Connect your project

An admin does these two steps once per project.

1. The BigQuery connection

Go to Settings → Project settings → Connections. You’ll need:

• A Google Cloud service account key (a JSON file) for a service account that can run queries and create tables in your project. At minimum the BigQuery Job User and BigQuery Data Editor roles on the dataset you will use.
• The Google Cloud project ID that holds your data.
• The dataset dbt should write its models to.
• The location of that dataset (for example US or EU).

Press Test connection. It checks that the key is valid, that queries run, that the dataset is reachable in the right location, and that tables can be created. Fix anything that fails, then save.

The key is stored encrypted and is never shown again. One connection is shared by Build, Explore, Notebooks and Pipelines.

Note

A project has one warehouse connection. To work with a different warehouse, create another project (Settings → Account settings → Projects).

2. Choose where your code lives

Open Build. If nothing is set up, an admin chooses one of two options:

Managed repository

We keep your dbt code, with full commit history, on the platform. There’s nothing to set up: you get a starter dbt project with a first commit, and can edit, commit and run straight away. You don’t need a GitHub account. (This is the same idea as a managed repository in dbt Cloud.)

• Commit saves a version in the managed history. There’s no Pull, because nothing else changes the code.
• Scheduled runs and Explore use the latest commit, exactly as they would with GitHub.
• You can move to GitHub whenever you like (below).

GitHub

Keep the project in your own GitHub repository:

1. Choose Connect GitHub and install the Reflective Data GitHub app on your organisation or account, selecting the repositories it may access.
2. Back in Build, pick the repository and, if you like, a branch (otherwise the repository’s default).

The platform checks that you really have access to the installation, so nobody can link repositories they don’t own. If the repository is empty, Build offers to create a starter dbt project in it.

Moving a managed repository to GitHub

In a managed project an admin chooses Move to GitHub, installs the GitHub app if it isn’t yet, and picks an empty repository. Your code and its full history are copied into it and the project then works from GitHub, including Pull. A repository that already has code is refused, so nothing is overwritten.

Note

A managed repository is stored by the platform; ask your account manager about backups and export if you need a copy outside it. Moving to GitHub is the way to get one yourself.

Check it

When both are done, the setup checklist on Home shows them as done, and you can run dbt from Build.