dbt-transformation-patterns
The dbt-transformation-patterns skill provides production-ready guidance for organizing data transformation pipelines using the medallion architecture (staging, intermediate, and marts layers), implementing naming conventions, configuring project structure, establishing data quality tests, and creating incremental models. Use this skill when designing dbt projects, structuring analytics engineering workflows, documenting data lineage, or implementing best practices for scalable data transformations.
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/wshobson/agents /tmp/dbt-transformation-patterns && cp -r /tmp/dbt-transformation-patterns/plugins/data-engineering/skills/dbt-transformation-patterns ~/.claude/skills/dbt-transformation-patternsSKILL.md
# 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` |
## Quick Start
```yaml
# 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
```
## Detailed patterns and worked examples
Detailed pattern documentation lives in `references/details.md`. Read that file when the navigation tier above is insufficient.
## Best Practices
### Do's
- **Use staging layer** - Clean data once, use everywhere
- **Test aggressively** - Not null, unique, relationships
- **Document everything** - Column descriptions, model descriptions
- **Use incremental** - For tables > 1M rows
- **Version control** - dbt project in Git
### Don'ts
- **Don't skip staging** - Raw → mart is tech debt
- **Don't hardcode dates** - Use `{{ var('start_date') }}`
- **Don't repeat logic** - Extract to macros
- **Don't test in prod** - Use dev target
- **Don't ignore freshness** - Monitor source dataTest web applications with screen readers including VoiceOver, NVDA, and JAWS. Use when validating screen reader compatibility, debugging accessibility issues, or ensuring assistive technology support.
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