schema

Heads up!

This is a work in progress document. While this configuration applies to multiple resource types, the documentation has only been written for seeds.

Definition

Optionally specify a custom schema for a model or seed. (To specify a schema for a snapshot, use the target_schema config).

When dbt creates a relation (table/view) in a database, it creates it as: {{ database }}.{{ schema }}.{{ identifier }}, e.g. analytics.finance.payments

The standard behavior of dbt is:

  • If a custom schema is not specified, the schema of the relation is the target schema ({{ target.schema }}).
  • If a custom schema is specified, by default, the schema of the relation is {{ target.schema }}_{{ schema }}.

To learn more about changing the way that dbt generates a relation's schema, read Using Custom Schemas

Usage

Models

Configure groups of models from the dbt_project.yml file.

dbt_project.yml
models:
  jaffle_shop: # the name of a project
    marketing:
      +schema: marketing

Configure individual models using a config block:

models/my_model.sql
{{ config(
    schema='marketing'
) }}

Seeds

dbt_project.yml
seeds:
  +schema: mappings

Warehouse specific information

  • BigQuery: dataset and schema are interchangeable
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