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https://github.com/duckdb/dbt-duckdb

dbt (http://getdbt.com) adapter for DuckDB (http://duckdb.org)
https://github.com/duckdb/dbt-duckdb

dbt duckdb

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dbt (http://getdbt.com) adapter for DuckDB (http://duckdb.org)

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README 

        
## dbt-duckdb



[DuckDB](http://duckdb.org) is an embedded database, similar to SQLite, but designed for OLAP-style analytics.

It is crazy fast and allows you to read and write data stored in CSV, JSON, and Parquet files directly, without requiring you to load

them into the database first.



[dbt](http://getdbt.com) is the best way to manage a collection of data transformations written in SQL or Python for analytics

and data science. `dbt-duckdb` is the project that ties DuckDB and dbt together, allowing you to create a [Modern Data Stack In

A Box](https://duckdb.org/2022/10/12/modern-data-stack-in-a-box.html) or a simple and powerful data lakehouse with Python.



### Installation



This project is hosted on PyPI, so you should be able to install it and the necessary dependencies via:



`pip3 install dbt-duckdb`



The latest supported version targets `dbt-core` 1.7.x and `duckdb` version 0.10.x, but we work hard to ensure that newer

versions of DuckDB will continue to work with the adapter as they are released. If you would like to use our new (and experimental!)

support for persisting the tables that DuckDB creates to the [AWS Glue Catalog](https://aws.amazon.com/glue/), you should install

`dbt-duckdb[glue]` in order to get the AWS dependencies as well.



### Configuring Your Profile



A super-minimal dbt-duckdb profile only needs *one* setting:



````

default:

  outputs:

    dev:

      type: duckdb

  target: dev

````



This will run your dbt-duckdb pipeline against an in-memory DuckDB database that will not be persisted after your run completes. This may

not seem very useful at first, but it turns out to be a powerful tool for a) testing out data pipelines, either locally or in CI jobs and

b) running data pipelines that operate purely on external CSV, Parquet, or JSON files. More details on how to work with external data files

in dbt-duckdb are provided in the docs on [reading and writing external files](#reading-and-writing-external-files).



To have your dbt pipeline persist relations in a DuckDB file, set the `path` field in your profile to the path

of the DuckDB file that you would like to read and write on your local filesystem. (For in-memory pipelines, the `path`

is automatically set to the special value `:memory:`).



`dbt-duckdb` also supports common profile fields like `schema` and `threads`, but the `database` property is special: its value is automatically set

to the basename of the file in the `path` argument with the suffix removed. For example, if the `path` is `/tmp/a/dbfile.duckdb`, the `database`

field will be set to `dbfile`. If you are running in in-memory mode, then the `database` property will be automatically set to `memory`.



#### Using MotherDuck



As of `dbt-duckdb` 1.5.2, you can connect to a DuckDB instance running on [MotherDuck](http://www.motherduck.com) by setting your `path` to use a [md: connection string](https://motherduck.com/docs/getting-started/connect-query-from-python/installation-authentication), just as you would with the DuckDB CLI

or the Python API.



MotherDuck databases generally work the same way as local DuckDB databases from the perspective of dbt, but

there are a [few differences to be aware of](https://motherduck.com/docs/architecture-and-capabilities#considerations-and-limitations):

1. Currently, MotherDuck _requires_ a specific version of DuckDB, often the latest, as specified in [MotherDuck's documentation](https://motherduck.com/docs/intro/#getting-started)

1. MotherDuck preloads a set of the most common DuckDB extensions for you, but does not support loading custom extensions or user-defined functions.

1. A small subset of advanced SQL features are currently unsupported; the only impact of this on the dbt adapter is that the [dbt.listagg](https://docs.getdbt.com/reference/dbt-jinja-functions/cross-database-macros#listagg) macro and foreign-key constraints will work against a local DuckDB database, but will not work against a MotherDuck database.



#### DuckDB Extensions, Settings, and Filesystems



You can install and load any core [DuckDB extensions](https://duckdb.org/docs/extensions/overview) by listing them in

the `extensions` field in your profile as a string. You can also set any additional [DuckDB configuration options](https://duckdb.org/docs/sql/configuration)

via the `settings` field, including options that are supported in the loaded extensions. You can also configure extensions from outside of the core

extension repository (e.g., a community extension) by configuring the extension as a `name`/`repo` pair:



```

default:

  outputs:

    dev:

      type: duckdb

      path: /tmp/dbt.duckdb

      extensions:

        - httpfs

        - parquet

        - name: h3

          repo: community

        - name: uc_catalog

          repo: core_nightly

  target: dev

```



To use the [DuckDB Secrets Manager](https://duckdb.org/docs/configuration/secrets_manager.html), you can use the `secrets` field. For example, to be able to connect to S3 and read/write

Parquet files using an AWS access key and secret, your profile would look something like this:



```

default:

  outputs:

    dev:

      type: duckdb

      path: /tmp/dbt.duckdb

      extensions:

        - httpfs

        - parquet

      secrets:

        - type: s3

          region: my-aws-region

          key_id: "{{ env_var('S3_ACCESS_KEY_ID') }}"

          secret: "{{ env_var('S3_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY') }}"

  target: dev

```



As of version `1.4.1`, we have added (experimental!) support for DuckDB's (experimental!) support for filesystems

implemented via [fsspec](https://duckdb.org/docs/guides/python/filesystems.html). The `fsspec` library provides

support for reading and writing files from a [variety of cloud data storage systems](https://filesystem-spec.readthedocs.io/en/latest/api.html#other-known-implementations)

including S3, GCS, and Azure Blob Storage. You can configure a list of fsspec-compatible implementations for use with your dbt-duckdb project by installing the relevant Python modules

and configuring your profile like so:



```

default:

  outputs:

    dev:

      type: duckdb

      path: /tmp/dbt.duckdb

      filesystems:

        - fs: s3

          anon: false

          key: "{{ env_var('S3_ACCESS_KEY_ID') }}"

          secret: "{{ env_var('S3_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY') }}"

          client_kwargs:

            endpoint_url: "http://localhost:4566"

  target: dev

```



Here, the `filesystems` property takes a list of configurations, where each entry must have a property named `fs` that indicates which `fsspec` protocol

to load (so `s3`, `gcs`, `abfs`, etc.) and then an arbitrary set of other key-value pairs that are used to configure the `fsspec` implementation. You can see a simple example project that

illustrates the usage of this feature to connect to a Localstack instance running S3 from dbt-duckdb [here](https://github.com/jwills/s3-demo).



#### Fetching credentials from context



Instead of specifying the credentials through the settings block, you can also use the `CREDENTIAL_CHAIN` secret provider. This means that you can use any supported mechanism from AWS to obtain credentials (e.g., web identity tokens). You can read more about the secret providers [here](https://duckdb.org/docs/configuration/secrets_manager.html#secret-providers). To use the `CREDENTIAL_CHAIN` provider and automatically fetch credentials from AWS, specify the `provider` in the `secrets` key:



```

default:

  outputs:

    dev:

      type: duckdb

      path: /tmp/dbt.duckdb

      extensions:

        - httpfs

        - parquet

      secrets:

        - type: s3

          provider: credential_chain

  target: dev

```



#### Attaching Additional Databases



DuckDB version `0.7.0` added support for [attaching additional databases](https://duckdb.org/docs/sql/statements/attach.html) to your dbt-duckdb run so that you can read

and write from multiple databases. Additional databases may be configured using [dbt run hooks](https://docs.getdbt.com/docs/build/hooks-operations) or via the `attach` argument

in your profile that was added in dbt-duckdb `1.4.0`:



```

default:

  outputs:

    dev:

      type: duckdb

      path: /tmp/dbt.duckdb

      attach:

        - path: /tmp/other.duckdb

        - path: ./yet/another.duckdb

          alias: yet_another

        - path: s3://yep/even/this/works.duckdb

          read_only: true

        - path: sqlite.db

          type: sqlite

```



The attached databases may be referred to in your dbt sources and models by either the basename of the database file minus its suffix (e.g., `/tmp/other.duckdb` is the `other` database

and `s3://yep/even/this/works.duckdb` is the `works` database) or by an alias that you specify (so the `./yet/another.duckdb` database in the above configuration is referred to

as `yet_another` instead of `another`.) Note that these additional databases do not necessarily have to be DuckDB files: DuckDB's storage and catalog engines are pluggable, and

DuckDB `0.7.0` ships with support for reading and writing from attached SQLite databases. You can indicate the type of the database you are connecting to via the `type` argument,

which currently supports `duckdb` and `sqlite`.



#### Configuring dbt-duckdb Plugins



dbt-duckdb has its own [plugin](dbt/adapters/duckdb/plugins/__init__.py) system to enable advanced users to extend

dbt-duckdb with additional functionality, including:



* Defining [custom Python UDFs](https://duckdb.org/docs/api/python/function.html) on the DuckDB database connection

so that they can be used in your SQL models

* Loading source data from [Excel](dbt/adapters/duckdb/plugins/excel.py), [Google Sheets](dbt/adapters/duckdb/plugins/gsheet.py), or [SQLAlchemy](dbt/adapters/duckdb/plugins/sqlalchemy.py) tables



You can find more details on [how to write your own plugins here](#writing-your-own-plugins). To configure a plugin for use

in your dbt project, use the `plugins` property on the profile:



```

default:

  outputs:

    dev:

      type: duckdb

      path: /tmp/dbt.duckdb

      plugins:

        - module: gsheet

          config:

            method: oauth

        - module: sqlalchemy

          alias: sql

          config:

            connection_url: "{{ env_var('DBT_ENV_SECRET_SQLALCHEMY_URI') }}"

        - module: path.to.custom_udf_module

```



Every plugin must have a `module` property that indicates where the `Plugin` class to load is defined. There is

a set of built-in plugins that are defined in [dbt.adapters.duckdb.plugins](dbt/adapters/duckdb/plugins/) that

may be referenced by their base filename (e.g., `excel` or `gsheet`), while user-defined plugins (which are

described later in this document) should be referred to via their full module path name (e.g. a `lib.my.custom` module that defines a class named `Plugin`.)



Each plugin instance has a name for logging and reference purposes that defaults to the name of the module

but that may be overridden by the user by setting the `alias` property in the configuration. Finally,

modules may be initialized using an arbitrary set of key-value pairs that are defined in the

`config` dictionary. In this example, we initialize the `gsheet` plugin with the setting `method: oauth` and we

initialize the `sqlalchemy` plugin (aliased as "sql") with a `connection_url` that is set via an environment variable.



Please remember that using plugins may require you to add additional dependencies to the Python environment that your dbt-duckdb pipeline runs in:



* `excel` depends on `pandas`, and `openpyxl` or `xlsxwriter` to perform writes

* `gsheet` depends on `gspread` and `pandas`

*  `iceberg` depends on `pyiceberg` and Python >= 3.8

* `sqlalchemy` depends on `pandas`, `sqlalchemy`, and the driver(s) you need



**Experimental:**



* `delta` depends on `deltalake`, [an example project](https://github.com/milicevica23/dbt-duckdb-delta-plugin-demo)



**Note:** Be aware that experimental features can change over time, and we would like your feedback on config and possible different use cases.



#### Using Local Python Modules



In dbt-duckdb 1.6.0, we added a new profile setting named `module_paths` that allows users to specify a list

of paths on the filesystem that contain additional Python modules that should be added to the Python processes'

`sys.path` property. This allows users to include additional helper Python modules in their dbt projects that

can be accessed by the running dbt process and used to define custom dbt-duckdb Plugins or library code that is

helpful for creating dbt Python models.



### Reading and Writing External Files



One of DuckDB's most powerful features is its ability to read and write CSV, JSON, and Parquet files directly, without needing to import/export

them from the database first.



#### Reading from external files



You may reference external files in your dbt models either directly or as dbt `source`s by configuring the `external_location`

in either the `meta` or the `config` option on the source definition. The difference is that settings under the `meta` option

will be propagated to the documentation for the source generated via `dbt docs generate`, but the settings under the `config`

option will not be. Any source settings that should be excluded from the docs should be specified via `config`, while any

options that you would like to be included in the generated documentation should live under `meta`.



```

sources:

  - name: external_source

    meta:

      external_location: "s3://my-bucket/my-sources/{name}.parquet"

    tables:

      - name: source1

      - name: source2

```



Here, the `meta` options on `external_source` defines `external_location` as an [f-string](https://peps.python.org/pep-0498/) that

allows us to express a pattern that indicates the location of any of the tables defined for that source. So a dbt model like:



```

SELECT *

FROM {{ source('external_source', 'source1') }}

```



will be compiled as:



```

SELECT *

FROM 's3://my-bucket/my-sources/source1.parquet'

```



If one of the source tables deviates from the pattern or needs some other special handling, then the `external_location` can also be set on the `meta`

options for the table itself, for example:



```

sources:

  - name: external_source

    meta:

      external_location: "s3://my-bucket/my-sources/{name}.parquet"

    tables:

      - name: source1

      - name: source2

        config:

          external_location: "read_parquet(['s3://my-bucket/my-sources/source2a.parquet', 's3://my-bucket/my-sources/source2b.parquet'])"

```



In this situation, the `external_location` setting on the `source2` table will take precedence, so a dbt model like:



```

SELECT *

FROM {{ source('external_source', 'source2') }}

```



will be compiled to the SQL query:



```

SELECT *

FROM read_parquet(['s3://my-bucket/my-sources/source2a.parquet', 's3://my-bucket/my-sources/source2b.parquet'])

```



Note that the value of the `external_location` property does not need to be a path-like string; it can also be a function

call, which is helpful in the case that you have an external source that is a CSV file which requires special handling for DuckDB to load it correctly:



```

sources:

  - name: flights_source

    tables:

      - name: flights

        config:

          external_location: "read_csv('flights.csv', types={'FlightDate': 'DATE'}, names=['FlightDate', 'UniqueCarrier'])"

          formatter: oldstyle

```



Note that we need to override the default `str.format` string formatting strategy for this example

because the `types={'FlightDate': 'DATE'}` argument to the `read_csv` function will be interpreted by

`str.format` as a template to be matched on, which will cause a `KeyError: "'FlightDate'"` when we attempt

to parse the source in a dbt model. The `formatter` configuration option for the source indicates whether

we should use `newstyle` string formatting (the default), `oldstyle` string formatting, or `template` string

formatting. You can read up on the strategies the various string formatting techniques use at this

[Stack Overflow answer](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/13451989/pythons-many-ways-of-string-formatting-are-the-older-ones-going-to-be-depre) and see examples of their use

in this [dbt-duckdb integration test](https://github.com/jwills/dbt-duckdb/blob/master/tests/functional/adapter/test_sources.py).



#### Writing to external files



We support creating dbt models that are backed by external files via the `external` materialization strategy:



```

{{ config(materialized='external', location='local/directory/file.parquet') }}

SELECT m.*, s.id IS NOT NULL as has_source_id

FROM {{ ref('upstream_model') }} m

LEFT JOIN {{ source('upstream', 'source') }} s USING (id)

```



| Option | Default | Description

| :---:    |  :---:    | ---

| location | [external_location](dbt/include/duckdb/macros/utils/external_location.sql) macro | The path to write the external materialization to. See below for more details.

| format | parquet | The format of the external file (parquet, csv, or json)

| delimiter | ,    | For CSV files, the delimiter to use for fields.

| options | None | Any other options to pass to DuckDB's `COPY` operation (e.g., `partition_by`, `codec`, etc.)

| glue_register | false | If true, try to register the file created by this model with the AWS Glue Catalog.

| glue_database | default | The name of the AWS Glue database to register the model with.



If the `location` argument is specified, it must be a filename (or S3 bucket/path), and dbt-duckdb will attempt to infer

the `format` argument from the file extension of the `location` if the `format` argument is unspecified (this functionality was

added in version 1.4.1.)



If the `location` argument is _not_ specified, then the external file will be named after the model.sql (or model.py) file that defined it

with an extension that matches the `format` argument (`parquet`, `csv`, or `json`). By default, the external files are created

relative to the current working directory, but you can change the default directory (or S3 bucket/prefix) by specifying the

`external_root` setting in your DuckDB profile.



dbt-duckdb supports the `delete+insert` and `append` strategies for incremental `table` models, but unfortunately it does not yet support incremental materialization strategies for `external` models.



#### Re-running external models with an in-memory version of dbt-duckdb

When using `:memory:` as the DuckDB database, subsequent dbt runs can fail when selecting a subset of models that depend on external tables. This is because external files are only registered as  DuckDB views when they are created, not when they are referenced. To overcome this issue we have provided the `register_upstream_external_models` macro that can be triggered at the beginning of a run. To enable this automatic registration, place the following in your `dbt_project.yml` file:



```yaml

on-run-start:

  - "{{ register_upstream_external_models() }}"

```



### Python Support



dbt added support for [Python models in version 1.3.0](https://docs.getdbt.com/docs/build/python-models). For most data platforms,

dbt will package up the Python code defined in a `.py` file and ship it off to be executed in whatever Python environment that

data platform supports (e.g., Snowpark for Snowflake or Dataproc for BigQuery.) In dbt-duckdb, we execute Python models in the same

process that owns the connection to the DuckDB database, which by default, is the Python process that is created when you run dbt.

To execute the Python model, we treat the `.py` file that your model is defined in as a Python module and load it into the

running process using [importlib](https://docs.python.org/3/library/importlib.html). We then construct the arguments to the `model`

function that you defined (a `dbt` object that contains the names of any `ref` and `source` information your model needs and a

`DuckDBPyConnection` object for you to interact with the underlying DuckDB database), call the `model` function, and then materialize

the returned object as a table in DuckDB.



The value of the `dbt.ref` and `dbt.source` functions inside of a Python model will be a [DuckDB Relation](https://duckdb.org/docs/api/python/reference/)

object that can be easily converted into a Pandas/Polars DataFrame or an Arrow table. The return value of the `model` function can be

any Python object that DuckDB knows how to turn into a table, including a Pandas/Polars `DataFrame`, a DuckDB `Relation`, or an Arrow `Table`,

`Dataset`, `RecordBatchReader`, or `Scanner`.



#### Batch processing with Python models



As of version 1.6.1, it is possible to both read and write data in chunks, which allows for larger-than-memory

datasets to be manipulated in Python models. Here is a basic example:

```

import pyarrow as pa



def batcher(batch_reader: pa.RecordBatchReader):

    for batch in batch_reader:

        df = batch.to_pandas()

        # Do some operations on the DF...

        # ...then yield back a new batch

        yield pa.RecordBatch.from_pandas(df)



def model(dbt, session):

    big_model = dbt.ref("big_model")

    batch_reader = big_model.record_batch(100_000)

    batch_iter = batcher(batch_reader)

    return pa.RecordBatchReader.from_batches(batch_reader.schema, batch_iter)

```



### Writing Your Own Plugins



Defining your own dbt-duckdb plugin is as simple as creating a python module that defines a class named `Plugin` that

inherits from [dbt.adapters.duckdb.plugins.BasePlugin](dbt/adapters/duckdb/plugins/__init__.py). There are currently

four methods that may be implemented in your Plugin class:



1. `initialize`: Takes in the `config` dictionary for the plugin that is defined in the profile to enable any

additional configuration for the module based on the project; this method is called once when an instance of the

`Plugin` class is created.

1. `configure_connection`: Takes an instance of the `DuckDBPyConnection` object used to connect to the DuckDB

database and may perform any additional configuration of that object that is needed by the plugin, like defining

custom user-defined functions.

1. `load`: Takes a [SourceConfig](dbt/adapters/duckdb/utils.py) instance, which encapsulates the configuration for a

a dbt source and can optionally return a DataFrame-like object that DuckDB knows how to turn into a table (this is

similar to a dbt-duckdb Python model, but without the ability to `ref` any models or access any information beyond

the source config.)

1. `store`: Takes a [TargetConfig](dbt/adapters/duckdb/utils.py) instance, which encapsulates the configuration for

an `external` materialization and can perform additional operations once the CSV/Parquet/JSON file is written. The

[glue](dbt/adapters/duckdb/plugins/glue.py) and [sqlalchemy](dbt/adapters/duckdb/plugins/sqlalchemy.py) are examples

that demonstrate how to use the `store` operation to register an AWS Glue database table or upload a DataFrame to

an external database, respectively.



dbt-duckdb ships with a number of [built-in plugins](dbt/adapters/duckdb/plugins/) that can be used as examples

for implementing your own.



### Roadmap



Things that we would like to add in the near future:



* Support for Delta and Iceberg external table formats (both as sources and destinations)

* Make dbt's incremental models and snapshots work with external materializations