Postgres Profile

Profile Configuration

Postgres targets should be set up using the following configuration in your profiles.yml file.

~/.dbt/profiles.yml

company-name:
  target: dev
  outputs:
    dev:
      type: postgres
      host: [hostname]
      user: [username]
      password: [password]
      port: [port]
      dbname: [database name]
      schema: [dbt schema]
      threads: [1 or more]
      keepalives_idle: 0 # default 0, indicating the system default
      connect_timeout: 10 # default 10 seconds
      search_path: [optional, override the default postgres search_path]
      role: [optional, set the role dbt assumes when executing queries]
      sslmode: [optional, set the sslmode used to connect to the database]

Configurations

search_path

The search_path config controls the Postgres "search path" that dbt configures when opening new connections to the database. By default, the Postgres search path is "$user, public", meaning that unqualified table names will be searched for in the public schema, or a schema with the same name as the logged-in user. Note: Setting the search_path to a custom value is not necessary or recommended for typical usage of dbt.

role

▶Changelog

The role config controls the Postgres role that dbt assumes when opening new connections to the database.

sslmode

▶Changelog

The sslmode config controls how dbt connectes to Postgres databases using SSL. See the Postgres docs on sslmode for usage information. When unset, dbt will connect to databases using the Postgres default, prefer, as the sslmode.

Postgres notes

While Postgres works reasonably well for datasets smaller than about 10mm rows, database tuning is sometimes required. Make sure to create indexes for columns that are commonly used in joins or where clauses.