semantic-model-consumption

name

semantic-model-consumption

description

Execute raw DAX queries and inspect metadata of Microsoft Fabric Power BI semantic models via the MCP server ExecuteQuery tool. Use when the user already knows the DAX to write, wants to run EVALUATE statements, or needs to inspect model metadata (tables, columns, measures, relationships, hierarchies) using INFO functions. For natural-language business questions (where you generate the DAX), use `fabriciq`. For creating, deploying, or managing semantic model definitions, use `semantic-model-authoring`. Triggers: "run DAX query", "execute EVALUATE", "semantic model metadata", "list semantic model tables", "INFO.VIEW.TABLES", "get measure expression", "DAX against", "query the model".

Update Check — ONCE PER SESSION (mandatory) The first time this skill is used in a session, run the check-updates skill before proceeding.

• GitHub Copilot CLI / VS Code: invoke the check-updates skill.
• Claude Code / Cowork / Cursor / Windsurf / Codex: compare local vs remote package.json version.
• Skip if the check was already performed earlier in this session.

CRITICAL NOTES

1. To find the workspace details (including its ID) from workspace name: list all workspaces and, then, use JMESPath filtering
2. To find the item details (including its ID) from workspace ID, item type, and item name: list all items of that type in that workspace and, then, use JMESPath filtering

Power BI Semantic Model Consumption

Table of Contents

Task	Reference	Notes
Finding Workspaces and Items in Fabric	COMMON-CLI.md § Finding Workspaces and Items in Fabric	Mandatory — READ link first [needed for finding workspace id by its name or item id by its name, item type, and workspace id]
Fabric Topology & Key Concepts	COMMON-CORE.md § Fabric Topology & Key Concepts	Hierarchy; Finding Things in Fabric
Environment URLs	COMMON-CORE.md § Environment URLs	Production (Public Cloud)
Authentication & Token Acquisition	COMMON-CORE.md § Authentication & Token Acquisition	Wrong audience = 401; covers token audiences, delegated vs app permissions, OAuth flows, identity types, and Entra app registration
Core Control-Plane REST APIs	COMMON-CORE.md § Core Control-Plane REST APIs	Includes workspace/item CRUD, resolve-by-name, pagination, LRO polling, and rate-limiting patterns
OneLake Data Access	COMMON-CORE.md § OneLake Data Access	Requires storage.azure.com token, not Fabric token; covers URL structure, ADLS Gen2 parity, and shortcuts
Job Execution	COMMON-CORE.md § Job Execution	Run On-Demand Job; Get / Cancel Job
Capacity Management	COMMON-CORE.md § Capacity Management	List Capacities; Assign Workspace to Capacity
Gotchas, Best Practices & Troubleshooting	COMMON-CORE.md § Gotchas, Best Practices & Troubleshooting	Common Errors; Best Practices
Tool Selection Rationale	COMMON-CLI.md § Tool Selection Rationale
Authentication Recipes	COMMON-CLI.md § Authentication Recipes	az login flows, environment detection, token acquisition, and debugging
Fabric Control-Plane API via az rest	COMMON-CLI.md § Fabric Control-Plane API via az rest	Always pass --resource; includes workspace/item operations, pagination, and LRO patterns
OneLake Data Access via curl	COMMON-CLI.md § OneLake Data Access via curl	Use curl not az rest (different token audience); file list/read/upload/delete and directory creation
SQL / TDS Data-Plane Access	COMMON-CLI.md § SQL / TDS Data-Plane Access	sqlcmd (Go) connect, query, CSV export, service principal auth, and connection parameter discovery
Job Execution (CLI)	COMMON-CLI.md § Job Execution	Run notebooks/pipelines, refresh semantic models, check/cancel jobs
OneLake Shortcuts	COMMON-CLI.md § OneLake Shortcuts	Create a Shortcut; List Shortcuts; Delete a Shortcut
Capacity Management (CLI)	COMMON-CLI.md § Capacity Management	List Capacities; Assign Workspace to Capacity
Composite Recipes	COMMON-CLI.md § Composite Recipes	End-to-end workspace→lakehouse→file, SQL endpoint→query, and notebook execution recipes
Gotchas & Troubleshooting (CLI-Specific)	COMMON-CLI.md § Gotchas & Troubleshooting (CLI-Specific)
Quick Reference	COMMON-CLI.md § Quick Reference	az rest Template; Token Audience ↔ CLI Tool Matrix
Prerequisites	SKILL.md § Prerequisites
Must/Prefer/Avoid	SKILL.md § Must/Prefer/Avoid	Guardrails for read-only semantic model usage. MUST DO; PREFER; AVOID
Metadata Discovery	SKILL.md § Metadata Discovery	INFO.VIEW.* and INFO.* functions.
Recommended Discovery Order	SKILL.md § Recommended Discovery Order	Preferred order for metadata exploration
Frequently Used INFO Functions	SKILL.md § Frequently Used INFO Functions	High-usage function list for first-pass discovery
Complete INFO Function Catalog (Dynamic)	discovery-queries.md § Complete INFO Function Catalog (Dynamic)
Metadata Object → INFO Function Map	SKILL.md § Metadata Object → INFO Function Map	Inlined mapping for object-focused discovery
Query Execution	SKILL.md § Query Execution	ExecuteQuery usage shape
Troubleshooting	SKILL.md § Troubleshooting	Resolve common execution and metadata issues
Examples	SKILL.md § Examples	Sample Metadata Query; Sample Data Query
Scope Estimation Queries	discovery-queries.md § Scope Estimation Queries
INFO Output Columns	discovery-queries.md § INFO Output Columns	INFO.VIEW.* (preferred first-pass metadata); Critical INFO.* (deep metadata / diagnostics)
Narrowing Results (Projection + Filtering)	discovery-queries.md § Narrowing Results (Projection + Filtering)
Deep Metadata Queries	discovery-queries.md § Deep Metadata Queries
Dependency Discovery	discovery-queries.md § Dependency Discovery	Dependency rowset for a DAX query; Dependency rows scoped to a measure; Reverse dependencies (what references a measure)

Prerequisites

• COMMON-CORE.md — Fabric concepts, authentication, and control-plane API context.
• COMMON-CLI.md — CLI-oriented discovery and token/audience patterns.

Must/Prefer/Avoid

MUST DO

• Call MCP tools for discovery and execution — use DiscoverArtifacts to find the semantic model GUID and ExecuteQuery to run DAX queries. These are MCP tool invocations, not shell commands. Do NOT use az rest, Get-Command, or PowerShell scripts to discover or invoke them.
• Keep this skill read-only: metadata discovery and analytical DAX queries only.
• Treat DAX data queries and INFO.VIEW.* as available to any user with read access to the semantic model; assume other INFO.* functions may require elevated permissions.
• Resolve workspace and semantic model item identity dynamically; do not hardcode IDs.
• Use DAX INFO.VIEW.* / INFO.* for metadata discovery before writing data queries.

PREFER

• Validate semantic model scope early (artifactId) before iterative query refinement.
• Discover semantic model schema progressively: use filtered and projected INFO.VIEW.* / INFO.* calls (e.g., SELECTCOLUMNS + FILTER) to fetch only the information directly relevant to the current task instead of retrieving the full schema up front. See discovery-queries.md § Narrowing Results (Projection + Filtering).
• Keep guidance provider-agnostic so tool endpoint migration is low risk.

AVOID

• Model-change operations in this skill.

Recommended Discovery Order

1. Run the discovery-queries.md § Scope Estimation Queries to estimate metadata scope (table, column, measure, and relationship counts) before deep discovery.
2. Start with INFO.VIEW.TABLES() for a fast table inventory.
3. Expand to INFO.VIEW.COLUMNS() and INFO.VIEW.MEASURES() for semantic details.
4. Use INFO.VIEW.RELATIONSHIPS() to validate joins and filter behavior.
5. Use the full query catalog in discovery-queries.md for deeper patterns.

Frequently Used INFO Functions

• INFO.VIEW.TABLES
• INFO.VIEW.MEASURES
• INFO.VIEW.COLUMNS
• INFO.VIEW.RELATIONSHIPS
• INFO.PARTITIONS
• INFO.MODEL
• INFO.STORAGETABLECOLUMNSEGMENTS
• INFO.DEPENDENCIES
• INFO.EXPRESSIONS
• INFO.ROLES
• INFO.STORAGETABLECOLUMNS
• INFO.CALCULATIONGROUPS
• INFO.CALCULATIONITEMS
• INFO.CULTURES
• INFO.OBJECTTRANSLATIONS
• INFO.USERDEFINEDFUNCTIONS
• INFO.REFRESHPOLICIES
• INFO.ATTRIBUTEHIERARCHYSTORAGES
• INFO.COLUMNPARTITIONSTORAGES
• INFO.COLUMNSTORAGES
• INFO.DICTIONARYSTORAGES
• INFO.HIERARCHYSTORAGES
• INFO.PARTITIONSTORAGES
• INFO.RELATIONSHIPINDEXSTORAGES
• INFO.RELATIONSHIPSTORAGES
• INFO.SEGMENTMAPSTORAGES
• INFO.SEGMENTSTORAGES
• INFO.STORAGEFOLDERS
• INFO.STORAGEFILES
• INFO.TABLESTORAGES
• INFO.GENERALSEGMENTMAPSEGMENTMETADATASTORAGES
• INFO.DELTATABLEMETADATASTORAGES
• INFO.PARQUETFILESTORAGES
• INFO.STORAGETABLES

Metadata Object → INFO Function Map

Metadata Object	Primary INFO functions
Model	INFO.MODEL
Tables	INFO.VIEW.TABLES
Columns	INFO.VIEW.COLUMNS, INFO.GROUPBYCOLUMNS, INFO.RELATEDCOLUMNDETAILS
Measures	INFO.VIEW.MEASURES, INFO.FORMATSTRINGDEFINITIONS, INFO.DETAILROWSDEFINITIONS
Relationships	INFO.VIEW.RELATIONSHIPS
Partitions	INFO.PARTITIONS, INFO.EXPRESSIONS, INFO.QUERYGROUPS, INFO.REFRESHPOLICIES, INFO.DATACOVERAGEDEFINITIONS
Security roles & permissions	INFO.ROLES, INFO.TABLEPERMISSIONS, INFO.COLUMNPERMISSIONS
Hierarchies	INFO.HIERARCHIES, INFO.LEVELS, INFO.ATTRIBUTEHIERARCHIES, INFO.VARIATIONS
Calculation groups/items	INFO.CALCULATIONGROUPS, INFO.CALCULATIONITEMS, INFO.CALCULATIONEXPRESSIONS
Perspectives	INFO.PERSPECTIVES, INFO.PERSPECTIVETABLES, INFO.PERSPECTIVECOLUMNS, INFO.PERSPECTIVEHIERARCHIES, INFO.PERSPECTIVEMEASURES
Calendars	INFO.CALENDARS, INFO.CALENDARCOLUMNGROUPS, INFO.CALENDARCOLUMNREFERENCES
Cultures	INFO.CULTURES
Object translations	INFO.OBJECTTRANSLATIONS
Functions	INFO.USERDEFINEDFUNCTIONS
Dependencies / lineage	INFO.DEPENDENCIES, INFO.CHANGEDPROPERTIES, INFO.EXCLUDEDARTIFACTS
Storage internals / size	INFO.STORAGEFOLDERS, INFO.STORAGEFILES, INFO.TABLESTORAGES, INFO.COLUMNSTORAGES, INFO.PARTITIONSTORAGES, INFO.SEGMENTMAPSTORAGES, INFO.DICTIONARYSTORAGES, INFO.COLUMNPARTITIONSTORAGES, INFO.SEGMENTSTORAGES, INFO.RELATIONSHIPSTORAGES, INFO.RELATIONSHIPINDEXSTORAGES, INFO.ATTRIBUTEHIERARCHYSTORAGES, INFO.HIERARCHYSTORAGES, INFO.GENERALSEGMENTMAPSEGMENTMETADATASTORAGES, INFO.DELTATABLEMETADATASTORAGES, INFO.PARQUETFILESTORAGES, INFO.STORAGETABLES, INFO.STORAGETABLECOLUMNS, INFO.STORAGETABLECOLUMNSEGMENTS

Query Execution

Use the FabricIQ MCP server tools directly — call them as MCP tool invocations:

Parameter	Description
artifactId	GUID of the target semantic model
daxQueries	Array of 1–4 DAX queries (each must contain a single EVALUATE statement)
maxRows	Optional. Default 250, max 1,000 rows per query

How to find the artifact ID

1. Preferred: Call DiscoverArtifacts (MCP tool) with searchQuery set to the model name and artifactTypes: ["SemanticModel"].
2. Fallback only if MCP discovery is unavailable: Resolve via Fabric REST (az rest) — list items of type SemanticModel in the workspace and filter by displayName.

Executing a query

Call the ExecuteQuery MCP tool directly:

ExecuteQuery(
  artifactId = "<SEMANTIC_MODEL_GUID>",
  daxQueries = ["EVALUATE SUMMARIZECOLUMNS(...)"]
)

Getting the schema first

Call GetSemanticModelSchema(artifactId = "<SEMANTIC_MODEL_GUID>") to retrieve table/column/measure definitions before writing DAX.

Troubleshooting

• ExecuteQuery capability is unavailable in the MCP server
  • Issue: Query execution cannot start because ExecuteQuery is not available in the active tool list.
  • Cause: The FabricIQ MCP server is not registered, not loaded, or the current client session has stale tool metadata.
  • Fix: Verify the active MCP server/tool inventory and confirm ExecuteQuery is exposed.
• Advanced INFO functions return permission errors
  • Issue: Queries against INFO.* fail with authorization or privilege-related errors.
  • Cause: Many INFO.* functions require elevated semantic model permissions beyond standard read access.
  • Fix: Start with INFO.VIEW.* functions for read-oriented discovery.
• Metadata output volume is too large for focused analysis
  • Issue: Returning full metadata rowsets introduces too many properties and crowds the working context.
  • Cause: Unbounded INFO.VIEW.* and INFO.* queries return broad object/property surfaces that are often unnecessary for the current task.
  • Fix: Use the scope estimation queries in discovery-queries.md § Scope Estimation Queries to estimate scope and inspect output schemas, then narrow results with projection and filtering as shown in discovery-queries.md § Narrowing Results (Projection + Filtering).
• Do not use INFO DAX functions to retrieve role memberships
  • Issue: INFO.ROLEMEMBERSHIPS() returns empty or incomplete results.
  • Cause: Role members are assigned at the service level (Entra ID) after deployment, not in the model definition — so DAX INFO functions cannot reliably surface them.
  • Fix: Redirect to Manage role membership documentation for current guidance on role membership management.

Examples

For the full query catalog (including dependency patterns), see discovery-queries.md.

Sample Metadata Query

EVALUATE
INFO.VIEW.TABLES()
ORDER BY [Name]

Sample Data Query

DEFINE
MEASURE 'Sales'[Total Sales] = SUM('Sales'[Amount])
EVALUATE
SUMMARIZECOLUMNS(
    'Customer'[Customer Name],
    "Total Sales", [Total Sales]
)
ORDER BY [Total Sales] DESC