The Power BI REST API provides programmatic access to resources in the Power BI service including content (datasets, reports, and dashboards), application workspaces, and the users of these resources. This access enables organizations to automate common workflows, such as cloning a report to a different workspace or triggering a dataset refresh operation via familiar tools, such as Windows PowerShell. The goal of the REST API is to fully support all functionality available in the Power BI service, including capabilities exclusive to the Power BI admin portal, thus providing complete administrative and automation capabilities. The following URL provides updated documentation on the REST API including the request syntax and a sample result set for each operation: http://bit.ly/2AIkJyF.

As more REST API operations are developed, they will initially be exposed exclusively via REST API calls. This allows organizations comfortable with the programmatic interface to get started with automation scripts and for a user interface to be developed on top of the API operations. The following sections describe the components needed to get started with the REST API, including the ID for a registered application, the IDs for core Power BI objects, and sample PowerShell scripts provided by the Power BI team.