adomd-cli

adomd-cli is a small JSON-first command-line wrapper for querying Analysis Services through ADOMD.NET.

It is intended for automation, agents, and scripts that need predictable JSON output from SSAS, Azure Analysis Services, or Power BI/XMLA-compatible Analysis Services endpoints supported by Microsoft.AnalysisServices.AdomdClient.

The CLI uses Spectre.Console.Cli for command parsing/help and Spectre.Console for console infrastructure.

Requirements

• .NET 10 SDK/runtime
• Network access to the Analysis Services endpoint
• Authentication supported by the connection string

When --connection-string is omitted, the CLI builds a connection string with Integrated Security=SSPI. Native SSAS TCP with Windows Integrated Auth generally requires Windows. The CI/CD workflows also run on Windows runners because ADOMD.NET is Windows-oriented.

Instead of passing --connection-string on the command line (which can leak into shell history and process listings), you can set the ADOMD_CONNECTION_STRING environment variable. The explicit option always takes precedence when both are set.

Install

Download adomd-cli-win-x64.zip from the latest GitHub Release, extract it, and run the self-contained Windows executable:

.\adomd.exe --help

Each release also publishes an adomd-cli-win-x64.zip.sha256 checksum file. Verify the download before running it:

(Get-FileHash .\adomd-cli-win-x64.zip -Algorithm SHA256).Hash -eq (Get-Content .\adomd-cli-win-x64.zip.sha256).Split(' ')[0].ToUpperInvariant()

From a local clone:

dotnet publish .\src\Adomd.Cli\Adomd.Cli.csproj --configuration Release --runtime win-x64 --self-contained true --output .\artifacts\publish\win-x64 -p:PublishSingleFile=true -p:IncludeNativeLibrariesForSelfExtract=true -p:DebugType=None -p:DebugSymbols=false
.\artifacts\publish\win-x64\adomd.exe --help

Staying up to date

The tool does not update itself. When it runs interactively, it performs a best-effort check against the GitHub Releases API and prints a one-line notice on stderr if a newer version is available; download the new release and replace adomd.exe to upgrade. The check:

• never writes to stdout, so JSON output is unaffected;
• runs at most once per day (the result is cached under %LocalAppData%\adomd-cli) and uses a short timeout;
• is skipped automatically when stderr is redirected (scripts/CI) and fails silently when offline;
• can be disabled entirely by setting ADOMD_NO_UPDATE_CHECK=1.

Usage

dotnet run --project src\Adomd.Cli -- probe --server <server>
dotnet run --project src\Adomd.Cli -- catalogs --server <server>
dotnet run --project src\Adomd.Cli -- schema --server <server> --catalog <catalog>
dotnet run --project src\Adomd.Cli -- query --server <server> --catalog <catalog> --query "<MDX-or-DAX>"

You can also pass a full ADOMD.NET connection string:

dotnet run --project src\Adomd.Cli -- query --connection-string "<connection string>" --query-file query.mdx

Commands

Command	Purpose
probe	Open a connection and list visible catalogs
catalogs	List visible Analysis Services catalogs/databases
schema	Return cubes, dimensions, hierarchies, levels, measures, and sets
query	Execute MDX, DAX, DMX, or DMV text and return rows as JSON
dmv	Alias for query

Options

Option	Description
--server <name>	Analysis Services server
--catalog <name>	Initial catalog/database
--connection-string <value>	Full ADOMD.NET connection string (falls back to the ADOMD_CONNECTION_STRING environment variable)
--query <text>	Query text; use --query - to read from stdin
--query-file <path>	File containing query text
--limit <n>	Maximum rows per result set; default 200
--connect-timeout <sec>	Connection timeout; default 15
--query-timeout <sec>	Query timeout; default 120
--retries <n>	Number of times to retry opening the connection after a transient failure; default 0
--retry-delay-ms <ms>	Delay between connection retry attempts; default 1000
--rowset <guid>	schema only, repeatable; fetch additional schema rowsets by GUID beyond the built-in six
--compact	Emit single-line (unindented) JSON, friendlier for piping into line-based tools

Retries only cover opening the connection (useful for Azure AS auto-resume/auto-scale delays); they do not retry a failed query execution. Retry waits are interruptible with Ctrl+C.

Common schema rowset GUIDs

For use with schema --rowset <guid>, beyond the six built into every schema response (Cubes, Dimensions, Hierarchies, Levels, Measures, Sets):

Rowset	GUID
MDSCHEMA_MEASUREGROUPS	e1625ebf-fa96-42fd-bea6-db90adafd96b
MDSCHEMA_KPIS	2ae44109-ed3d-4842-b16f-b694d1cb0e3f
MDSCHEMA_ACTIONS	a07ccd08-8148-11d0-87bb-00c04fc33942
MDSCHEMA_FUNCTIONS	a07ccd07-8148-11d0-87bb-00c04fc33942
DBSCHEMA_TABLES	c8b52229-5cf3-11ce-ade5-00aa0044773d
DISCOVER_XML_METADATA	3444b255-171e-4cb9-ad98-19e57888a75f
TMSCHEMA_ROLES (Tabular)	a07ccd6b-8148-11d0-87bb-00c04fc33942
TMSCHEMA_PERSPECTIVES (Tabular)	a07ccd66-8148-11d0-87bb-00c04fc33942
TMSCHEMA_CALCULATION_GROUPS (Tabular)	a07ccd76-8148-11d0-87bb-00c04fc33942

The full set of ~150 rowset GUIDs is defined by Microsoft.AnalysisServices.AdomdClient.AdomdSchemaGuid.

Output shape

Every row-returning field (catalogs, cubes, dimensions, hierarchies, levels, measures, sets, each schema --rowset entry, and each entry in query's resultSets) is an object with rowCount, truncated, and rows, so you can always tell whether --limit cut off the result:

{
  "ok": true,
  "command": "query",
  "resultSetCount": 1,
  "rowCount": 2,
  "truncated": false,
  "resultSets": [
    { "rowCount": 2, "truncated": false, "rows": [ { "col": 1 }, { "col": 2 } ] }
  ]
}

query/dmv can return more than one entry in resultSets when a batch produces multiple result sets.

If a schema rowset can't be read (for example, a rowset that isn't supported on the target model), schema reports "partial": true and lists the failures in a top-level warnings array, and the affected rowset object carries its own error/exception fields. The other rowsets are still returned.

By default JSON is pretty-printed; pass --compact to emit it on a single line for piping into tools like jq.

Errors produce { "ok": false, "error": ..., "exception": ..., "inner": ... } and a non-zero exit code: 2 for a general failure, 130 if the command was cancelled (e.g. Ctrl+C). Credential-bearing fragments (password=, pwd=, secret=, client secret=, access token=) are redacted from error/inner and stderr before they're written, in case an ADOMD/OLE DB provider echoes the connection string back in an exception message.

CI/CD

• CI runs on pushes to main and pull requests. It restores, verifies formatting, builds, runs tests when test projects exist, publishes the Windows executable, and uploads the zipped artifact.
• CodeQL runs on pushes, pull requests, and a weekly schedule.
• Release runs for semantic version tags like v1.2.3. It verifies the tag matches VersionPrefix in Adomd.Cli.csproj, publishes the Windows executable, creates a GitHub Release, and attaches the zipped artifact plus a SHA256 checksum file.

To create a release:

git tag v0.1.0
git push origin v0.1.0