How do I explain that SQL Server should not be used as a code repository?

• Bannister

  Newbie

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  May 6, 2026 at 4:27 am

  #4811584

  This week my BI Developer colleague proudly showed me a new Power BI report that he'd vibe-coded. Here's how it works:

  • Write a SQL query that selects the data needed for the report, concatinates it into one massive row, then format that row as a JavaScript array.
  • Write your custom report as a html web-page, complete with styles and JS functions.
  • Put the whole web page code file into one large string. Put the JS array containing your data from step 1 into your code string so that you now have a JS variable containing all of your raw data hardcoded into your html.
  • You now have a large string of html + JS that contains your custom report complete with data! Sadly the string exceeds the length of VARCHAR(MAX), so you'll need to chop it up, and insert each chunk into a table. Now all you need to do is set the table as a data source in PBI, re-join the rows into one long string, and voilà! A custome Power BI visual in 4 simple steps!

  I'm fairly new to the data engineering role (transitioned from software dev) but this is insane right? My colleage has very strong SQL skills but isn't really a programmer, so I'm guessing this is a case of 'when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail'.

  I don't even know how to begin trying to explain the problems with this approach to my colleague, or what to suggest as an alternative (maybe just make a custom visual using the dev tools provided by PBI?). I don't want to come off sounding condescending but I have to say something before this becomes our standard way of creating custom reports.

  bloxorz