Methods

Selector methods return all resources that share a common property, using the syntax method:value. While it is recommended to explicitly denote the method, you can omit it (the default value will be one of path, file or fqn).

The "tag" method

The tag: method is used to select models that match a specified tag.

$ dbt run --select tag:nightly    # run all models with the `nightly` tag

The "source" method

The source method is used to select models that select from a specified source. Use in conjunction with the + operator.

$ dbt run --select source:snowplow+    # run all models that select from Snowplow sources

The "resource_type" method

Use the resource_type method to select nodes of a particular type (model, test, exposure, and so on). This is similar to the --resource-type flag used by the dbt ls command.

$ dbt build --select resource_type:exposure    # build all resources upstream of exposures
$ dbt list --select resource_type:test    # list all tests in your project

Note: This method doesn't work for sources, so use the --resource-type option of the list command instead:

$ dbt list --resource-type source

The "path" method

The path method is used to select models/sources defined at or under a specific path. Model definitions are in SQL/Python files (not YAML), and source definitions are in YAML files. While the path prefix is not explicitly required, it may be used to make selectors unambiguous.

# These two selectors are equivalent
dbt run --select path:models/staging/github
dbt run --select models/staging/github

# These two selectors are equivalent
dbt run --select path:models/staging/github/stg_issues.sql
dbt run --select models/staging/github/stg_issues.sql

The "fqn" method

The fqn method is used to select nodes based off their "fully qualified names" (FQN) within the dbt graph. The default output of dbt list is a listing of FQN.

dbt run --select fqn:some_model
dbt run --select fqn:your_project.some_model
dbt run --select fqn:some_package.some_other_model

The "package" method

The package method is used to select models defined within the root project or an installed dbt package. While the package: prefix is not explicitly required, it may be used to make selectors unambiguous.

# These three selectors are equivalent
dbt run --select package:snowplow
dbt run --select snowplow
dbt run --select snowplow.*

The "config" method

The config method is used to select models that match a specified node config.

$ dbt run --select config.materialized:incremental    # run all models that are materialized incrementally
$ dbt run --select config.schema:audit                # run all models that are created in the `audit` schema
$ dbt run --select config.cluster_by:geo_country      # run all models clustered by `geo_country`

The "test_type" method

The test_type method is used to select tests based on their type, singular or generic:

$ dbt test --select test_type:generic        # run all generic tests
$ dbt test --select test_type:singular       # run all singular tests

The "test_name" method

The test_name method is used to select tests based on the name of the generic test that defines it. For more information about how generic tests are defined, read about tests.

$ dbt test --select test_name:unique            # run all instances of the `unique` test
$ dbt test --select test_name:equality          # run all instances of the `dbt_utils.equality` test
$ dbt test --select test_name:range_min_max     # run all instances of a custom schema test defined in the local project, `range_min_max`

The "state" method

N.B. State-based selection is a powerful, complex feature. Read about known caveats and limitations to state comparison.

state:new: There is no node with the same unique_id in the comparison manifest

state:modified: All new nodes, plus any changes to existing nodes.

$ dbt test --select state:new            # run all tests on new models + and new tests on old models
$ dbt run --select state:modified        # run all models that have been modified
$ dbt ls --select state:modified         # list all modified nodes (not just models)

Because state comparison is complex, and everyone's project is different, dbt supports subselectors that include a subset of the full modified criteria:

• state:modified.body: Changes to node body (e.g. model SQL, seed values)
• state:modified.configs: Changes to any node configs, excluding database/schema/alias
• state:modified.relation: Changes to database/schema/alias (the database representation of this node), irrespective of target values or generate_x_name macros
• state:modified.persisted_descriptions: Changes to relation- or column-level description, if and only if persist_docs is enabled at each level
• state:modified.macros: Changes to upstream macros (whether called directly or indirectly by another macro)
• state:modified.contract: Changes to a model's contract, which currently include the name and data_type of columns. Removing or changing the type of an existing column is considered a breaking change, and will raise an error.

Remember that state:modified includes all of the criteria above, as well as some extra resource-specific criteria, such as modifying a source's freshness or quoting rules or an exposure's maturity property. (View the source code for the full set of checks used when comparing sources, exposures, and executable nodes.)

The "exposure" method

The exposure method is used to select parent resources of a specified exposure. Use in conjunction with the + operator.

$ dbt run --select +exposure:weekly_kpis                # run all models that feed into the weekly_kpis exposure
$ dbt test --select +exposure:*                         # test all resources upstream of all exposures
$ dbt ls --select +exposure:* --resource-type source    # list all sources upstream of all exposures

The "metric" method

The metric method is used to select parent resources of a specified metric. Use in conjunction with the + operator.

$ dbt build --select +metric:weekly_active_users       # build all resources upstream of weekly_active_users metric
$ dbt ls    --select +metric:* --resource-type source  # list all source tables upstream of all metrics

The "result" method

The result method is related to the state method described above and can be used to select resources based on their result status from a prior run. Note that one of the dbt commands [run, test, build, seed] must have been performed in order to create the result on which a result selector operates. You can use result selectors in conjunction with the + operator.

$ dbt run --select result:error --state path/to/artifacts # run all models that generated errors on the prior invocation of dbt run
$ dbt test --select result:fail --state path/to/artifacts # run all tests that failed on the prior invocation of dbt test
$ dbt build --select 1+result:fail --state path/to/artifacts # run all the models associated with failed tests from the prior invocation of dbt build
$ dbt seed --select result:error --state path/to/artifacts # run all seeds that generated errors on the prior invocation of dbt seed.

The "source_status" method

Supported in v1.1 or higher.

Another element of job state is the source_status of a prior dbt invocation. After executing dbt source freshness, for example, dbt creates the sources.json artifact which contains execution times and max_loaded_at dates for dbt sources. You can read more about sources.json on the 'sources' page.

The following dbt commands produce sources.json artifacts whose results can be referenced in subsequent dbt invocations:

• dbt source freshness

After issuing one of the above commands, you can reference the source freshness results by adding a selector to a subsequent command as follows:

The "group" method

The "access" method

The "version" method