CLI cheatsheet

Curated commands for daily use. Full flags and examples: packages/cli/README.md.

Set DBT_TOOLS_DBT_TARGET=./target or pass --dbt-target ./target on every command. Remote targets: Local and remote artifacts.

Remote targets

dbt-tools status --dbt-target ./target
dbt-tools status --dbt-target s3://my-bucket/dbt/prod
dbt-tools status --dbt-target gs://my-bucket/dbt/prod

Readiness and manifest

Command	Purpose
status	Artifact presence and readiness
summary	Manifest graph statistics (not run outcomes)
freshness	Alias for status

dbt-tools status --dbt-target ./target --json
dbt-tools summary --dbt-target ./target --json

Discovery and inventory

Command	Purpose
discover	Ranked search with reasons (preferred)
search	Resource search (shared parsing; different output shape)
inventory	List/filter resources

dbt-tools discover --dbt-target ./target "orders" --json
dbt-tools inventory --dbt-target ./target --type model --json

Graph and dependencies

Command	Purpose
deps	Upstream/downstream dependencies
impact	Intent: counts and notable dependents (lineage web_url)
graph	Export graph (JSON, DOT, GEXF)
export	Intent wrapper over graph (--output for a file)
explain	Intent-shaped resource summary

dbt-tools deps model.pkg.node --dbt-target ./target --direction downstream --json
dbt-tools impact model.pkg.node --dbt-target ./target --json
dbt-tools explain model.pkg.node --dbt-target ./target --json
dbt-tools export --dbt-target ./target --format json --output graph.json

Execution

Command	Purpose
query-executions	Filter/sort run executions
failures	Bounded non-successful run_results rows
timeline	Per-node execution timeline
run-summary	Run-level aggregates (status, bottlenecks)
run-report	Execution report + critical path
diagnose	Experimental facade (diagnose run/node)

dbt-tools query-executions --dbt-target ./target --sort execution_time_desc --limit 20 --json
dbt-tools failures --dbt-target ./target --json
dbt-tools run-summary --dbt-target ./target --json
dbt-tools run-report --dbt-target ./target --json

Root query-executions sorts: execution_time_desc, execution_time_asc, unique_id. --sort duration is a timeline key.

Warehouse subcommands add adapter filters (BigQuery example):

dbt-tools query-executions bigquery --dbt-target ./target --min-slot-ms 1000 --sort slot_ms_desc --limit 20 --json

Also: snowflake, athena, postgres, redshift, spark. Full flags: CLI README.

Introspection

Command	Purpose
schema	Runtime command/field schemas

dbt-tools schema --json

Common flags

Flag	Purpose
--json	Machine-readable stdout
--fields "a,b"	Shrink JSON payloads (not registered on summary)
--trace	Investigation transcript on intent/discover output

Workflows

• Check run health
• Find a model
• Open in web