Governance#
This set of rules provides checks on your project against dbt Labs' recommended best proactices for adding model governance features in dbt versions 1.5 and above.
Public models without contracts#
fct_public_models_without_contract (source) shows each model with access configured as public, but is not a contracted model.
Example
report_1 is defined as a public model, but does not have the contract configuration to enforce its datatypes.
# public model without a contract
models:
- name: report_1
description: very important OKR reporting model
access: public
Reason to Flag
Models with public access are free to be consumed by any downstream consumer. This implies a need for better guarantees around the model's data types and columns. Adding a contract to the model will ensure that the model always conforms to the datatypes, columns, and other constraints you expect.
How to Remediate
Edit the yml to include the contract configuration, as well as a column entry for all columns output by the model, including their datatype. While not strictly required for defining a contracts, it's best practice to also document each column as well.
models:
- name: report_1
description: very important OKR reporting model
access: public
config:
contract:
enforced: true
columns:
- name: id
data_type: integer
Undocumented public models#
fct_undocumented_public_models (source) shows each model with access configured as public that is not fully documented. This check is similar to fct_undocumented_models (source), but is a stricter check that will highlight any public model that does not have a model-level description as well descriptions on each of its columns.
Example
report_1 is defined as a public model, but does not descriptions on the model and each column.
Reason to Flag
Models with public access are free to be consumed by any downstream consumer. This implies a need for higher standards for the model's usability for those cosumers. Adding more documentation can help consumers understand how they should leverage the data from your public model.
How to Remediate
Edit the yml to include a model level description, as well as a column entry with a description for all columns output by the model. While not strictly required for public models, these should likely also have contracts added as well. (See above rule)
models:
- name: report_1
description: very important OKR reporting model
access: public
columns:
- name: id
description: the primary key of my OKR model
Exposures dependent on private models#
fct_exposures_dependent_on_private_models (source) shows each relationship between a resource and an exposure where the parent resource is not a model with access configured as public.
Example
Here's a sample DAG that shows direct exposure relationships.
If this were the yml for these two parent models, dim_model_7 would be flagged by this check, as it is not a public model.
models:
- name: fct_model_6
description: very important OKR reporting model
access: public
config:
materialized: table
contract:
enforced: true
columns:
- name: id
description: the primary key of my OKR model
data_type: integer
- name: dim_model_7
description: excellent model
access: private
Reason to Flag
Exposures show how and where your data is being consumed in downstream tools. These tools should read from public, trusted, contracted data sources. All models that are exposed to other tools should have that codified in their access configuration.
How to Remediate
Edit the yml to include fully expose the models that your exposures depend on. This rule will only flag models that are not public, but best practices suggest you should also fully document and contracts these public models as well.