Skip to main content

Quickstart for the dbt Explorer Workshop

Updated
Explorer
Snowflake
dbt Cloud
Quickstart
Beginner
Menu

    Introduction​

    Unlock the power of dbt Explorer in this hands-on workshop designed for analytics engineers, data analysts, stakeholders, and data leaders! Dive into a production-level dbt Mesh implementation and discover how to explore your data workflows.⁠ Whether you're looking to streamline your data operations, improve data quality, or self-serve information about your data platform, this workshop will equip you with the tools and knowledge to take your dbt projects to the next level.

    You’ll learn how to:

    • Navigate multiple dbt projects using dbt Explorer
    • Self-serve on data documentation
    • Trace dependencies at the model and column level
    • Identify opportunities to improve performance and data quality

    Prerequisites:

    • Familiarity with data platforms

    Setup​

    Now we’ll be creating your dbt Cloud account and connecting it to a data warehouse.

    • Go to this URL: https://cloud.getdbt.com/coalesce-workshop-signup
      • If you are already signed into dbt Cloud, sign out first!
      • Enter your first name and last name
      • Choose the “Exploring a dbt Mesh implementation with dbt Explorer” option.
    • Agree to the terms of service and click the “Complete Registration” button. Wait about 30 seconds, and you’ll be in the dbt Cloud project for this course, already connected to a data warehouse!

    Get and overview of your project and view the status of your latest runs​

    dbt Explorer performance tabdbt Explorer performance tab

    With dbt Explorer, you can view your project's resources (such as models, tests, and metrics), their lineage, and model consumption to gain a better understanding of its latest production state. Navigate and manage your projects within dbt Cloud to help you and other data developers, analysts, and consumers discover and leverage your dbt resources.

    Hands-On​

    • Explore the Model tab
      • Which job took the Longest?
      • Which job/jobs failed? Why?
    • Explore the Sources tab
      • What sources can we see?
    • Explore the Tests Tab
      • Did we run the right test?, Which test were missing? Why?
    • Explore Exposures
      • Check Quality and where they came from

    Lineage​

    dbt Explorer provides a visualization of your project’s DAG that you can interact with. The nodes in the lineage graph represent the project’s resources and the edges represent the relationships between the nodes. Nodes are color-coded and include iconography according to their resource type.

    • Use the search bar and node selectors to filter your dag.
    • Lenses make it easier to understand your project’s contextual metadata at scales, especially to distinguish a particular model or a subset of models.
      • When you apply a lens, tags become visible on the nodes in the lineage graph, indicating the layer value along with coloration based on that value
    dbt Explorer's lineage graphdbt Explorer's lineage graph
    • Use the advanced search feature to locate resources in your project. Perform hard searches and key word searches. All resource names, column names, resources descriptions, warehouse relations, and code matching your search criteria will appear in the center of the page. Apply filters to fully refine your search
    • When searching for a column name, the results show all relational nodes containing htat column in their schemas.
    dbt Explorer's advanced search featuredbt Explorer's advanced search feature

    Hands-On​

    • On the left hand side, Click on the company and make sure you are in the section “overview of Project Details → Next to Overview → View Lineage
    • Pick a Mart Model → Select Everything downstream
      • Which models depend on models from another project?
        • Click on the other Projects lineage
    • Explore lenses – Explore table materializations clustered in current Project
      • Which are the biggest view clusters?
    • Explore different lenses (Model Layer, Test Status, Resource)
    • Drill down on a node→ Explore the Column Lineage and its Evolution
      • Expand each columns full lineage

    Mutli-Project​

    Use dbt Explorer to gain a deeper understanding of all of you dbt Cloud projects with it's multi-project capabilities.

    • See the number of public models, protected models, private models, and metrics in each project.
    • View cross-project lineage and navigate between individual projects’ lineage graphs
    • View cross-project column-level lineage

    Hands-On​

    • See which models in the platform project are public and being referenced by another project.
    • Swap between two projects’ lineages. Explore the assets provided.
      • What sources can we see?
    • Use multi-project column level lineage to find a column that exists in models in multiple projects.

    Project Recommendations​

    The project recommendations page suggests project improvements and provides insight into how you can create a better-documented, better-tested, and better-built dbt project, creating more trust and less confusion. Learn more about what sort of suggestions it makes and why on our docs site.

    dbt Explorer's project recommendation tabdbt Explorer's project recommendation tab

    Hands-On​

    • Read through the project recommendations. Select one improvement to make and make it! (Ex: Add a description to a primary key that lacks one)
    0