Dbt Transformation Patterns by @wshobson · Skillet

Dbt Transformation Patterns

Master dbt (data build tool) for analytics engineering with model organization, testing, documentation, and incremental strategies. Use when building data transformations, creating data models, or implementing analytics engineering best practices.

Permissions

Just instructions. No commands, network, or file access.

Files

SKILL.md

dbt-transformation-patterns

dbt Transformation Patterns

Production-ready patterns for dbt (data build tool) including model organization, testing strategies, documentation, and incremental processing.

When to Use This Skill

Building data transformation pipelines with dbt
Organizing models into staging, intermediate, and marts layers
Implementing data quality tests
Creating incremental models for large datasets
Documenting data models and lineage
Setting up dbt project structure

Core Concepts

1. Model Layers (Medallion Architecture)

sources/          Raw data definitions
    ↓
staging/          1:1 with source, light cleaning
    ↓
intermediate/     Business logic, joins, aggregations
    ↓
marts/            Final analytics tables

2. Naming Conventions

Layer	Prefix	Example
Staging	`stg_`	`stg_stripe__payments`
Intermediate	`int_`	`int_payments_pivoted`
Marts	`dim_`, `fct_`	`dim_customers`, `fct_orders`

2 files · 13 KB3 KB

Version history

# dbt_project.yml
name: "analytics"
version: "1.0.0"
profile: "analytics"

model-paths: ["models"]
analysis-paths: ["analyses"]
test-paths: ["tests"]
seed-paths: ["seeds"]
macro-paths: ["macros"]

vars:
  start_date: "2020-01-01"

models:
  analytics:
    staging:
      +materialized: view
      +schema: staging
    intermediate:
      +materialized: ephemeral
    marts:
      +materialized: table
      +schema: analytics

# Project structure
models/
├── staging/
│   ├── stripe/
│   │   ├── _stripe__sources.yml
│   │   ├── _stripe__models.yml
│   │   ├── stg_stripe__customers.sql
│   │   └── stg_stripe__payments.sql
│   └── shopify/
│       ├── _shopify__sources.yml
│       └── stg_shopify__orders.sql
├── intermediate/
│   └── finance/
│       └── int_payments_pivoted.sql
└── marts/
    ├── core/
    │   ├── _core__models.yml
    │   ├── dim_customers.sql
    │   └── fct_orders.sql
    └── finance/
        └── fct_revenue.sql

Dbt Transformation Patterns

dbt Transformation Patterns

When to Use This Skill

Core Concepts

1. Model Layers (Medallion Architecture)

2. Naming Conventions

Quick Start

Detailed patterns and worked examples

Best Practices

Do's

Don'ts