NLQ Dashboard Orchestrator

This skill is the front door of the toolkit. It accepts free-form natural language (e.g., "Build me a sales performance dashboard from my Excel file" or "Show monthly revenue and top customers using our Snowflake warehouse") and drives the entire pipeline to a finished PBIP dashboard.

When to Use This Skill

• The user describes a dashboard, report, or set of visuals in natural language
• No structured YAML / SQL / data-model.json is provided up front
• The agent needs to coordinate data-source-connector, query-to-pbip, theme-branding, and bi-dash-creator
• An explicit, gated, confirmation-driven workflow is required

Pipeline Stages

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ 0. Capture NLQ intent                                            │
│ 1. data-source-connector → data-model.json                       │
│ 2. GATE A: confirm data model readiness with the user            │
│ 3. NLQ Q&A loop: visuals, fields, filters, layout                │
│ 4. GATE B: confirm scaffold readiness with the user              │
│ 5. For each visual: run query-to-pbip pipeline                   │
│ 6. theme-branding → apply theme                                  │
│ 7. bi-dash-creator → compose multi-visual dashboard              │
│ 8. Deliver zipped PBIP + summary                                 │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Stage 0: Capture NLQ Intent

Extract the following from the user's free-form request:

• Dashboard theme / topic (e.g., "sales performance", "delivery operations")
• Data source hint (e.g., "Excel file", "our Databricks warehouse", "the orders database")
• Implicit visual count (e.g., "trend, top 5, total" suggests 3 visuals)
• Time scope (e.g., "last 12 months", "year-to-date", "2024")
• Audience cues (executive, operational, analytical)

If the data source is not mentioned, ask: "Where does the data live? (database, cloud warehouse, Excel/CSV file, API, etc.)"

Stage 1: Invoke data-source-connector

Delegate to the data-source-connector skill with the source hint. Expected output:

• data-model.json describing tables, columns, types, primary/foreign keys, sample rows
• A list of open questions the connector could not resolve automatically

If the connector returns open questions, surface them verbatim to the user. Do not proceed to Gate A until all open questions are answered.

Stage 2: GATE A — Data Model Readiness

This gate is mandatory. Before any modeling work begins, summarize the discovered (or user-described) data model and ask for confirmation.

Present a structured summary:

Data Model Summary
──────────────────
Source:         <connection or file path>
Tables:         <N> tables discovered
  • fact_sales (12 cols, ~50k rows) — grain: order line
  • dim_customer (8 cols)
  • dim_date (15 cols)
Relationships:  3 inferred
  • fact_sales.customer_key → dim_customer.customer_key
  • fact_sales.order_date_key → dim_date.date_key
  • fact_sales.product_key → dim_product.product_key
Date dimension: dim_date (date, year, month, quarter columns present)
Open questions:
  1. Is `dim_product` needed for this dashboard?
  2. Should `order_date_key` or `delivered_date_key` be the default date role?

Then ask explicitly: "Does this data model look right? Should I add, remove, or rename anything before continuing?"

Blocking rule: do NOT progress to Stage 3 until the user confirms the data model. If the user reports missing tables, ambiguous grain, or unclear relationships, loop back to data-source-connector for re-introspection or accept user-provided corrections to data-model.json.

Stage 3: NLQ Q&A Loop

For each visual implied by the request, iteratively clarify:

Track all answers in a Dashboard Plan internal structure:

{
  "dashboardName": "SalesPerformance",
  "theme": "corporate",
  "layout": "2x2-grid",
  "visuals": [
    { "id": "v1", "intent": "total revenue KPI", "type": "cardVisual", "measure": "Total Revenue", "filters": [] },
    { "id": "v2", "intent": "monthly revenue trend", "type": "lineChart", "category": "dim_date.month", "y": "Total Revenue" },
    { "id": "v3", "intent": "top 10 customers", "type": "clusteredBarChart", "category": "dim_customer.name", "y": "Total Revenue", "topN": 10 },
    { "id": "v4", "intent": "revenue by region", "type": "filledMap", "category": "dim_customer.region", "size": "Total Revenue" }
  ]
}

Use visual-selector rules to suggest defaults when the user is unsure.

Stage 4: GATE B — Scaffold Readiness

This gate is mandatory. Before any file generation, present the full Dashboard Plan and ask for explicit confirmation.

Present the plan:

Dashboard Plan
──────────────
Name:    SalesPerformance
Theme:   corporate
Layout:  2x2 grid on a single 1280x720 page

Visual 1 (top-left)    — Card: Total Revenue
Visual 2 (top-right)   — Line Chart: Total Revenue by Month
Visual 3 (bottom-left) — Clustered Bar: Top 10 Customers by Revenue
Visual 4 (bottom-right)— Filled Map: Revenue by Region

All visuals share the dim_date filter context (default: last 12 months).

Then ask verbatim: "Are you done with clarifications and ready to scaffold all visuals into the final dashboard? (yes / no — let me know if anything should change)"

Blocking rule: do NOT progress to Stage 5 until the user answers yes (or equivalent affirmative). If the user wants changes, loop back to Stage 3.

Stage 5: Run query-to-pbip per Visual

For each visual in the confirmed Dashboard Plan:

1. Pass the visual's spec + data-model.json to query-to-pbip
2. query-to-pbip runs its four stages (semantic-mapper → visual-selector → visual-generator → project-packager)
3. Output lands in generated-reports/<VisualName>/

Use --repo-root when scaffolding so the SemanticModel is shared across visuals (avoids duplicating TMDL per visual).

Stage 6: Apply Theme

Delegate to theme-branding:

• Theme name from the Dashboard Plan (corporate / modern / minimal / dark, or a custom theme)
• Copies the theme JSON into <ProjectName>.Report/StaticResources/SharedResources/BaseThemes/
• Updates report.json themeCollection accordingly

Stage 7: Compose Final Dashboard

Delegate to bi-dash-creator with the list of generated report names. This skill:

• Validates semantic-model consistency across reports
• Filters excluded visual types (cards/slicers/kpis stay; the rest go on the dashboard)
• Assigns 2x2 grid positions (or honors a custom layout from Stage 3)
• Outputs generated-dashboards/<DashboardName>Dash/

Stage 8: Deliver

Provide the user with:

• Path to the zipped PBIP
• Summary of generated artifacts (tables, measures, visuals, theme)
• Open-in-Power-BI-Desktop instructions

Error Handling

Resources

• references/clarification-prompts.md — Standard question bank for the NLQ Q&A loop
• references/dashboard-plan-schema.md — JSON schema for the internal Dashboard Plan
• references/example-flows.md — Worked end-to-end examples (Excel, Databricks, SQL Server)

Cross-Skill References