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Installing the dbt Cloud CLI (Alpha)

Alpha functionality

The following installation instructions are for the dbt Cloud CLI, currently in Alpha (actively in development and being tested).

These instructions are not intended for general audiences at this time.

Installing dbt Cloud CLI​

  1. Install the dbt Cloud CLI: 
brew tap dbt-labs/dbt-cli
brew install dbt-cloud-cli
  1. Verify the installation by requesting your homebrew installation path (not your dbt core installs). If the which dbt command returns nothing, then you should modify your PATH in ~.zshrc or create an alias.
which dbt
dbt --help

Manually install (Windows and Linux)​

  1. Download the latest release for your platform from GitHub.
  2. Add the dbt executable to your path.
  3. Move to a directory with a dbt project, and create a dbt_cloud.yml file containing your project-id from dbt Cloud.
  4. Invoke dbt --help from your terminal to see a list of supported commands.

Updating your dbt Cloud installation (Windows + Linux)​

Follow the same process in Installing dbt Cloud CLI and replace the existing dbt executable with the new one. You should not have to go through the security steps again.

Setting up the CLI​

The following instructions are for setting up the dbt Cloud CLI.

  1. Ensure that you have created a project in dbt Cloud.

  2. Ensure that your personal development credentials are set on the project.

  3. Navigate to your profile and enable the Beta flag under Experimental Features.

  4. Create an environment variable with your dbt Cloud API key:

vi ~/.zshrc

# dbt Cloud CLI
export DBT_CLOUD_API_KEY="1234" # Replace "1234" with your API key
  1. Load the new environment variable. Note: You may need to reactivate your Python virtual environment after sourcing your shell's dot file. Alternatively, restart your shell instead of sourcing the shell's dot file
source ~/.zshrc
  1. Navigate to a dbt project
cd ~/dbt-projects/jaffle_shop
  1. Create a dbt_cloud.yml in the root project directory. The file is required to have a project-id field with a valid project ID. Enter the following commands:
pwd # Input
/Users/user/dbt-projects/jaffle_shop # Output
echo "project-id: '<your project id>'" > dbt_cloud.yml # Input
cat dbt_cloud.yml # Input
project-id: '123456' # Output

You can find your project ID by selecting your project and clicking on Develop in the navigation bar. Your project ID is the number in the URL: https://cloud.getdbt.com/develop/26228/projects/PROJECT_ID.

If dbt_cloud.yml already exists, edit the file, and verify the project ID field uses a valid project ID.

Upgrade the CLI with Brew​

brew update
brew upgrade dbt-cloud-cli

Using dbt Cloud CLI​

Coming soon

Glossary​

  • dbt cloud API key: Your API key found by navigating to the gear icon, clicking Profile Settings, and scrolling down to API.
  • Project ID: The ID of the dbt project you're working with. Can be retrieved from the dbt Cloud URL after a project has been selected, for example, https://cloud.getdbt.com/deploy/{accountID}/projects/{projectID}
  • Development credentials: Your personal warehouse credentials for the project you’re working with. They can be set by selecting the project and entering them in dbt Cloud. Navigate to the gear icon, click Profile Settings, and click Credentials from the left-side menu.
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