dbt Integration¶

The indexer compiles dbt models via dbt compile, then parses the resulting SQL from the target/compiled/ directory.

How It Works¶

The indexer runs dbt compile --project-dir ... --profiles-dir ... via subprocess.
dbt expands all Jinja macros, refs, and sources into clean SQL files under target/compiled/<project_name>/models/.
The indexer reads each compiled .sql file, wraps it as a CREATE TABLE statement (dbt compiled SQL is bare SELECT), and parses it with sqlglot.
Nodes, edges, column usage, and column lineage are extracted and stored in the graph.

No dbt Python dependency is needed in the indexer's environment — it shells out to whatever dbt command you specify.

CLI Usage¶

sqlprism reindex-dbt \
  --name my-project \
  --project /path/to/dbt/project \
  --dialect starrocks \
  --env-file /path/to/.env \
  --target dev

Config Usage¶

Add to dbt_repos in sqlprism.yml:

dbt_repos:
  my-project:
    project_path: /path/to/dbt/project
    env_file: /path/to/.env
    target: dev
    dialect: starrocks
    dbt_command: uv run dbt

dbt Command¶

The --dbt-command parameter is the base command to invoke dbt. The indexer appends compile --project-dir ... --profiles-dir ... automatically.

Examples:

Command	When to use
`uv run dbt` (default)	dbt installed in the project's `.venv` via uv
`dbt`	dbt installed globally or in active venv
`uvx --with dbt-starrocks dbt`	Ephemeral install with a specific adapter

Profiles¶

By default, the indexer looks for profiles.yml in the project directory. Use --profiles-dir to point elsewhere (e.g. ~/.dbt).

Environment Variables¶

Use --env-file to load variables needed by profiles.yml (database host, credentials, etc.). These are loaded into the subprocess environment before running dbt compile.

Dialect¶

The --dialect parameter tells the sqlglot parser how to interpret the compiled SQL. This should match your target database:

StarRocks uses backtick quoting
Postgres uses double-quote quoting
Snowflake uses uppercase identifiers

If dialect is wrong, you may get parse errors or incorrect identifier resolution.

SELECT * Lineage¶

The indexer expands SELECT * into individual column lineage chains when a schema catalog is available. The catalog is built from column usage records in previous indexes. On a fresh database, the first index will not expand SELECT * — run a second full reindex to populate the catalog.

Venv Detection¶

The indexer auto-detects where the .venv lives. If your dbt project is nested (e.g. dbt/dp_starrocks/ but .venv is at dbt/), the indexer searches parent directories for the venv.