General Availability of Power BI developer mode

What and Why

We are announcing the General Availability (GA) of developer mode and the Power BI Project (PBIP) file format in Power BI Desktop.

PBIP is the code-based format for Power BI development and includes:

• Power BI Report (PBIR) for report definitions
• Tabular Model Definition Language (TMDL) for semantic models

This update expands support for source control, CI/CD workflows, and programmatic development scenarios outside of Power BI authoring tools.

As part of GA, PBIR becomes the default report format across Power BI Desktop and the Power BI service. PBIR-Legacy remains supported; however, reports edited in Power BI tools will automatically be upgraded to PBIR.

Note: PBIR is not replacing PBIX. PBIX remains the primary file format for Power BI developers. Internally, PBIX files will now store report metadata using PBIR instead of PBIR-Legacy.

For more information, see: Power BI Desktop projects (PBIP) - Power BI | Microsoft Learn.

Rollout Schedule

• Worldwide, GCC, GCC High, DoD: Mid-September 2026 through late September 2026

Who is affected

• Power BI developers using the PBIP file format
• Organizations leveraging source control, DevOps, or CI/CD processes for Power BI development
• Power BI Desktop and Power BI service environments

Platforms/Services

• Power BI Desktop
• Power BI service
• Power BI Project (PBIP)
• Power BI Report (PBIR)

What will happen

• PBIR becomes the default report format for Power BI reports.
• Reports currently using PBIR-Legacy will automatically convert to PBIR when edited in Power BI tools.
• Existing PBIX workflows remain supported and unchanged.
• Report functionality and end-user experiences are unaffected.
• Report consumers will not see any changes to report behavior or functionality.
• The tenant setting "Automatically convert and store reports using Power BI enhanced metadata format (PBIR)" will be removed because PBIR will no longer be an opt-in experience.

Action Required / Recommendations

No action is required.

We recommend that Power BI administrators:

• Review internal documentation that references PBIR-Legacy or report metadata formats.
• Update governance, development, and CI/CD guidance to reflect PBIR as the default format.
• Communicate this change to Power BI developers and development teams as appropriate.

Additional Information

For more information, review the Power BI Desktop projects (PBIP) documentation on Microsoft Learn.