dbt project support¶

Sqruff supports linting and formatting dbt projects. This feature requires the Python version of sqruff to be installed.

Installation¶

pip install sqruff[dbt]

Configuration¶

To use sqruff with a dbt project, create a .sqruff configuration file in your dbt project root:

[sqruff]
dialect = snowflake  # Set to your target database dialect
templater = dbt
encoding = utf-8

[sqruff:templater:dbt]
profiles_dir = ~/.dbt  # Path to your dbt profiles directory (optional)

Set encoding = utf-8 explicitly when using sqruff fix with dbt. The dbt templater reads project files through dbt, while sqruff writes fixed files using its configured encoding. This avoids relying on autodetection and can prevent UnicodeDecodeError when dbt reads a file after sqruff fixes it.

Configuration options¶

The following options can be set under [sqruff:templater:dbt]:

Option	Description	Default
`profiles_dir`	Path to the directory containing your `profiles.yml`	`~/.dbt`
`project_dir`	Path to your dbt project directory	Current working directory
`profile`	The dbt profile to use	Profile specified in `dbt_project.yml`
`target`	The dbt target to use	Default target in profile

Usage¶

Once configured, run sqruff as usual from your dbt project directory:

# Lint all SQL files in the models directory
sqruff lint models/

# Fix formatting issues
sqruff fix models/

Sqruff will automatically compile your dbt models using Jinja templating, resolving refs, sources, and macros before linting.

Limitations¶

The dbt templater requires a valid dbt project setup with dbt_project.yml and profiles.yml
Macros and disabled models are automatically skipped
stdin input is not supported when using the dbt templater