OpenBI documentation
How to install OpenBI, build models and reports in it, let an AI agent work with you, and run it for your company: for analysts, for IT and administrators, and for developers.
What OpenBI is
OpenBI is a business intelligence platform from Norway Analytics. Analysts build data models, report pages and analyses in OpenBI Studio, on Windows or a Mac. Your company publishes them to OpenBI Server, which runs on your own machines, and people read them in the browser or connect to them from Excel.
Its engine is OpenBI’s own, and so is its language, OAX (Open Analytical Expressions). OAX is compatible with DAX: models and measures from Power BI and Analysis Services work as they are, with Power BI Desktop’s answers, and the few places where OpenBI answers otherwise are listed under Known differences. OAX adds functions of its own for survival analysis, predictions, optimization, finance and networks. See OAX and DAX.
AI agents such as Claude, ChatGPT and Cursor connect to OpenBI over MCP (the Model Context Protocol), in two places:
- OpenBI Studio, on your computer. The agent works with the same hands you have: through about 150 tools it reads and changes the open project, and every step it takes shows in the studio. See Connect your AI agent.
- Your company’s OpenBI Server, once its administrator turns AI agents on. Each person’s agent signs in as that person and reads the published reports and models with their access and their roles; it changes nothing. See Connect your AI agent to OpenBI Server.
Norway Analytics hosts nothing for you: your data, your users and your passwords stay with you.
The products
OpenBI Studio
The desktop application, for Windows and Mac: get data, transform it, build the model, its report pages, notebooks and predictions.
The studio at a glanceOpenBI Server
Your company’s report server, on your own machines: workspaces, report pages, refresh and Excel connections, with sign-in through OpenBI Accounts or your own provider.
OpenBI ServerOpenBI Gateway
For data your OpenBI Server can’t reach: a small service on the machine that has the files, on Windows or a Mac. It connects outward only.
The OpenBI GatewayAgents
Connect Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or another AI agent over MCP, to OpenBI Studio or to your company’s OpenBI Server, and see what it can do, what it sees and what it never sees.
How agents work with OpenBIOpenBI SDK
Plug-ins for OpenBI Studio in .NET: new tools for the agent and new tabs in the studio. Developed on Windows, a Mac or Linux.
OpenBI SDKReference
Every OAX and M function OpenBI runs, every tool an agent can call, and every command of OpenBI Server.
OAX functionsStart here
| You are | Start with |
|---|---|
| New to OpenBI Studio | Install OpenBI Studio, then Your first model, about ten minutes on the example that comes with the studio |
| Working with an AI agent | Connect your AI agent, then How the agent works; through your company’s server: Connect your AI agent to OpenBI Server |
| Coming from Power BI | Import from Power BI and OAX and DAX |
| IT, setting up the server | OpenBI Server: its parts and the order to set it up in, then Your two addresses |
| A data scientist | Notebooks, then Get started: a first notebook on the example project |
| A developer | OpenBI SDK, then Your first plug-in |
Which versions these pages describe
OpenBI Studio 0.3.79, OpenBI Server 0.1.50 and OpenBI Gateway 0.1.50, released in November 2026. Releases says what each one works with and where the full release notes are.