# Installation
## Requirements
- Power BI Desktop (with a PBIX file open for discovery)
- Windows OS
- Visual Studio Code (for MCP server integration)
- [.NET 8.0 Runtime](https://dotnet.microsoft.com/download/dotnet/8.0) (for development setup only)
## Quick Installation (Recommended)
### Option A: Pre-built Executable
The fastest way to get started:
1. **Run Power BI Discovery** to detect Power BI Desktop and populate the `.env` file:
```cmd
Releases\pbi-local-mcp.DiscoverCli.exe
```
Follow prompts to select the instance and database. This writes `PBI_PORT` and `PBI_DB_ID` to `.env` in the project root.
2. **Configure MCP server in VS Code:**
Add a `.vscode/mcp.json` file:
```json
{
"mcpServers": {
"MCPBI": {
"command": "Releases/mcpbi.exe",
"args": [],
"disabled": false,
"alwaysAllow": []
}
}
}
```
This automatically loads the `.env` file and starts the MCP server for VS Code integration.
### Option B: Development Setup
For development and testing:
**Additional Requirements:**
- [.NET 8.0 SDK](https://dotnet.microsoft.com/download/dotnet/8.0)
1. **Clone the repository** and open it in your terminal.
2. **Run InstanceDiscovery** to detect Power BI Desktop and populate the `.env` file:
```sh
dotnet run --project pbi-local-mcp/pbi-local-mcp.csproj discover-pbi
```
Follow prompts to select the instance and database. This writes `PBI_PORT` and `PBI_DB_ID` to `.env` in the project root.
3. **Configure MCP server in VS Code:**
Add a `.vscode/mcp.json` file:
```json
{
"servers": {
"tabular-mcp": {
"type": "stdio",
"command": "dotnet",
"envFile": "${workspaceFolder}/.env",
"args": [
"run",
"--project",
"${workspaceFolder}/pbi-local-mcp/pbi-local-mcp.csproj"
]
}
}
}
```
This loads the `.env` file and starts the MCP server for VS Code integration.
## Manual Setup
**If you already know your port and database ID:**
Create `.env` in the project root with:
```
PBI_PORT=<your_pbi_instance_port>
PBI_DB_ID=<your_pbi_database_id>
```
