Power BI MCP connector with progressive discovery for Copilot Studio

March 26, 2026

Power BI has a deep REST API—workspaces, reports, dashboards, datasets, apps, DAX queries, and async report export. Wrapping each operation as a typed MCP tool would flood the orchestrator’s context window before it even starts working. This connector uses Power Mission Control to expose 35 operations across 6 domains through three tools, plus 16 REST operations for Power Automate and Power Apps.

Full source: GitHub repository

Tools

Orchestration tools (scan, launch, sequence)

How it works

User: "What reports do I have?"

1. Orchestrator calls scan_powerbi({query: "list reports"})
   → Returns: list_reports (GET /reports), list_workspace_reports (GET /groups/{groupId}/reports)

2. Orchestrator calls launch_powerbi({
     endpoint: "/reports",
     method: "GET"
   })
   → Returns: list of reports with IDs, names, and URLs

Capability index domains

The index covers 35 operations across 6 domains:

DAX query execution

Run DAX queries directly against datasets through the orchestrator:

User: "Run a DAX query against dataset cfafbeb1-8037-4d0c-896e-a46fb27ff229
        to get all rows from the Sales table"

1. Orchestrator calls scan_powerbi({query: "execute DAX query"})
   → Returns: execute_queries (POST /datasets/{datasetId}/executeQueries)

2. Orchestrator calls launch_powerbi({
     endpoint: "/datasets/cfafbeb1-8037-4d0c-896e-a46fb27ff229/executeQueries",
     method: "POST",
     body: {
       "queries": [{ "query": "EVALUATE VALUES(Sales)" }],
       "serializerSettings": { "includeNulls": true }
     }
   })
   → Returns: query results with rows and columns

DAX queries are limited to 100,000 rows or 1,000,000 values per query, whichever is hit first. Power BI throttles at 120 query requests per minute per user—the connector handles HTTP 429 responses with automatic retry using the Retry-After header.

The Dataset Execute Queries REST API tenant setting must be enabled in the Power BI admin portal under Integration settings for this to work.

Report export workflow

Export uses an async flow. The connector’s capability index includes orchestration hints so the orchestrator chains the steps automatically:

1. scan_powerbi → find export_report
2. launch_powerbi → trigger POST /reports/{reportId}/ExportTo with format (PDF, PPTX, PNG)
3. scan_powerbi → find get_export_status
4. launch_powerbi → poll GET /reports/{reportId}/exports/{exportId} until status: Succeeded
5. Share the resourceLocation download URL with the user

The export_report capability description explicitly tells the orchestrator to poll with get_export_status after triggering, so it chains correctly without additional prompting.

Sequence operations

Use sequence_powerbi to combine multiple API calls:

{
  "requests": [
    { "id": "1", "endpoint": "/reports", "method": "GET" },
    { "id": "2", "endpoint": "/datasets", "method": "GET" }
  ]
}

This returns reports and datasets in a single response, reducing round trips. Maximum 20 requests per sequence.

REST operations for Power Automate and Power Apps

The same connector exposes 16 typed Swagger operations for use in flows and apps:

Prerequisites

1. An Azure AD app registration with delegated permissions for Power BI
2. A Power Platform environment with a custom connector license
3. The Dataset Execute Queries REST API tenant setting enabled in the Power BI admin portal (under Integration settings) for DAX query execution

Setting up the connector

1. Register an Azure AD application

1. Go to Azure portal > Microsoft Entra ID > App registrations
2. Select New registration
   • Name: Power BI Connector
   • Supported account types: Accounts in any organizational directory (Multitenant)
   • Redirect URI: Web > https://global.consent.azure-apim.net/redirect
3. Note the Application (client) ID
4. Go to Certificates & secrets > New client secret > note the secret value
5. Go to API permissions > Add a permission > Power BI Service > Delegated permissions:
   • Dashboard.Read.All
   • Dataset.Read.All
   • Dataset.ReadWrite.All
   • Report.Read.All
   • Workspace.Read.All
   • App.Read.All
6. Select Grant admin consent (or have a tenant admin do this)

2. Update apiProperties.json

Replace [YOUR_CLIENT_ID] with your Application (client) ID.

3. Create the custom connector

1. Go to Power Platform Maker Portal
2. Navigate to Custom connectors > + New custom connector > Import an OpenAPI file
3. Upload apiDefinition.swagger.json
4. On the Security tab:
   • Authentication type: OAuth 2.0
   • Identity Provider: Azure Active Directory
   • Client ID: Your Application ID
   • Client Secret: Your secret
   • Resource URL: https://analysis.windows.net/powerbi/api
5. On the Code tab:
   • Enable Code
   • Upload script.csx
6. Select Create connector

4. Test the connection

1. Select the Test tab > + New connection
2. Sign in with your Microsoft account
3. Test the InvokeMCP operation with:

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "method": "initialize",
  "id": "1",
  "params": {
    "protocolVersion": "2025-11-25",
    "clientInfo": { "name": "test" }
  }
}

5. Add to Copilot Studio

1. In Copilot Studio, open your agent
2. Add this connector as an action—Copilot Studio detects the MCP endpoint via x-ms-agentic-protocol
3. Test with prompts like “What workspaces do I have?” or “List my reports”

Required permissions

Authentication

Power BI API notes

• All Power BI REST API endpoints use base URL https://api.powerbi.com/v1.0/myorg
• Workspaces are called “groups” in the API (for example, /groups/{groupId})
• DAX queries are limited to 100,000 rows or 1,000,000 values per query, whichever is hit first
• Power BI throttles at 120 query requests per minute per user (HTTP 429 with Retry-After header, handled automatically)
• Report export is asynchronous—trigger with ExportTo, poll status, then download via resourceLocation URL
• Export supports PDF, PPTX, and PNG for Power BI reports; paginated reports additionally support XLSX, DOCX, CSV, XML, and MHTML

Files

Resources

• Power BI connector source code
• Power Mission Control template
• Power BI REST API reference