Rivers

SQLBuild includes a Rivers integration that maps your project’s models, sources, seeds, loaders, tasks, assets, and functions into Rivers assets with dependency edges preserved. SQLBuild handles the SQL transformation layer. Rivers handles scheduling, execution, and the asset-centric UI.

Install

pip install 'sqlbuild[rivers]'
# or
uv pip install 'sqlbuild[rivers]'

This installs rivers alongside SQLBuild.

Try it

sqb playground --template rivers
cd sqlbuild-playground
uv run rivers dev rivers_pipeline.definitions

This creates the waffle shop project with a rivers_pipeline/definitions.py that includes asset definitions and a configured job. Open the Rivers UI to inspect assets and trigger materializations.

How it works

sqb compile --dag generates a static sqlbuild_dag.json artifact with your project’s full graph (nodes, edges)
@sqlbuild_assets() reads the artifact and creates one Rivers AssetDef per source, loader, seed, model, function, task, and asset, with dependency edges preserved
The decorated function runs sqb build as a subprocess and yields Materialization events for each output

Quickstart

# definitions.py
from __future__ import annotations

import subprocess
from collections.abc import Iterator
from pathlib import Path
from typing import Any

import rivers as rs

from sqlbuild.integrations.rivers import SqlBuildProject, sqlbuild_assets

PROJECT_DIR = Path(__file__).resolve().parent.parent
SQLBUILD_PROJECT = SqlBuildProject(project_dir=PROJECT_DIR)
SQLBUILD_PROJECT.prepare_if_dev()


@sqlbuild_assets(project=SQLBUILD_PROJECT)
def my_assets(context: Any) -> Iterator[Any]:
    completed = subprocess.run(
        ["sqb", "build"],
        cwd=PROJECT_DIR,
        capture_output=True,
        check=False,
        text=True,
    )
    if completed.returncode != 0:
        raise RuntimeError(completed.stderr or completed.stdout)
    for output_name in context.output_selection:
        yield rs.Materialization(output_name=output_name)


repo = rs.CodeRepository(
    assets=[my_assets],
    jobs=[
        rs.Job(
            name="sqlbuild_pipeline",
            assets=[my_assets],
            executor=rs.Executor.in_process(),
        ),
    ],
)

SqlBuildProject

SqlBuildProject manages paths and DAG artifact generation:

project = SqlBuildProject(project_dir=Path("."))

Field	Default	Description
`project_dir`	required	Path to the SQLBuild project root
`target_path`	`target`	Directory for build artifacts
`dag_filename`	`sqlbuild_dag.json`	DAG artifact filename
`sqb_command`	`("sqb",)`	Command to invoke SQLBuild
`prepare_project_cli_args`	`("compile", "--dag")`	CLI arguments for DAG generation

Methods

Method	Description
`prepare()`	Generate the DAG artifact by running `sqb compile --dag`
`prepare_if_dev()`	Generate the DAG artifact only when `RIVERS_DEPLOYMENT=dev`
`dag_path`	Property returning the full path to the DAG artifact

Use prepare_if_dev() so the DAG artifact is auto-generated during local development but not during production deployments where it should already exist.

sqlbuild_assets

The @sqlbuild_assets() decorator creates a Rivers multi-asset definition from a SQLBuild DAG artifact:

@sqlbuild_assets(project=project)
def my_assets(context):
    ...

Parameter	Description
`project`	`SqlBuildProject` instance (generates and locates the DAG artifact)
`dag`	Alternative: pass a DAG path or dict directly instead of a project
`translator`	Optional `SqlBuildRiversTranslator` for custom name/tag/metadata mapping
`name`	Optional asset name override

Pass either project or dag, not both.

SqlBuildRiversTranslator

Override the default mapping from SQLBuild DAG nodes to Rivers asset metadata:

from sqlbuild.integrations.rivers import SqlBuildRiversTranslator

class CustomTranslator(SqlBuildRiversTranslator):
    def get_group_name(self, node):
        return "my_custom_group"

    def get_tags(self, node):
        tags = super().get_tags(node)
        tags.append("team:analytics")
        return tags

@sqlbuild_assets(project=project, translator=CustomTranslator())
def my_assets(context):
    ...

Translator methods

Method	Default behavior
`get_asset_name(node)`	Joins the asset key parts with `__` (e.g. `task__prepare_orders`, `asset__orders_export`)
`get_group_name(node)`	Uses the project name
`get_tags(node)`	Includes `sqlbuild/kind:<kind>` plus model tags
`get_kinds(node)`	Returns `["sqlbuild", "<materialization_type>"]`
`get_metadata(node)`	Includes SQLBuild name, kind, path, target, columns, etc.

Running locally

Run the pipeline directly without the Rivers UI:

uv run python rivers_pipeline/definitions.py

Or start the Rivers development server:

uv run rivers dev rivers_pipeline.definitions

Getting Started

dbt Compatibility

Concepts

Python Nodes

Virtual Environments (Alpha)

Integrations

CLI Reference

Install

Try it

How it works

Quickstart

SqlBuildProject

Methods

sqlbuild_assets

SqlBuildRiversTranslator

Translator methods

Running locally

​Install

​Try it

​How it works

​Quickstart

​SqlBuildProject

​Methods

​sqlbuild_assets

​SqlBuildRiversTranslator

​Translator methods

​Running locally

Install

Try it

How it works

Quickstart

SqlBuildProject

Methods

sqlbuild_assets

SqlBuildRiversTranslator

Translator methods

Running locally