; some advanced features may still evolve. We accept this trade-off for the version-control benefits.
  • ⚠️ The legacy .pbix is git-ignored to avoid accidentally committing a blob.