pbir-visual-creator

name	pbir-visual-creator
description	Create Power BI PBIR visuals from templates. Use when users need to add visuals (cards, charts, tables, slicers, maps) to Power BI Enhanced Report Format projects. Handles template selection, placeholder substitution, measure/column binding, and visual.json generation.

PBIR Visual Creator

Create Power BI visuals for PBIR (.Report folder) projects using validated templates.

When to Use This Skill

Use when the user wants to:

• Add a new visual to a Power BI report page
• Create a card, chart, table, matrix, slicer, or map visual
• Generate visual.json files for PBIR projects
• Bind measures or columns to visuals

Available Templates

Search visual-templates/ in this plugin for available templates:

Template	Visual Type	Use Case
card-single-measure.json	Card	Single KPI display
line-chart-category-y.json	Line Chart	Trend over category
line-chart-multi-y.json	Line Chart	Multiple measures on Y
line-chart-with-series.json	Line Chart	Category + legend series
bar-chart-category-y.json	Bar Chart	Horizontal bars
bar-chart-with-series.json	Bar Chart	Grouped/stacked bars
clustered-column-multi-measure.json	Column Chart	Side-by-side columns
table-basic.json	Table	Columnar data
matrix-basic.json	Matrix	Pivot table
pie-chart.json	Pie Chart	Part-to-whole
scatter-bubble-chart.json	Scatter/Bubble	X-Y relationship
azure-map-gradient.json	Azure Map	Filled regions
azure-map-bubble.json	Azure Map	Bubble markers
slicer-between-date.json	Slicer	Date range filter
slicer-dropdown.json	Slicer	Dropdown selection
slicer-list-multiselect.json	Slicer	Multi-select list
image-static.json	Image	Static logo/image

Workflow

Step 1: Gather Requirements

Ask the user:

1. Visual type - What kind of visual? (card, bar chart, line chart, etc.)
2. Data bindings - Which measures/columns?
3. Position - Where on the page? (or use layout defaults)
4. Title - Visual title text
5. Target page - Which report page folder?

Step 2: Select Template

# Find matching template
Glob: visual-templates/*.json

# Read template
Read: visual-templates/[selected-template].json

Step 3: Substitute Placeholders

Replace {{PLACEHOLDER}} values:

Common:

• {{VISUAL_NAME}} - Unique identifier (e.g., TotalSalesCard)
• {{X}}, {{Y}} - Position coordinates
• {{WIDTH}}, {{HEIGHT}} - Dimensions
• {{Z}} - Z-order (typically 2000+)
• {{TAB_ORDER}} - Keyboard navigation order
• {{TITLE}} - Visual title text
• {{FILTER_GUID}} - Generate with secrets.token_hex(10)

Data Bindings:

• {{TABLE_NAME}}, {{MEASURE_NAME}} - Primary measure
• {{CATEGORY_TABLE}}, {{CATEGORY_COLUMN}} - X-axis dimension
• {{SERIES_TABLE}}, {{SERIES_COLUMN}} - Legend/series

Step 4: Generate visual.json

Create folder structure:

.Report/definition/pages/[PageGUID]/visuals/[VisualGUID]/visual.json

Generate GUID: VisualContainer + 8 random hex digits

Step 5: Validate Output

Before writing, verify:

• JSON is well-formed
• All placeholders replaced
• Measure/column references are correct
• Position within canvas (1600x900)

Example: Create a Card Visual

User request: "Add a Total Sales card to the Dashboard page"

Process:

1. Read visual-templates/card-single-measure.json
2. Replace placeholders:

   {{VISUAL_NAME}} → "TotalSalesCard"
   {{TABLE_NAME}} → "Fact_Sales"
   {{MEASURE_NAME}} → "Total Sales"
   {{TITLE}} → "Total Sales"
   {{X}} → "24"
   {{Y}} → "80"
   {{WIDTH}} → "300"
   {{HEIGHT}} → "180"
   {{Z}} → "2000"
   {{TAB_ORDER}} → "0"
   {{FILTER_GUID}} → "a1b2c3d4e5f6789012ab"
   {{FONT_SIZE}} → "32"
   {{DISPLAY_UNITS}} → "1"
   

3. Write to .Report/definition/pages/ReportSection.../visuals/VisualContainerABCD1234/visual.json

Data Binding Patterns

Measure reference:

{
  "field": {
    "Measure": {
      "Expression": { "SourceRef": { "Entity": "TableName" } },
      "Property": "Measure Name"
    }
  },
  "queryRef": "TableName.Measure Name",
  "nativeQueryRef": "Measure Name"
}

Column reference:

{
  "field": {
    "Column": {
      "Expression": { "SourceRef": { "Entity": "TableName" } },
      "Property": "column_name"
    }
  },
  "queryRef": "TableName.column_name",
  "nativeQueryRef": "column_name",
  "active": true
}

Schema Version

All templates use PBIR schema version 2.4.0:

https://developer.microsoft.com/json-schemas/fabric/item/report/definition/visualContainer/2.4.0/schema.json

Constraints

• Templates are read-only (don't modify originals)
• Always generate unique visual GUIDs
• Validate JSON before writing
• Use queryState/projections structure (not legacy config blobs)