Column lineage

sqb dbt lineage traces dependencies across the combined dbt and SQLBuild graph:

Point it at a column (resource:column) to trace where that column’s values come from, or go, through every intermediate model.
Point it at a model (no colon) for the model-level dependency graph.

It compiles the dbt project, reads the manifest, and analyzes the SQL, so lineage works whether a node is a dbt model or a SQLBuild model, and traces straight across the boundary between them.

Target a column with resource:column (a colon between the model and the column):

sqb dbt lineage agg_daily_revenue:revenue_cents

Column trace  agg_daily_revenue:revenue_cents  upstream

└── fct_orders:order_amount_cents (aggregation)
    └── int_order_payments:order_amount_cents (direct)
        └── stg_payments:amount_cents (aggregation)
            └── raw_payments:amount_cents (direct)

Each hop is annotated with how the value was derived (direct, aggregation, expression, …), and the trace follows the column all the way back to the source - here through four models down to a seed. It also crosses the dbt/SQLBuild boundary: a SQLBuild column that reads a dbt model via __dbt_ref traces straight into the dbt model’s columns. See Column lineage for the full list of transform types and confidence levels. Use --direction downstream to trace the other way - every column derived from this one:

sqb dbt lineage stg_payments:amount_cents --direction downstream

Column trace  stg_payments:amount_cents  downstream

├── fct_payments:amount_cents (direct)
└── int_order_payments:order_amount_cents (aggregation)
    ├── fct_orders:order_amount_cents (direct)
    │   ├── agg_daily_revenue:avg_order_usd (aggregation)
    │   ├── agg_daily_revenue:revenue_cents (aggregation)
    │   └── agg_daily_revenue:revenue_usd (aggregation)
    ├── fct_orders:order_amount_usd (expression)
    └── int_customer_orders:lifetime_amount_cents (aggregation)
        ├── dim_customers:lifetime_amount_cents (expression)
        └── dim_customers:lifetime_amount_usd (expression)

Column lineage supports --direction upstream (default) or downstream, but not both - the same restriction as the native sqb lineage command.

The dbt column target uses a colon (model:column); the native sqb lineage command uses a dot (model.column). The colon is used here because dbt model and package references already contain dots.

Model lineage

Target a model (no colon) for the model-level dependency graph:

sqb dbt lineage fct_orders

Lineage  fct_orders [dbt]  upstream
└── int_order_payments [dbt]
    ├── stg_order_statuses [dbt]
    │   └── stg_orders [dbt]
    │       └── seed.jaffle_analytics.raw_orders [dbt]
    ├── stg_orders [dbt]
    │   └── seed.jaffle_analytics.raw_orders [dbt]
    └── stg_payments [dbt]
        └── seed.jaffle_analytics.raw_payments [dbt]

The [dbt] / [sqb] tag on each node shows whether it is a dbt or SQLBuild resource. --direction both shows upstream and downstream together:

sqb dbt lineage fct_orders --direction both

Lineage  fct_orders [dbt]  both
upstream
└── int_order_payments [dbt]
    ├── stg_order_statuses [dbt]
    │   └── stg_orders [dbt]
    │       └── seed.jaffle_analytics.raw_orders [dbt]
    ├── stg_orders [dbt]
    │   └── seed.jaffle_analytics.raw_orders [dbt]
    └── stg_payments [dbt]
        └── seed.jaffle_analytics.raw_payments [dbt]
downstream
└── agg_daily_revenue [dbt]

Options

Flag	Description
`--direction`	`upstream` (default), `downstream`, or `both`. `both` is model lineage only.
`--depth`	How many hops to traverse: an integer or `all` (default `all`).
`--format`	`tree` (default), `list` (an edge list of `a -> b` pairs), or `json`.
`--no-sql-validation`	Skip SQL validation while compiling the SQLBuild side.

The list and json formats keep fully-qualified resource names (e.g. model.jaffle_analytics.fct_orders) for unambiguous scripting; the tree format shortens them for readability. See Selection for how dbt and SQLBuild resources are named in the combined graph.

Getting Started

dbt Compatibility

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Column lineage

Column lineage

Model lineage

Options

​Column lineage

​Model lineage

​Options

Column lineage

Model lineage

Options