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Scenarios are end-to-end tests for coherent slices of your warehouse. You define fixture inputs, SQLBuild builds the real project graph against them in isolated physical relations, and you assert that the result is correct.

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When to use scenarios vs unit tests

SQL unit tests compile to a single comparison query. They are fast, inline, and work well for checking individual model transformations. But when you need to test across many models with related entities - customers that have orders, orders that have payments, refunds that reference original orders - a single query can become unwieldy or hit SQL size limits. Scenarios materialize physical relations in the warehouse and build the actual model graph. This means:
  • Fixture inputs are real tables, not CTEs inside one query
  • Models execute with real SQL, real materializations, and real dependency ordering
  • You can test end-to-end business logic across an entire pipeline slice
  • Debugging is easier because you can inspect intermediate tables with --retain
Use unit tests for transformation logic. Use scenarios for coherent end-to-end validation.

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Authoring scenarios

Scenario files live under tests/scenarios/ and use one file per scenario: 
tests/
  scenarios/
    revenue/
      daily_revenue_minimal.sql
      daily_revenue_multi_order.sql
    fulfillment/
      fulfillment__late_shipment.sql
Folders are organizational only. The scenario name is the filename stem and must be globally unique across all discovered scenario files.

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Scenario format

Each file has a SCENARIO() header followed by CTEs that define inputs, expected outputs, and assertions: 
SCENARIO (
  description: "Daily revenue includes only successful payments",
  tags: ["revenue", "example"]
);

WITH
__ref__stg_orders AS (
  SELECT
    1 AS order_id, 10 AS customer_id, 1 AS waffle_type_id,
    2 AS quantity, CAST('2026-04-01 09:15:00' AS TIMESTAMP) AS ordered_at,
    'completed' AS status
),

__ref__stg_payments AS (
  SELECT
    1 AS payment_id, 1 AS order_id, 1700 AS amount_cents,
    'credit_card' AS payment_method,
    CAST('2026-04-01 09:16:00' AS TIMESTAMP) AS paid_at,
    'success' AS payment_status
  UNION ALL
  SELECT
    2 AS payment_id, 2 AS order_id, 1050 AS amount_cents,
    'credit_card' AS payment_method,
    CAST('2026-04-01 10:01:00' AS TIMESTAMP) AS paid_at,
    'failed' AS payment_status
),

__expected__daily_revenue AS (
  SELECT
    CAST('2026-04-01' AS DATE) AS revenue_date,
    1 AS order_count, 2 AS waffles_sold,
    1700 AS total_revenue_cents
),

__assert__no_negative_revenue AS (
  SELECT *
  FROM __ref("daily_revenue")
  WHERE total_revenue_cents < 0
)

SELECT 1

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CTE conventions

PrefixPurpose
__source__<name>Fixture source input. Materializes as a scenario table.
__ref__<model>Fixture model boundary. Prevents SQLBuild from building that model upstream.
__seed__<seed>Fixture seed data.
__expected__<model>Full expected output. Compared order-insensitively against the scenario-built model.
__assert__<name>Zero-row assertion. Passes if the query returns no rows; fails with the returned rows as diagnostics.
For sources with two-part identity, use double underscores: __source__raw__orders. Every scenario must have at least one fixture CTE and at least one __expected__ or __assert__ CTE.

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SCENARIO() header

The header is metadata only:
FieldDescription
descriptionOptional description string
tagsOptional list of string tags

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How scenarios execute

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Graph inference

SQLBuild infers which models to build from your scenario:
  1. Target models come from __expected__<model> CTE names and __ref(...) calls inside __assert__ CTEs
  2. SQLBuild walks upstream from targets, building every required model
  3. __ref__<model> fixtures act as boundaries - upstream traversal stops there
  4. All required sources must be provided by __source__ fixtures
  5. Required project seeds are loaded automatically unless overridden by __seed__ fixtures

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Isolation

Scenario artifacts are physically isolated from production:
  • Every scenario-owned relation uses a deterministic prefixed name (based on a hash of the project and scenario identity)
  • All ref(), source(), and seed() calls resolve to scenario-owned relations, never production tables
  • Fixture CTEs can read from existing warehouse relations if you choose, but downstream models always read the materialized scenario fixture, not the original

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Execution flow

  1. Clean any existing scenario artifacts from a previous run
  2. Materialize source, ref, and seed fixtures as physical tables
  3. Load required project seeds
  4. Build required models in dependency order (incremental models run as full-refresh in scenarios)
  5. Run expected-output comparisons (order-insensitive)
  6. Run zero-row assertions
  7. Clean up all scenario-owned artifacts (unless --retain)

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Inspecting with —retain

When a scenario fails or you want to inspect intermediate state: 
sqb scenario test daily_revenue_minimal --retain
This keeps all scenario-owned relations in the warehouse and prints a relation map showing the logical-to-physical name mapping. You can then query the scenario tables directly to debug. Runtime artifacts (fixture SQL, model lifecycle SQL, check SQL, cleanup SQL) are always written to target/run/scenarios/<scenario_name>/ regardless of --retain.

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Local scenario testing

Scenarios can run locally against DuckDB using captured JSONL snapshots - no warehouse connection needed. This is useful for CI pipelines and fast developer iteration.

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Capture

First, capture scenario inputs from the real warehouse: 
sqb scenario capture daily_revenue_minimal
This:
  1. Materializes scenario input fixtures in the warehouse
  2. Runs a preflight COUNT(*) on each fixture to check row counts against safety limits
  3. Inspects column types and maps them to DuckDB-compatible types
  4. Downloads rows as JSONL files (enforcing byte limits during writing)
  5. Writes a scenario.json manifest with column metadata, types, row counts, and an input fingerprint
  6. Cleans up warehouse artifacts
Snapshots are written to tests/_scenario_snapshots/<scenario_name>/ and can be committed to version control. JSONL is human-readable and git-diffable.

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Capture safety limits

Capture enforces row and byte limits to prevent accidentally saving large datasets. Limits can be set in sqlbuild_project.toml: 
[scenario.snapshot_limits]
max_rows_per_relation = 10000
max_total_rows = 50000
max_bytes_per_relation = 10485760   # 10 MB
max_total_bytes = 52428800          # 50 MB
Or per-command via CLI flags: 
sqb scenario capture --max-snapshot-rows 5000 --max-snapshot-total-rows 20000
sqb scenario capture --max-snapshot-bytes 5242880
CLI flags override TOML config. Use --force to bypass all limits: 
sqb scenario capture --force
When a limit is exceeded, capture fails with a clear error and suggests narrowing the fixture query, raising the limit, or using --force.

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Local replay

Run scenarios locally against DuckDB: 
sqb scenario test --local
This:
  1. Checks snapshot freshness via the input fingerprint (missing/stale snapshots are skipped by default)
  2. Creates a temporary DuckDB database at target/run/scenarios/<scenario_name>/local.duckdb
  3. Loads JSONL snapshots into typed DuckDB tables using column metadata from scenario.json
  4. Transpiles model and check SQL from the project adapter dialect to DuckDB via SQLGlot
  5. Builds functions, models, and runs expected/assertion checks in DuckDB
  6. Keeps the local DuckDB file for inspection (it lives under target/, so it’s always retained)

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Sync snapshots

Instead of running capture and test separately, sync snapshots in one command: 
# Capture missing/stale snapshots, then run locally
sqb scenario test --local --sync-snapshots

# Recapture all snapshots, then run locally
sqb scenario test --local --refresh
With --sync-snapshots, fresh snapshots are reused. With --refresh, all selected snapshots are recaptured even if fresh.

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Strict mode

By default, missing or stale snapshots are skipped with a warning. Use --strict to treat them as errors: 
sqb scenario test --local --strict

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Local type overrides

When SQLGlot’s automatic warehouse-to-DuckDB type conversion produces an incompatible type, you can override it in sqlbuild_project.toml: 
[scenario.local_type_overrides.snowflake]
"OBJECT" = "JSON"
"ARRAY" = "JSON"
"NUMBER(*,0)" = "BIGINT"
Override keys are structural type patterns. Values can reference matched type arguments with {1}, {2}, etc: 
[scenario.local_type_overrides.bigquery]
"NUMERIC({1},{2})" = "DECIMAL({1},{2})"
These overrides are written into scenario.json during capture and used when loading snapshots into DuckDB.

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Cleanup

By default, remote scenario artifacts are dropped after each run (pass or fail). The janitor command also recognizes scenario artifacts and can clean retained or orphaned scenario relations: 
sqb janitor
See the CLI reference for full command documentation.

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Limitations

  • Custom materializations are not supported in scenarios yet. Scenario models using custom materializations will fail with a clear error.
  • Local replay transpiles SQL from the project adapter dialect to DuckDB via SQLGlot. Adapter-specific SQL that SQLGlot cannot translate will produce a clear error with the failing resource name and reason.