Getting it into your agent
It runs from inside its repository, so the clone comes first — what it calls does not travel with the file alone.
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/santoshkanthety/powerbi-agentnpx agentmods add skills/santoshkanthety/powerbi-agent/powerbi-connect-pbidWrote this? Show the measurements
A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.
[](https://agentmods.dev/skills/santoshkanthety/powerbi-agent/powerbi-connect-pbid)<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/santoshkanthety/powerbi-agent/powerbi-connect-pbid"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/santoshkanthety/powerbi-agent/powerbi-connect-pbid/github.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>Or the 80×15 button, for a site that already has a row of RSS and ATOM ones. Only the verdict fits; the numbers stay here.
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/santoshkanthety/powerbi-agent/powerbi-connect-pbid"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/santoshkanthety/powerbi-agent/powerbi-connect-pbid.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>What it costs to keep this loaded
Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.
| Model | Per session | Once invoked |
|---|---|---|
| Fable 5.1 | $0.00179 | $0.08106 |
| Opus 5 | $0.00089 | $0.04053 |
| Sonnet 5 | $0.00036 | $0.01621 |
| Haiku 4.5 | $0.00018 | $0.00811 |
Grade A, and why
powerbi-connect-pbid scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 12d ago.
A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.
Nothing flagged
None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.
How it starts
The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 617 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.
Connect to Power BI Desktop (Local Analysis Services)
CRITICAL: Record mistakes, surprises, and model-specific nuances encountered while using this skill in
.claude/rules/connect-pbid.md. This file must begin with "Learnings from Claude about connecting to semantic models via the connect-pbid skill". Write only active reference notes (e.g. "QueryGroup property returns an object; access .Folder for the name string"); do not log a changelog or history of events. Omit anything already documented in the skill or its references. Keep the file under 1500 characters at all times; prune stale entries when adding new ones. Do not over-attend to this file; update it only when something genuinely unexpected is discovered.
Note: No MCP server required; do not use this skill with MCP servers or CLI tools. Use this skill to execute PowerShell commands directly via Bash to connect to Power BI Desktop's local Analysis Services instance.
Expert guidance for connecting to Power BI Desktop's local tabular model via the Tabular Object Model (TOM) and ADOMD.NET in PowerShell. Covers connection, enumeration, DAX queries, query traces, and full model modification.
When to Use This Skill
Activate only when the Tabular Editor CLI or a Power BI MCP server is unavailable. TOM is more reliable than direct TMDL editing because it validates changes against the engine and applies them atomically.
WARNING: This skill does NOT support remote models via the XMLA endpoint. For Direct Lake models or models hosted in Fabric, use the Tabular Editor CLI or a Power BI MCP server instead; the local Analysis Services proxy does not expose Direct Lake databases to external TOM/ADOMD.NET connections.
Critical
- Power BI Desktop must be open with a model loaded before connecting; if there are errors it is likely due to a "thin report" connected to a remote model, or a Direct Lake model (which uses a remote proxy that blocks external connections)
- The local Analysis Services instance only accepts connections from
localhost - Multiple PBI Desktop files open means multiple
msmdsrv.exeprocesses on different ports. Connect to each port, read$server.Databases[0].Name, and ask the user which model to work with if more than one is found - Always use a timeout of 60000ms or higher for PowerShell commands via Bash
- Shell escaping: Bash eats PowerShell
$variables ($env:TEMP,$server, etc.) silently. Two options: (1) single-quote the-Commandarg so Bash passes$literally to PowerShell; (2) write a.ps1file with a heredoc (single-quoted delimiter preserves$) and use-File. On macOS via Parallels, theprlctl->cmd.exe->powershell.exechain adds extra escaping layers;.ps1files are more reliable for complex scripts but inline-Commandwith single quotes works for short commands. - Always use
-ExecutionPolicy Bypasswhen running PowerShell commands or scripts. Windows blocks unsigned scripts by default. - Script file location -- persistent scripts should go in the agent harness's scripts directory for the project (
.claude/scripts/,.github/scripts/,.cursor/scripts/,.gemini/scripts/, etc. depending on the harness). Ephemeral or throwaway scripts should go in a projecttmp/directory (which should be.gitignored). Do not write scripts to./root or/tmp/. - Do not modify model metadata without explicit user direction
- Always call
$model.SaveChanges()to persist modifications; without it, changes are discarded - For macOS users running PBI Desktop in Parallels, see parallels-macos.md
- Validation hooks are active for this plugin; they validate DAX references, enforce measure metadata, check referential integrity, and report compatibility level upgrade opportunities. Toggle checks in
hooks/config.yaml.
What this file has done since we first saw it
Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.
- 12d ago First seen · 617 lines · 179 tokens per session scan A 652b38b89dda
powerbi-connect-pbid is a skill published in the GitHub repository santoshkanthety/powerbi-agent (2 stars, last pushed 13d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 179 tokens to every session and 8,106 once invoked, about $0.0009 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-31.
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