Use

Start#

1. 1

   Open your report in Power BI Desktop. It needs to be a Power BI project (PBIP): save a .pbix file as a project first.

2. 2

   Open a terminal in the folder that holds the report project, and start Claude Code or Codex there.

3. 3

   Ask for what you want, in your own words.

One install covers every folder on the PC, so there’s nothing to set up for each report.

What to ask#

Ask the way you’d brief a colleague. For example:

• “Build an overview page with revenue, orders and average order, and revenue by month.”
• “Color the bars green above target and red below.”
• “Why did revenue drop in March?”
• “Add a year-to-date revenue measure and a card that shows it.”
• “Sync the region slicer across every page.”

Your agent looks at a picture of the page after each change and fixes small problems, such as an overlap, before it says it’s done.

Keep working by hand#

You can change the report yourself between asks, without saving first. Your agent works on the report as it is now, your unsaved changes included.

Saving and undo#

Nothing is on disk until you save in Power BI Desktop. Ploten never saves for you. Power BI’s undo (Ctrl+Z) takes back a change your agent made to a page. It doesn’t take back a change to the data model.

Model changes#

Measures, columns, tables and relationships go through Microsoft’s modeling engine. The installer downloads it only after you accept Microsoft’s terms. Without it, pages, visuals, layout, formatting and themes all work, and a model change stops and says why. To turn it on later, run the install line with --engine.

Your agent asks before a model change you didn’t ask for. Deleting from the model, and renaming a column or a table, you do in Power BI Desktop.

Your report folder#

Ploten keeps what it learns about a report in a .ploten folder next to it. If the folder is a git repository, Ploten adds .ploten/ to its .gitignore the first time it writes there, so nothing of Ploten’s reaches your repository. To commit that folder and share it with your team, put !.ploten/ in your .gitignore, and Ploten leaves that file alone.

Updates#

When a new version is ready, Ploten adds a note to one of your agent’s answers. Run the install line again, then restart Power BI Desktop and your agent.

What your agent sees#

Your agent reads names, formulas and data from your report and its model, and pictures of the page, and sends them to its AI provider under that provider’s terms. Ploten sends none of it to us. Read the privacy notice.