Attribute-level lineage for Power BI (in preview)

Attribute-level lineage, also known as field-level lineage, provides granular visibility into data flow in Power BI. Previously, Collibra only captured lineage between a semantic model and a report at the table level. Any usage at the report level was shown at the semantic model table level, meaning it was not possible to see which individual fields were used in a report.

By analyzing the report definition, Collibra now captures lineage from semantic model tables to the specific fields used in a Power BI report, enabling precise, field-level impact analysis. In a future phase, the lineage will be further refined to the individual report page level.

Important 
  • To use this feature, you must contact Microsoft Support to enable the exportItemDefinitions API for your Power BI tenant. Without this API, Collibra cannot retrieve the report definitions required for granular lineage.
  • The Microsoft API required for this feature is currently available only in Commercial Azure tenants. As a result, this feature is cloud-only and not supported on Collibra Platform for Government.
  • This feature remains in preview while the Microsoft API is in Preview. It is not recommended for production environments.

What’s new and what’s coming

The following table describes the release phases to help you plan your Power BI governance strategy.

Phase Availability User impact
Phase 1 Available now

  • Report definitions are harvested to improve existing lineage accuracy. No changes are made to the data object hierarchy or the Power BI operating model.

  • Adds the new Enable Attribute Level Lineage for Reports (Preview) field in the Technical Lineage for Power BI capability to enable the feature.

Phase 2 Expected Q2 2026
  • Introduces the Power BI Report Page asset type in the operating model.
  • Existing Power BI Report assets no longer appear as leaf nodes; instead, Power BI Report Page assets become the leaf objects.

Hierarchy at a glance

In Phase 2, the Power BI integration operating model adds a new asset to bridge the gap between reports and individual fields.

  • Power BI Report: The top-level container
  • Power BI Report Page (Phase 2): A new object grouped by the Power BI Report
  • Power BI Column: Individual fields that provide data for the report page

Technical lineage graph changes

Previously, lineage stopped at the semantic model. It showed only a high-level connection to the report.

In the current release, technical lineage shows the direct flow from specific semantic model columns to the corresponding fields in a Power BI report.

When this feature is fully released after Phase 2, the lineage expands to show the flow into individual report pages, allowing you to identify which report tab is impacted by an upstream data change. In the business diagram, a new relation type relates Power BI Column assets to their Power BI Report Page assets.

Performance and scaling expectations

Retrieving full report definitions is subject to strict Microsoft API limits.

Aspect Details
Synchronization duration Synchronization takes significantly longer when this feature is enabled because the Microsoft API is limited to approximately 10 requests per minute.
Capacity

This feature only supports Fabric-based capacities due to a Microsoft API limitation.

Support for other capacity types may become available in the future, subject to Microsoft API changes.

Enabling the feature

You can enable the feature by completing the following steps:

  1. Open your Technical Lineage for Power BI capability configuration.
  2. Select the Enable Attribute Level Lineage for Reports (Preview) checkbox, and click Save.
  3. Synchronize your technical lineage.

For more information, go to Create a technical lineage via Edge.