Selection

The sqb dbt commands use --select and --exclude to scope what runs. Selectors work across both dbt and SQLBuild, with the system determining which side owns each selector and how to route work.

SQLBuild-recognized selectors

These selectors match SQLBuild models directly:

Selector	Example	Behavior
Model name	`fact_orders`	Selects that SQLBuild model. Auto-includes its immediate dbt upstream dependencies.
Leading `+`	`+fact_orders`	Selects the model plus walks upstream through both SQLBuild and dbt models.
Trailing `+`	`fact_orders+`	Selects the model plus all downstream SQLBuild models.
Both `+`	`+fact_orders+`	Full upstream (including dbt) and downstream expansion.
Tag	`tag:nightly`	Selects all SQLBuild models with that tag. Auto-includes dbt dependencies.
Tag with `+`	`+tag:nightly`	Tag match plus upstream expansion through the combined graph.
Path	`path:models/marts`	Selects SQLBuild models under that project-relative directory - the same syntax as dbt’s `path:` selector.
Path with `+`	`+path:models/marts`	Path match plus upstream/downstream expansion.

When a SQLBuild model is selected, its immediate dbt upstream dependencies are always included so dbt can build the tables that SQLBuild models read from.

dbt-only selectors

Selectors that SQLBuild does not recognize (like state:modified, package:stripe, source:stripe.charges) are passed to dbt ls to resolve:

Selector	Example	Behavior
Without `+`	`state:modified`	dbt-only work. No SQLBuild models selected.
With trailing `+`	`state:modified+`	SQLBuild runs `dbt ls` to find which dbt models match, then walks downstream into SQLBuild territory.
With both `+`	`+state:modified+`	Same downstream expansion, plus upstream dbt expansion.

This means you can use dbt-native selectors like state:modified+ to trigger rebuilds of SQLBuild models that depend on changed dbt models. If dbt ls returns no matching models, no SQLBuild work is triggered.

Exclude

--exclude removes matching SQLBuild models from the final selection:

sqb dbt build --select fact_orders+ --exclude tag:nightly

Examples

# Build a specific SQLBuild model and its dbt dependencies
sqb dbt build --select downstream_orders

# Build everything downstream of a SQLBuild model
sqb dbt build --select downstream_orders+

# Build a SQLBuild model with full upstream dbt chain
sqb dbt build --select +downstream_orders

# Build SQLBuild models downstream of modified dbt models
sqb dbt build --select state:modified+

# Build all SQLBuild models tagged "nightly" with their dbt dependencies
sqb dbt build --select tag:nightly

# Build SQLBuild models under a path
sqb dbt build --select path:models/marts

Execution order

For sqb dbt run and sqb dbt build:

dbt runs - a single dbt run/build command executes with the user’s selectors merged with any additional dbt models required by selected SQLBuild models, pruned to only the models that actually changed
SQLBuild runs - selected SQLBuild models execute against the now-built dbt tables

For sqb dbt test:

dbt test runs first - with the user’s original selectors
SQLBuild test runs - unit tests for selected SQLBuild models
SQLBuild audit runs - audits for selected SQLBuild models

The test_type:data and test_type:unit selectors from dbt are mapped to SQLBuild equivalents: test_type:data runs SQLBuild audits, test_type:unit runs SQLBuild unit tests.

Getting Started

dbt Compatibility

Concepts

Python Nodes

Virtual Environments (Alpha)

Integrations

CLI Reference

SQLBuild-recognized selectors

dbt-only selectors

Exclude

Examples

Execution order

​SQLBuild-recognized selectors

​dbt-only selectors

​Exclude

​Examples

​Execution order

SQLBuild-recognized selectors

dbt-only selectors

Exclude

Examples

Execution order