Snowflake Semantic View dbt Package

Professional dbt macros and integration tests for building, dropping, and renaming Snowflake Semantic Views. This package lets you materialize Semantic Views via dbt and reference them from downstream models.

At a glance

• Materialization: semantic_view
• Warehouse: Snowflake
• dbt Compatibility: dbt 1.x

Quickstart

Follow these steps on macOS/Linux with Python 3 installed. No prior dbt installation is required.

1. Clone and enter the repo

git clone https://github.com/Snowflake-Labs/dbt-snowflake-semantic-view.git
cd dbt-snowflake-semantic-view

2. Create an isolated Python environment and install dependencies

python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -U pip
pip install dbt-snowflake

3. Configure Snowflake credentials (env vars) Set the following environment variables for the integration profile. For username/password auth use SNOWFLAKE_TEST_AUTHENTICATOR=snowflake.

export SNOWFLAKE_TEST_ACCOUNT=<account>
export SNOWFLAKE_TEST_USER=<user>
export SNOWFLAKE_TEST_PASSWORD=<password>
export SNOWFLAKE_TEST_AUTHENTICATOR=<authenticator>   # e.g. snowflake | externalbrowser
export SNOWFLAKE_TEST_ROLE=<role>
export SNOWFLAKE_TEST_DATABASE=<database>
export SNOWFLAKE_TEST_WAREHOUSE=<warehouse>
export SNOWFLAKE_TEST_SCHEMA=<schema>

4. Run integration tests

cd integration_tests/
dbt deps --target snowflake
dbt build --target snowflake

Usage in your dbt project

Add to packages.yml:

packages:
  - package: Snowflake-Labs/dbt_semantic_view

Create a model using the Semantic View materialization:

{{ config(materialized='semantic_view') }}
TABLES(
  {{ source('<source_name>', '<table_name>') }},
  {{ ref('<another_model>') }}
)
[ RELATIONSHIPS ( relationshipDef [ , ... ] ) ]
[ FACTS ( semanticExpression [ , ... ] ) ]
[ DIMENSIONS ( semanticExpression [ , ... ] ) ]
[ METRICS ( semanticExpression [ , ... ] ) ]
[ COMMENT = '<comment>' ]
[ COPY GRANTS ]

Reference a Semantic View from another model:

{{ config(materialized='table') }}
select *
from semantic_view(
  {{ ref('<semantic_view_model>') }}
  [ { METRICS <metric> | FACTS <fact_expr> } ]
  [ DIMENSIONS <dimension_expr> ]
  [ WHERE <predicate> ]
)

Development

• Python 3.9+ recommended
• Use a venv: python3 -m venv .venv && source .venv/bin/activate
• Install tooling as needed: pip install dbt-snowflake

Contributing

We welcome issues and PRs! Please:

• Open an issue to discuss significant changes
• Keep edits focused and include tests where possible
• Follow dbt and Python best practices

License

Apache License 2.0. See LICENSE for details.