Topic

#dbt

Illustrated overview of dbt Incremental Models in Production: unique_key, Merge, and Late Arrivals

dbt

Aug 30, 202610 min read

dbt Incremental Models in Production: unique_key, Merge, and Late Arrivals

How incremental dbt models actually write: unique_key as merge grain, is_incremental filters, lookback windows, and the late-arrival cases that silently drop rows.

SQLMesh

Aug 23, 20265 min read

SQLMesh Plans and Virtual Environments: What dbt State Cannot Isolate, and When to Stay

A plan is a snapshot diff you apply. Virtual environments share unchanged physical tables. dbt defer is CI, not isolation. Do not migrate a healthy dbt estate. You still need an orchestrator.

sqlmesh
dbt

Illustrated overview of dbt Tutorial: Build Your First Transformation Project the Right Way

dbt

Aug 5, 20264 min read

dbt Tutorial: Build Your First Transformation Project the Right Way

Set up a dbt project from scratch: staging models, marts, tests, and documentation — with the project structure conventions used by real teams.

dbt
sql
tutorials

Illustrated overview of dbt Performance at Scale: Threads, Materializations, and Per-Model Cost Attribution

dbt

May 12, 202612 min read

dbt Performance at Scale: Threads, Materializations, and Per-Model Cost Attribution

Cutting dbt run time and warehouse spend on a large project: how to find the real critical path, when threads stop helping, and how to attribute cost to individual models.

dbt
cost-optimization

Illustrated overview of dbt Macros and Jinja: The Patterns That Earn Their Keep, and the Clever Ones That Do Not

dbt

May 9, 202612 min read

dbt Macros and Jinja: The Patterns That Earn Their Keep, and the Clever Ones That Do Not

Which Jinja patterns are worth the indirection in a production dbt project, how to test macros, and the metaprogramming that quietly makes a project unmaintainable.

dbt
best-practices

Illustrated overview of dbt Snapshots for SCD Type 2: Check vs Timestamp, and When to Hand-Roll

dbt

May 7, 202612 min read

dbt Snapshots for SCD Type 2: Check vs Timestamp, and When to Hand-Roll

Choosing between check and timestamp snapshot strategies, what happens when a snapshot run is missed, and the cases where a hand-rolled SCD2 model beats dbt snapshot.

Illustrated overview of dbt Project Structure: A Layout That Survives Two Years and Forty Models

dbt

May 5, 202611 min read

dbt Project Structure: A Layout That Survives Two Years and Forty Models

How I lay out staging, intermediate, and marts so a dbt project still makes sense after two years: naming rules, ref boundaries, and the folders that always rot.

dbt
best-practices

Illustrated overview of Slim CI in dbt: state:modified+ and --defer on a 1,000-Model Project

dbt

Apr 23, 20268 min read

Slim CI in dbt: state:modified+ and --defer on a 1,000-Model Project

How to get dbt CI from 50 minutes to 4 with state comparison and defer: manifest artifacts, GitHub Actions wiring, and the edge cases that bite.

dbt
ci-cd

Illustrated overview of A dbt Testing Strategy That Catches Regressions, Not 4,000 Warnings

dbt

Apr 9, 20268 min read

A dbt Testing Strategy That Catches Regressions, Not 4,000 Warnings

How I structure dbt tests in production: generic tests on keys, unit tests on logic, dbt-expectations on shape, severity that means something.

dbt
quality