Clarify that dbt Cloud is required for the VSCode extension

[trymzet]

Contributions

• I have read the contribution docs, and understand what's expected of me.

Link to the page on docs.getdbt.com requiring updates

https://docs.getdbt.com/docs/about-dbt-extension

What part(s) of the page would you like to see updated?

It's not very clear when glancing at the docs that a dbt Cloud account and project, and a dbt-cloud specific file (dbt_cloud.yml) are required in order to use the extension. It would be helpful to have a banner somewhere at the top of the relevant pages that clarifies the extension is a dbt Cloud feature (similar to one visible in other dbt Cloud-only features in other places in the docs). It would be helpful for dbt-core users in deciding whether they want to use the extension.

Additional information

No response

[mirnawong1]

hey @trymzet , thanks for opening this issue up! the dbt VS Code extension is available to everyone, not just dbt platform (previously Cloud) users!

you can install and start using it without a dbt platform account, and
after 14 days, the extension will prompt you to register your email to continue using it — this doesn’t require a dbt platform project or dbt_cloud.yml file.

we'd love to understand the confusion - can you share what gave you that impression?

we can def update the docs to make that clearer — especially up front — so that dbt Core users understand they can also use the extension.

i'll close this up but would love to hear your feedback!

[trymzet]

@mirnawong1

• the dbt_cloud.yml file is required if a user already has an existing dbt cloud account (even if they just want to use the extension, without connecting it to their dbt cloud account)
• dbt cloud is required if your organization is larger than 15 users

So, the extension doesn't require dbt cloud only for certain people under certain conditions. So yeah I guess you're right that dbt cloud is not required in some cases, but it's also not true that the extension is openly available the same way dbt-core is.

[mirnawong1]

thanks @trymzet - ah I see. we've tried to explain that in the installation doc but i can see it'd be also useful in the 'about extension' doc too. i'll re-open to link to that page!