Table of Contents

Tabular Editor CLI (Limited Public Preview)

  • 2026-05-12
  • Peer Grønnerup
Applies to:
  • ❌ Tabular Editor 2
  • ❌ Tabular Editor 3
  • ✔ Tabular Editor CLI

The Tabular Editor CLI (te) is a cross-platform command-line interface for Power BI and Analysis Services semantic models. It runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux as a single self-contained executable and is based on the same foundation that powers Tabular Editor 3.

With the Tabular Editor CLI you can inspect, edit, validate, deploy, refresh, and test semantic models from a terminal - against local TMDL or BIM files, Power BI Desktop, or semantic models in Fabric and Power BI Service workspaces.

Unlike the Windows-only TabularEditor.exe command-line options (TE2) - which was designed primarily to automate C# scripts and macros from a desktop binary - te is a purpose-built, cross-platform CLI with structured output, predictable exit codes, and an interactive shell. This unlocks scenarios that our existing TE2 CLI can't cover well: terminal-driven model work on macOS and Linux, AI agents driving model changes directly, and clean drop-in for any modern CI runner.

Important

The Tabular Editor CLI is in Limited Public Preview. It is offered for evaluation with a Tabular Editor account; no license is required during preview. Commands, flags, and outputs may change before general availability. The preview build stops functioning after 2026-09-30. We recommend against using the CLI in production CI/CD pipelines during preview. Please refer to our license agreement.

Built for three audiences

Three design pillars run through every command:

  • Structured output — JSON, CSV, TMDL, TMSL alongside default human-readable text.
  • Non-interactive mode — a global --non-interactive flag that disables prompts and fails fast.
  • Clear errors — written to stderr with predictable exit codes.

Together they make the same binary work well for three very different audiences:

  • Humans - scripting bulk edits, exploring a model from the terminal, composing commands in shell pipelines.
  • AI agents - token-lean JSON, machine-parseable error shapes, exit codes that signal success or failure without parsing stdout.
  • CI/CD pipelines - non-interactive execution, GitHub Actions and Azure DevOps annotations, VSTEST-compatible test results.

What the CLI can do

The CLI organizes more than 50 commands into 10 families. Each family maps to a concrete stage of the semantic-model lifecycle.

See Command Reference for a full command reference with syntax, options, and examples for each command. Click any example command in the table to jump straight to its reference entry.

Family What it does Example commands
Model I/O Load, save, convert, initialize models te load, te save, te init
Model Editing Get/set properties, add/remove/move objects te set, te add, te rm, te mv
Inspection List objects, search, diff, dependency analysis te ls, te find, te diff, te deps
Analysis & Quality Validate, run BPA, format DAX, analyze storage te validate, te bpa run, te format, te vertipaq
Execution Run DAX queries, C# scripts, macros te query, te script, te macro
Deployment & Refresh Deploy to workspace, trigger refresh, incremental refresh te deploy, te refresh, te incremental-refresh
Testing Assertion tests, snapshots, A/B comparison te test run
Connection & Authentication Connect to workspaces, manage authentication and profiles te connect, te auth, te profile
Configuration Settings and licensing te config
Shell Interactive mode, shell completions te interactive, te completion

Getting started

  1. Sign up or sign in at tabulareditor.com with a Tabular Editor account.
  2. Download and install - see Installation and Setup for Windows, macOS, and Linux instructions.
  3. Authenticate - run te auth login to connect to Power BI or Fabric. See Authentication and Connections.
  4. Run your first command - te --help lists every command; te <command> --help shows detailed options.

A first look at a live model takes two commands:

te auth login
te ls -s MyWorkspace -d MyModel

Tabular Editor CLI te ls example output

Preview notice

Every command prints a yellow preview banner on stderr by default:

Tabular Editor CLI preview notice banner

To hide the preview notice, simply run:

te config set hidePreviewNotice true
Warning

The banner reappears on every command within 14 days of the preview end date (2026-09-30), regardless of hidePreviewNotice. This ensures you have visible warning before the CLI stops functioning.

License outlook

During Limited Public Preview, the CLI does not require a license; you only need a Tabular Editor account to download it. At General Availability (GA) the CLI will require a license; pricing is still being finalized and will be announced ahead of GA.

Feedback and community

During the preview, bug reports, feature requests, and general discussion happen in the public TabularEditor/CLI repository on GitHub:

  • Issues - report bugs, request features, and track known problems.
  • Discussions - ask questions, share feedback, and swap usage tips with other early adopters.

The repository does not host the CLI source code; it exists to give the community a public place to reach us during the preview.

Next steps