Pacifica Rentals — Tableau Pulse Demo

A single-page operations portal: Pulse metrics up top, an AI-written safety narrative in the middle, and a one-click drill into the incidents driving it — all served from Tableau, no external LLM.

Stack: Node + Express · Tableau Connected App JWT · Pulse Insights API · VizQL Data Service · Tableau Embedding API v3

The Express server mints a JWT for the Tableau Connected App, calls Pulse Insights for the AI-generated narratives, and uses VizQL Data Service for row-level incident data. The AI summarization happens inside Tableau Pulse itself — there's no external LLM, no API keys, and no MCP proxy.

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What's in the code

File	Purpose
server.js	Express server. Mints the Tableau JWT, calls Pulse + VizQL DS REST, serves the UI.
index.html	Single-page UI for the brief.
pulse-brief-utils.js	Helpers used by the brief renderer.
start.sh	Boots the Express server on :5500 and opens the browser.
.env.example	Required environment variables — copy to .env and fill in.

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1. Configure your .env

cp .env.example .env

⚠️ Heads up: cp .env.example .env will overwrite an existing .env without prompting. If you already have a .env with values you want to keep, skip this step (or back it up first with cp .env .env.bak).

Fill in every value. Never commit this file — it's already in .gitignore.

Variable	Where it comes from
TABLEAU_CLIENT_ID	Tableau → Settings → Connected Apps → your app
TABLEAU_SECRET_ID	Same Connected App → secret pair
TABLEAU_SECRET_VALUE	Same Connected App → secret pair (shown once)
TABLEAU_USER	Email of the service account that owns the Connected App
TABLEAU_SERVER	Your Tableau Cloud URL, e.g. https://10az.online.tableau.com
TABLEAU_SITE	Site name from the Tableau URL
TABLEAU_API	API version, e.g. 3.28
SAFETY_METRIC_ID	UUID of the safety metric in Tableau Pulse
SAFETY_DATASOURCE_LUID	LUID of the safety datasource (queried via VizQL Data Service)

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2. Run it

npm run start

The Express server starts on http://localhost:5500

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3. How it fits together

Browser (index.html)
        │
        ▼
Express :5500
        │
        ▼
Tableau Cloud (JWT-authenticated)
  ├── Pulse Insights API     → AI-written narrative summaries
  └── VizQL Data Service API → row-level incident queries

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4. Stop the server

When you are done, press Ctrl+C in the terminal — or just close the terminal window.

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5. Security notes

• .env, *.pem, *.key, and *.crt are gitignored. Do not commit secrets.
• The Tableau Connected App secret gives wide access — rotate it if it ever lands in a commit, screenshot, or chat thread.
• The self-signed cert is for local development only. Don't reuse it for anything reachable from the internet.

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6. Repo layout

pacifica-rentals/
├── architecture.html          # Static architecture diagram
├── index.html                 # Brief UI
├── pulse-brief-utils.js       # Brief renderer helpers
├── server.js                  # Express server, Tableau JWT, Pulse + VizQL DS REST
├── start.sh                   # Boots Express and opens the browser
├── Safety_Production_Mock_2.csv
├── .env.example               # Template — copy to .env
├── package.json
└── README.md