dbt Integration

Import dbt models, column documentation, descriptions, and lineage from your dbt project artifacts — two ways to integrate.

Metaustral reads dbt artifacts (manifest.json and optionally catalog.json) to create catalog assets from your dbt models and sources. You can connect via a URL or upload the files directly.

What Metaustral imports from dbt

• Models and sources → created as TABLE or VIEW assets in the catalog.
• Column documentation → descriptions from schema.yml become column-level metadata.
• Model descriptions → the description field in schema.yml populates the asset description.
• Lineage (DAG) → dbt's dependency graph (depends_on) is translated into Metaustral lineage edges.
• Column types (optional) → from catalog.json, generated by dbt docs generate. Adds real database column types.

Option 1 — Via Integrations (manifest URL)

If your CI/CD pipeline publishes manifest.json to a public or authenticated URL (e.g. an S3 bucket, artifact registry, or static hosting), register it as a connection in Integrations. This mode supports Scheduled Imports — Metaustral fetches the latest manifest automatically on each run.

Option 2 — Via Imports (file upload)

Go to Import → From a file → dbt project. Upload your files:

• manifest.json (required) — generated by dbt compile or dbt run. Contains models, sources, column docs, and the dependency DAG.
• catalog.json (optional) — generated by dbt docs generate. Enriches the import with real column types from your database.

After uploading, Metaustral shows a preview of assets and lineage to be created. Click Execute import to apply.