GitHub Copilot How to use Microsoft Power BI with GitHub Copilot
You want Microsoft Power BI inside GitHub Copilot so it can diagnose failed dataset refreshes, answer business questions with governed DAX, audit Power BI workspace access, and refresh a semantic model safely — without you copy-pasting between tabs. Here is the whole setup, once.
Create your Microsoft Power BI gateway
The gateway is the thing GitHub Copilot connects to, and it is where you decide which Microsoft Power BI tools an agent may use. You create it once and every client reuses it.
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Create an Arcade account
Sign up and open the dashboard. The free tier is enough to follow this through.
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Create an MCP Gateway and select your Microsoft Power BI tools
In the dashboard, create a gateway and pick the Microsoft Power BI tools you want to expose. The gateway is what your client connects to, and it is where tool access is decided.
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Copy your gateway URL
Every client below needs it.
https://api.arcade.dev/mcp/<YOUR-GATEWAY-SLUG>
Connect the gateway to GitHub Copilot
JetBrains IDEs do not support remote MCP servers with Dynamic Client Registration — configure the gateway as “Arcade Headers” in the dashboard first. Setup also differs on Visual Studio, Eclipse and Xcode; check the docs for yours.
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In VS Code
Copilot picks up MCP servers configured in VS Code automatically, so follow the VS Code steps and you are done.
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In JetBrains IDEs
Copilot icon → Open Chat → Agent mode → tools icon → “+ Add More Tools…”, which opens mcp.json.
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Add the gateway with Arcade Headers
{ "servers": { "mcp-arcade": { "url": "https://api.arcade.dev/mcp/<YOUR-GATEWAY-SLUG>", "requestInit": { "headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer {arcade_api_key}", "Arcade-User-ID": "{arcade_user_id}" } } } } }
Full GitHub Copilot guide in the docs steps verified 2026-08-13
Get started with these Power BI prompts
GitHub Copilot can now act on your Microsoft Power BI account. Click a prompt to copy it.
Limit an agent to reading models and reports, and require approval before it changes dataset settings or starts a refresh. Pair it with Contextual Access policies to keep consequential Power BI actions behind a human check.
