List all measures in the connected Power BI Desktop model
AI agents call desktop_list_measures to retrieve information from Power BI MCP Server without modifying anything — typically the context-gathering step in research, monitoring, and reporting workflows, before the agent takes action elsewhere.
This tool queries and returns metadata about measures in a Power BI model. It performs only a read operation—retrieving information about existing measures without creating, modifying, deleting, or executing code. The blast radius is minimal since it only exposes structural information about the data model that users with access to Power BI Desktop already possess.
From the tool's definition Tool is named 'list_measures' and described as 'List all measures in the connected Power BI Desktop model'. The verb 'list' indicates pure data retrieval with no modification or side effects.
Attacks that exploit this kind of access
List all measures in the connected Power BI Desktop model. It is categorised as a Read tool in the Power BI MCP Server MCP Server, which means it retrieves data without modifying state.
Register the Power BI MCP Server MCP server in PolicyLayer and add a rule for desktop_list_measures: allow, deny, rate-limit, or require approval. Point your MCP client at the PolicyLayer proxy URL and the rule is enforced on every call, before it reaches Power BI MCP Server. Nothing to install.
desktop_list_measures is a Read tool with low risk. Read-only tools are generally safe to allow by default.
Yes. Add a rate_limit block to the desktop_list_measures rule in your PolicyLayer policy. For example, setting max: 10 and window: 60 limits the tool to 10 calls per minute. Rate limits are tracked per agent session and reset automatically.
Set action: deny in the PolicyLayer policy for desktop_list_measures. The AI agent will receive a policy violation error and cannot call the tool. You can also include a reason field to explain why the tool is blocked.
desktop_list_measures is provided by the Power BI MCP Server MCP server (sulaiman013/powerbi-mcp). PolicyLayer sits as a proxy in front of this server to enforce policies before tool calls reach the server.