Tabular Editor Documentation & Configuration

Guidance for searching Tabular Editor documentation and understanding TE3 configuration files (.tmuo, Preferences.json, etc.).

Pre-flight

Before using documentation search, verify pbi-search is installed:

pbi-search --version

If the command is not found, inform the user and offer two options:

1. Install pbi-search (recommended): see bin/README.md for install instructions via cargo install or GitHub Releases at data-goblin/pbi-search
2. Search without the CLI: use WebFetch to retrieve docs directly from these sources:
   • Microsoft Learn: https://learn.microsoft.com/
   • Tabular Editor docs: https://docs.tabulareditor.com/
   • DAX reference: https://dax.guide/<function>/
   • SQLBI articles: https://www.sqlbi.com/articles/
   • Data Goblins: https://data-goblins.com/

The CLI is strongly preferred; it searches all sources simultaneously and returns clean markdown. The fallback requires manual URL construction and multiple fetches.

Documentation Search

Use the pbi-search CLI — the preferred way to search Tabular Editor docs and related Power BI/DAX resources. It searches Tabular Editor docs, DAX.guide, SQLBI, Microsoft Learn (Power BI + Fabric), the TE blog, and Data Goblins simultaneously, returning clean markdown.

After install, populate the local manifest cache (once):

pbi-search sync        # ~13s

Searching

# Search all sources
pbi-search search "creating measures"

# Search only Tabular Editor docs
pbi-search search "BPA rules" --source te-docs

# Search TE blog + TE docs
pbi-search search "incremental refresh" --source te-docs --source te-blog

# JSON output for structured use in agents
pbi-search search "workspace mode" --source te-docs --json

# Include content excerpts
pbi-search search "calculated columns" --source te-docs --excerpts

Fetching full docs

# Tabular Editor doc by bare path (from search results)
pbi-search fetch features/Best-Practice-Analyzer

# Any supported URL
pbi-search fetch https://docs.tabulareditor.com/features/workspace-mode
pbi-search fetch https://dax.guide/calculate/

# Extract a specific section
pbi-search fetch features/Best-Practice-Analyzer --section "Creating rules"

# Truncate for context budget
pbi-search fetch features/creating-measures --max-chars 3000 --json

Agent search workflow

1. pbi-search search "<topic>" --source te-docs --json — find relevant docs
2. Use the path or url from results: pbi-search fetch <path>
3. No results? Broaden: pbi-search search "<topic>" (all sources)
4. DAX questions: always add --source dax-guide

Available sources

ID	Content
te-docs	Tabular Editor docs (features, how-tos, KB, references)
dax-guide	~480 DAX function reference pages
te-blog	Tabular Editor blog
ms-learn	Microsoft Learn — Power BI + Fabric (live, no sync needed)
sqlbi	~370 SQLBI technical articles
data-goblins	Data Goblins Power BI posts

Richer search quality (optional)

Default sync builds a fast title-only index. For conceptual queries ("remove filters from column") run once with descriptions:

pbi-search sync --descriptions   # fetches meta descriptions; ~30s extra

---

Configuration Files (.tmuo)

TMUO files store developer- and model-specific preferences in Tabular Editor 3.

Critical

• TMUO files contain user-specific settings -- never commit to version control
• Credentials are encrypted with Windows User Key -- cannot be shared between users
• Add *.tmuo to .gitignore in all projects
• File naming: <ModelFileName>.<WindowsUserName>.tmuo

Structure

{
  "UseWorkspace": true,
  "WorkspaceConnection": "localhost",
  "WorkspaceDatabase": "MyModel_Workspace_JohnDoe",
  "Deployment": {
    "TargetConnectionString": "powerbi://api.powerbi.com/v1.0/myorg/Workspace",
    "TargetDatabase": "MyModel",
    "DeployPartitions": false,
    "DeployModelRoles": true
  },
  "DataSourceOverrides": {
    "SQL Server": {
      "ConnectionString": "Data Source=localhost;Initial Catalog=DevDB"
    }
  }
}

Sections

Section	Purpose
UseWorkspace	Enable workspace database mode
WorkspaceConnection	Server for workspace database
WorkspaceDatabase	Workspace database name (unique per dev/model)
Deployment	Target server, database, and deploy options
DataSourceOverrides	Override connections for workspace
TableImportSettings	Settings for Import Tables feature

Deployment Options

Field	Type	Description
TargetConnectionString	string	Target server connection
TargetDatabase	string	Target database name
DeployPartitions	bool	Deploy partition definitions
DeployModelRoles	bool	Deploy security roles
DeployModelRoleMembers	bool	Deploy role members
DeploySharedExpressions	bool	Deploy shared M expressions

Application Preferences

TE3 stores application-level preferences in %LocalAppData%\TabularEditor3\:

File	Purpose
Preferences.json	Application settings (proxy, updates, telemetry)
UiPreferences.json	UI state (window positions, panel sizes)
Layouts.json	Saved layout configurations

References

• references/doc-structure.md -- Detailed documentation structure
• references/url-redirects.md -- Old-to-new URL mapping for broken links
• schema/ -- JSON schemas for tmuo, preferences, layouts, UI preferences
• scripts/validate_config.py -- Validate TE3 config files
• scripts/validate_tmuo.py -- Validate TMUO files

External

• pbi-search on GitHub
• Tabular Editor User Options
• Workspace Mode
• Preferences Reference