vscode-dbt-power-user

This extension makes vscode seamlessly work with dbt.

If you need help with setting up or any other functionality, message us in the dbt community slack channel #tools-dbt-power-user.

Main features:

Generate models from your source definitions
Query result set visualization
Lineage of dbt models
Execute all or individual model tests
Go to the definition of any models, macros, sources and docs.
Edit documentation of your model and its columns in a dedicated panel
View column details, go to documentation editor and run dbt docs generate.
Autocompletion of models, macros, sources and docs
Run a model through the play button of the document
Build a model through the paper plane button (next to the play button)
dbt update notifications
dbt logs viewer (force tailing)

This extension is using the Python extension to detect Python interpreters that are installed in standard locations. See Python Environments.

This extension is fully compatible with the remote extension. See Visual Studio Code Remote - Containers and Visual Studio Code Remote - WSL.

Please let us know about any bugs or feature requests through the github issues.

If you require additional support, feel free to reach out on the dbt Community Slack Channel #tools-dbt-power-user

If you want to contribute to the extension, let us know and we will help set you up.

How to setup the extension

Associate your .sql files the jinja-sql language

You should associate your .sql files with the jinja-sql language by configuring in Preferences > Settings

or add the following in settings.json:

    "files.associations": {
        "*.sql": "jinja-sql"
    },

Select the Python interpreter that has dbt installed

Ensure that the Python interpreter selection is always visible for ease of use:

Make sure that you select the interpreter that has dbt installed. In my case it is virtual environment in the project itself.

Avoid using the setting dbt.dbtPythonPathOverride unless using Meltano, the extension depends on the Python interpreter for visual code compatible environment variable parsing.

When you set the Python interpreter, the extension will try to detect dbt and you should be able to make use of the features listed below.

Environment variables

This extension supports environment variables in various ways;

Environment variables setup outside of Visual Code (.zshrc, .bashrc, ...)

These environment variables will be passed to all operations of the extension. Note that the environment variable should be valid for all your dbt projects. For example DBT_PROFILES_DIR can be set to ., that way dbt will lookup the profiles.yaml file inside the root of the dbt project.

Environment variables through `python.envFile`

The extension also loads an environment variable definitions file identified by the python.envFile setting. The default value of this setting is ${workspaceFolder}/.env.

This way supports all Visual Code variable substitution patterns and is best practise. Read all about environment variables supported by the Visual Code Python extension

Environment variables setup for the terminal

The extension will read any vscode configurations in .vscode/settings.json and pass them to all operations of the extension:

"terminal.integrated.env.[osx|windows|linux]": {
    "DBT_PROFILES_DIR": "."
}

Note that Visual Code variable substitution is not supported except the environment variable pattern ${env:*} and ${workspaceFolder}.

Query results visualization

Your database may not support standard SQL LIMIT statements like SELECT * from table LIMIT 10.

You can override this default behaviour through dbt.queryTemplate.

Please make a PR if you find that you need to change dbt.queryTemplate for your favourite adapter and help the community.

`dbt.queryTemplate` for Oracle

Change to select * from ({query})\n where ROWNUM <= {limit}

`dbt.queryTemplate` for MS SQL

Change to {query}\n order by 1 OFFSET 0 ROWS FETCH FIRST {limit} ROWS ONLY

Note that your query can't have an order by clause.

Format your dbt SQL with `sqlfmt`

Install `sqlfmt`

Install sqlfmt through running pip install 'shandy-sqlfmt[jinjafmt]'. Find more about sqlfmt in their docs.

Configure `dbt.sqlFmtPath` or `dbt.sqlFmtAdditionalParams`

You can configure the path to sqlfmt through dbt.sqlFmtPath and you can configure additional parameters through dbt.sqlFmtAdditionalParams.

Usage

Please select "dbt Power User" (extension id:innoverio.vscode-dbt-power-user) as the default formatter. You can do this either by using the context menu (right click on a open dbt model in the editor) and select "Format Document With...", or you can add the following to your settings:

  "[jinja-sql]": {
    "editor.defaultFormatter": "innoverio.vscode-dbt-power-user"
  }

Format on save

You can enable format on save for python by having the following values in your settings:

  "[jinja-sql]": {
    "editor.defaultFormatter": "innoverio.vscode-dbt-power-user",
    "editor.formatOnSave": true
  }

Telemetry

Telemetry is used for error and usage reporting in order to make the extension better.

Find out how to disable telemetry in visual code docs.

Features at work

Lineage of current model

Generate a model from your source definition

You can select a file name template and prefix in the settings.

Edit the documentation from your model

View Column details of current model

Clicking the table name will route you to the YML schema file if it exists:

You can run Generate Documentation Schema or Trigger dbt docs generate from the documentation tab. This feature relies on a defined schema in a YML file. It extracts data from both the catalog.json, and the manifest.json.