Skip to main content

About dbt retry command

dbt retry re-executes the last dbt command from the node point of failure.

  • If no nodes are executed before the failure (for example, if a run failed early due to a warehouse connection or permission errors), dbt retry won't run anything since there's no recorded nodes to retry from.
  • In these cases, we recommend checking your run_results.json file and manually re-running the full job so the nodes build.
  • Once some nodes have run, you can use dbt retry to re-execute from any new point of failure.
  • If the previously executed command completed successfully, dbt retry will finish as no operation.

Retry works with the following commands:

dbt retry references run_results.json to determine where to start. Executing dbt retry without correcting the previous failures will garner idempotentIdempotent describes a process that gives you the same result no matter how many times you run it. results.

dbt retry reuses the selectors from the previously executed command.

Example results of executing dbt retry after a successful dbt run:

Running with dbt=1.6.1
Registered adapter: duckdb=1.6.0
Found 5 models, 3 seeds, 20 tests, 0 sources, 0 exposures, 0 metrics, 348 macros, 0 groups, 0 semantic models
 
Nothing to do. Try checking your model configs and model specification args

Example of when dbt run encounters a syntax error in a model:

Running with dbt=1.6.1
Registered adapter: duckdb=1.6.0
Found 5 models, 3 seeds, 20 tests, 0 sources, 0 exposures, 0 metrics, 348 macros, 0 groups, 0 semantic models

Concurrency: 24 threads (target='dev')
 
1 of 5 START sql view model main.stg_customers ................................. [RUN]
2 of 5 START sql view model main.stg_orders .................................... [RUN]
3 of 5 START sql view model main.stg_payments .................................. [RUN]
1 of 5 OK created sql view model main.stg_customers ............................ [OK in 0.06s]
2 of 5 OK created sql view model main.stg_orders ............................... [OK in 0.06s]
3 of 5 OK created sql view model main.stg_payments ............................. [OK in 0.07s]
4 of 5 START sql table model main.customers .................................... [RUN]
5 of 5 START sql table model main.orders ....................................... [RUN]
4 of 5 ERROR creating sql table model main.customers ........................... [ERROR in 0.03s]
5 of 5 OK created sql table model main.orders .................................. [OK in 0.04s]
 
Finished running 3 view models, 2 table models in 0 hours 0 minutes and 0.15 seconds (0.15s).
  
Completed with 1 error and 0 warnings:
  
Runtime Error in model customers (models/customers.sql)
 Parser Error: syntax error at or near "selct"

Done. PASS=4 WARN=0 ERROR=1 SKIP=0 TOTAL=5

Example of a subsequent failed dbt retry run without fixing the error(s):

Running with dbt=1.6.1
Registered adapter: duckdb=1.6.0
Found 5 models, 3 seeds, 20 tests, 0 sources, 0 exposures, 0 metrics, 348 macros, 0 groups, 0 semantic models

Concurrency: 24 threads (target='dev')

1 of 1 START sql table model main.customers .................................... [RUN]
1 of 1 ERROR creating sql table model main.customers ........................... [ERROR in 0.03s]

Done. PASS=4 WARN=0 ERROR=1 SKIP=0 TOTAL=5

Example of a successful dbt retry run after fixing error(s):

Running with dbt=1.6.1
Registered adapter: duckdb=1.6.0
Found 5 models, 3 seeds, 20 tests, 0 sources, 0 exposures, 0 metrics, 348 macros, 0 groups, 0 semantic models
 
Concurrency: 24 threads (target='dev')

1 of 1 START sql table model main.customers .................................... [RUN]
1 of 1 OK created sql table model main.customers ............................... [OK in 0.05s]

Finished running 1 table model in 0 hours 0 minutes and 0.09 seconds (0.09s).
 
Completed successfully
  
Done. PASS=1 WARN=0 ERROR=0 SKIP=0 TOTAL=1

In each scenario dbt retry picks up from the error rather than running all of the upstream dependencies again.

0