pbiplint for Azure Pipelines

Lint Power BI projects in Azure Pipelines. One step in your pipeline runs pbiplint, an open-source linter for Power BI projects saved in the PBIP format, against the project in your repository: its semantic model (TMDL) and its report (PBIR). The findings become a pass/fail step, build issues with their file and line, a readable report on the run, and a SARIF file.

pool:
  vmImage: ubuntu-latest

steps:
  - task: pbiplint@1
    inputs:
      path: Sales.pbip

What a run does

Fails the step when findings reach the failOn severity (errors by default), so a pull request with a build validation policy cannot complete while the project breaks a rule. Set failOn: none to report without ever failing.
Reports findings as build issues with their file, line, and rule id. The agent keeps 10 errors and 10 warnings per step; the report on the run has every finding.
Puts the full report on the run's Extensions tab, ranked, with a link to each rule's page. When the project has a report, "Report at a glance" says what it will do when someone opens it.
Publishes the SARIF report as the CodeAnalysisLogs build artifact, which the SARIF SAST Scans Tab extension shows, and which GitHub Advanced Security for Azure DevOps can take in.

The semantic model is checked against Microsoft's best-practice ruleset for semantic models, ported and verified, and pbiplint's own rules. The report is checked against the base rules of PBI Inspector, ported, and pbiplint's own rules for a report's correctness and readiness. Every rule has a page at pbiplint.com/rules with what it checks, why, and how to fix it. A pbiplint.config.json next to your project turns rules off or changes their severity; the task picks it up.

Inputs

Input	Default	What it does
`path`	`.`	What to lint, relative to the pipeline's working folder: a PBIP folder, a `.pbip` file, a `.SemanticModel` or `.Report` folder, a `definition` folder, or one `.tmdl` file.
`failOn`	`error`	Lowest severity that fails the step: `error`, `warning`, `info`, or `none`.
`config`		A `pbiplint.config.json` to use. By default the nearest one above the project applies.
`pbiplintVersion`	`0.2.4`	The pbiplint version to run. Each release of this task pins the current one.
`annotations`	`true`	Report findings as build issues.
`publishSarif`	`true`	Publish the SARIF report as a build artifact.
`artifactName`	`CodeAnalysisLogs`	The artifact the SARIF report goes to. The SARIF SAST Scans Tab reads only `CodeAnalysisLogs`.
`sarifCategory`	`pbiplint`	The name of this step's report files. Give each step its own when one job lints several projects.

Output variables exitCode, sarifFile, findings, errors, warnings, and infos are there for later steps. The full documentation covers them, several projects in one job, and the publish step for GitHub Advanced Security for Azure DevOps.

What leaves your organization

Nothing from your project. The step fetches the pinned pbiplint package from the npm registry and lints on the agent; the findings go only to the run, its artifact, and, if your team adds it, Advanced Security in your own organization. Pipelines: GitHub Actions and Azure Pipelines lists what each step sends where, with a record of the hosts an agent reached, and how to check it.

Requirements

The Microsoft-hosted Ubuntu, Windows, or macOS agents, or a self-hosted agent, version 4.248.0 or later, with Node.js 20.19 or later in the 20 line, or 22.12 or later, and npm on the PATH.
No service connection, secret, or permission beyond the pipeline's own.

No extension? The plain YAML route

If your organization cannot install extensions, the same linter runs from one script step with npx, with the same report on the Extensions tab and the same SARIF artifact: the plain YAML route.

Support

This task is MIT licensed, and pbiplint itself is open source under the AGPL; both are maintained in the open by McKinley Consulting. Questions and bugs in the task: github.com/pbiplint/azure-pipelines/issues. Questions about a rule or a finding: github.com/pbiplint/pbiplint/issues. The pbiplint Privacy Promise: pbiplint.com/privacy.