Common dbt Commands
Last updated July 25, 2026 · By the SaturnSQL team
The daily set: dbt run builds models, dbt test runs tests, dbt build does both plus seeds and snapshots, dbt compile renders SQL, dbt docs generate builds documentation, and dbt ls lists selected resources. Most accept the same --select syntax.
dbt run # build models
dbt test # run data and unit tests
dbt build # run + test + seed + snapshot, DAG order
dbt seed # load CSVs from seeds/
dbt snapshot # capture SCD type 2 history
dbt compile # render Jinja to SQL in target/
dbt docs generate && dbt docs serve
dbt ls --select tag:nightly # list matching resources
dbt deps # install packages
dbt debug # check config and connection
dbt clean # remove target/ and dbt_packages/Useful global flags: --select and --exclude to scope, --target to pick a profile target, --full-refresh to rebuild incrementals, and --threads to override parallelism.
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