pbix-lineage

pbix-lineage

Universal lineage graph for Power BI (.pbix) files: from physical source to the field displayed in a report visual.

source (HTTP, OData, SQL, file...) --> Power Query (M)
    --> column / calculated column --> measure (DAX)
        --> field displayed in a report visual

The graph is a standard networkx.DiGraph, natively bidirectional: trace a visual back to its source (upstream), or list everything a source feeds (downstream).

Why

pbixray (used here) extracts the data model (tables, DAX, Power Query, schema) but says nothing about where each column or measure ends up displayed — that lives in a separate, undocumented part of the file (Report/Layout). pbix-lineage connects both into one traversable graph.

Install

pip install pbix-lineage
# or
uv add pbix-lineage

Usage

from pbix_lineage import LineageGraphBuilder, upstream, downstream, print_tree, find_nodes

graph = LineageGraphBuilder().build("my_report.pbix")

find_nodes(graph, "customer_name")
# -> ['column::DIM_CUSTOMER::customer_name']

print_tree(graph, "visual_field::my_report.pbix::Page1::16::customer_name", direction="upstream")
print_tree(graph, "source::odata::example.com/odata/", direction="downstream")

Export

from pbix_lineage import export_graphml, export_nodes_csv, export_edges_csv, graph_summary

graph_summary(graph)                       # {'query': 70, 'column': 183, ...}
export_graphml(graph, "lineage.graphml")   # opens in Gephi / yEd
export_nodes_csv(graph, "nodes.csv")
export_edges_csv(graph, "edges.csv")

Source-agnostic

Source detection (pbix_lineage.sources) relies only on native M function names (Web.Contents, OData.Feed, Sql.Database, Folder.Files, SharePoint.Files, Excel.Workbook, AnalysisServices.Database, ...) — never a specific system or domain. Adding a new source type is one config entry in MFunctionSourceDetector.DEFAULT_PATTERNS, no other code touched.

HTTP API / MCP server

The package also exposes a FastAPI app, mounted as an MCP server via FastMCP (FastMCP.from_fastapi): every route becomes an MCP tool automatically.

uv sync --extra api
uv run pbix-lineage    # starts on http://127.0.0.1:8080

• REST API: POST /graphs, /search, /upstream, /downstream, /tree, /export, GET /graphs.
• MCP server (streamable HTTP) at http://127.0.0.1:8080/mcp/: same operations as tools (build_graph, search_nodes, get_upstream, get_downstream, get_lineage_tree, export_graph, list_loaded_graphs), plus a lineage_guidance prompt.
• Env vars: PBIX_LINEAGE_HOST (default 0.0.0.0), PBIX_LINEAGE_PORT (default 8080).

Each .pbix is parsed once and cached in memory (LineageGraphCache, framework-agnostic).

Publish to the MCP registry

server.json describes this server for registry.modelcontextprotocol.io. After replacing votre-org with your GitHub account everywhere:

uv build && uv publish          # publish the package to PyPI first
mcp-publisher login github
mcp-publisher publish --dry-run
mcp-publisher publish

The registry verifies PyPI ownership via the <!-- mcp-name: ... --> marker at the top of this README. The name in server.json, this marker, and your authenticated GitHub namespace must all match.

Architecture

Module	Responsibility
models.py	Node/edge types and shared data structures
sources.py	Physical source detection (agnostic, configurable)
pbix_model.py	Adapter isolating the rest of the code frompbixray
dax.py	DAX reference parsing (Table[Field] / [Field])
mquery.py	Dependencies between Power Query queries (table-level)
layout.py	Parsing of the internalReport/Layout format
graph_builder.py	Orchestrator: builds thenetworkx.DiGraph
navigation.py	Upstream/downstream traversal, search, export
api/schemas.py	Pydantic request/response models
api/service.py	Graph cache, framework-agnostic
api/app.py	FastAPI app + MCP mount (FastMCP)

Known limitations

• M query dependencies are resolved at table level, not step-by-step inside a single let ... in query.
• A source reached only through a literal M parameter may be tagged with a generic system (http) instead of the exact consumer connector (odata, etc.).
• Unqualified DAX references ([MeasureName]) are resolved same-table first, then globally; homonyms across tables resolve to the first match.

Development

uv sync --extra dev
uv run pytest     # BDD tests (pytest-bdd) under tests/features/*.feature
uv build          # produces dist/*.whl and dist/*.tar.gz

License

MIT