# Add Exposures to your DAG

Exposures make it possible to define and describe a downstream use of your dbt project, such as in a dashboard, application, or data science pipeline. By defining exposures, you can then:

* run, test, and list resources that feed into your exposure
* populate a dedicated page in the auto-generated [documentation](./documentation.md) site with context relevant to data consumers

Exposures can be defined in two ways:

* Manual — Declared [explicitly](./exposures.md#declaring-an-exposure) in your project’s YAML files.
* Automatic — dbt [creates and visualizes downstream exposures](../platform-integrations/downstream-exposures.md) automatically for supported integrations, removing the need for manual YAML definitions. These downstream exposures are stored in dbt’s metadata system, appear in [Catalog](../explore/explore-projects.md), and behave like manual exposures. However, they don’t exist in YAML files.

### Declaring an exposure

Exposures are defined in `.yml` files nested under an `exposures:` key.

The following example shows an exposure definition in a `models/<filename>.yml` file:

models/\<filename>.yml

```yaml

exposures:

  - name: weekly_jaffle_metrics
    label: Jaffles by the Week
    type: dashboard
    maturity: high
    url: https://bi.tool/dashboards/1
    description: >
      Did someone say "exponential growth"?

    depends_on:
      - ref('fct_orders')
      - ref('dim_customers')
      - source('gsheets', 'goals')
      - metric('count_orders')

    owner:
      name: Callum McData
      email: data@jaffleshop.com
```

### Available properties

*Required:*

* **name**: a unique exposure name written in [snake case](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snake_case)
* **type**: one of `dashboard`, `notebook`, `analysis`, `ml`, `application` (used to organize in docs site)
* **owner**: `name` or `email` required; additional properties allowed

*Expected:*

* **depends\_on**: list of refable nodes, including `metric`, `ref`, and `source`. While possible, it is highly unlikely you will ever need an `exposure` to depend on a `source` directly.

  tip

  Do not confuse this `depends_on` YAML property with the [`-- depends_on`](../../reference/dbt-jinja-functions/statement-blocks.md#example-using-depends_on) a SQL comment directive defined at the top of a model SQL file, which explicitly adds dependencies to the DAG and ensures the referenced resources are built before the model executes.

*Optional:*

* **label**: May contain spaces, capital letters, or special characters.
* **url**: Activates and populates the link to **View this exposure** in the upper right corner of the generated documentation site
* **maturity**: Indicates the level of confidence or stability in the exposure. One of `high`, `medium`, or `low`. For example, you could use `high` maturity for a well-established dashboard, widely used and trusted within your organization. Use `low` maturity for a new or experimental analysis.

*General properties (optional)*

* [**description**](../../reference/resource-properties/description.md)
* [**tags**](../../reference/resource-configs/tags.md)
* [**meta**](../../reference/resource-configs/meta.md)
* [**enabled**](../../reference/resource-configs/enabled.md) — You can set this property at the exposure level or at the project level in the [`dbt_project.yml`](../../reference/dbt_project.yml.md) file.

### Referencing exposures

Once an exposure is defined, you can run commands that reference it:

```text
dbt run -s +exposure:weekly_jaffle_report
dbt test -s +exposure:weekly_jaffle_report
```

When we generate the [Catalog site](../explore/explore-projects.md), you'll see the exposure appear:

[![Exposures has a dedicated section, under the project name in dbt Catalog, which lists each exposure in your project.](/img/docs/building-a-dbt-project/dbt-explorer-exposures.png?v=2 "Exposures has a dedicated section, under the project name in dbt Catalog, which lists each exposure in your project.")](#)Exposures has a dedicated section, under the project name in dbt Catalog, which lists each exposure in your project.

[![Exposures appear as nodes in the dbt Catalog DAG. It displays an orange 'EXP' indicator within the node. ](/img/docs/building-a-dbt-project/dag-exposures.png?v=2 "Exposures appear as nodes in the dbt Catalog DAG. It displays an orange 'EXP' indicator within the node. ")](#)Exposures appear as nodes in the dbt Catalog DAG. It displays an orange 'EXP' indicator within the node.

## Related docs

* [Exposure properties](../../reference/exposure-properties.md)
* [`exposure:` selection method](../../reference/node-selection/methods.md#exposure)
* [Data health tiles](../explore/data-tile.md)

## Was this page helpful?

YesNo

[Privacy policy](https://www.getdbt.com/cloud/privacy-policy)[Create a GitHub issue](https://github.com/dbt-labs/docs.getdbt.com/issues)

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google [Privacy Policy](https://policies.google.com/privacy) and [Terms of Service](https://policies.google.com/terms) apply.