Every dbt PR gets one comment: what changed, which downstream columns and dashboards it breaks, and what to rebuild. Live demo →
See what a dbt change breaks — downstream models, columns, dashboards and contracts — before it ships. dbt-lineage parses your project directly (no warehouse, no Python, no dbt compile) and puts lineage and impact wherever you work.
Use it where you work
| Where | What you get | Get it |
|---|---|---|
| Pull requests (GitHub) | One sticky comment per PR: lineage diff, column impact, affected dashboards, breaking changes, rebuild selector; inline lint annotations | uses: sipemu/dbt-lineage-viewer@v0 · live demo |
| GitLab · Bitbucket · Azure DevOps | The same report as an MR/PR comment, plus Code Quality / Code Insights / build warnings | docs/CI.md |
| VS Code, Cursor, VSCodium | Show impact of my changes panel, hover and go-to-definition on ref()/source(), lint diagnostics; binary bundled |
VS Code Marketplace · Open VSX |
| Terminal | Lineage, impact, diff, plan, lint, coverage, interactive TUI | pip install dbt-lineage-cli · brew install sipemu/tap/dbt-lineage · cargo binstall dbt-lineage |
| Browser | Static lineage site with column lineage for GitHub/GitLab Pages | dbt-lineage site · demo site |
| BI tools | Dashboards from Metabase, Tableau, Looker, Power BI, Superset and anofox-visualization as dbt exposures | dbt-lineage exposures <tool> |
| AI agents | MCP server with lineage, impact and column-lineage tools | dbt-lineage mcp |
| Neovim, Helix | Language server (dbt-lineage lsp) |
docs/EDITORS.md |
Features
Source modes
- Direct SQL parsing — extracts
ref()andsource()via a Jinja-aware lexer, nodbt compileneeded - Manifest support — optionally read
manifest.jsonfor column metadata, materializations, and full graph fidelity - Jinja-aware dependencies — finds
ref()/source()anywhere in Jinja ({% set x = ref('a') %},dbt_utils.star(from=ref('a')), versioned refs), follows macros that reference models (project and installed packages, includingadapter.dispatch), and expands loops over literal lists. Check it on your project withverify; see Accuracy - Parallel parsing + on-disk cache —
rayon-parallelized parsing and a content-hash cache at.dbt-lineage/cache.bin; warm runs are near-instant on large monorepos. Bypass with--no-cache. Seedocs/CACHE.md
Analysis subcommands
summary— one-shot project overview (counts, tags, top fan-out, orphans)impact <model>— downstream impact with severity scoring (Critical / High / Medium / Low)diff --base <ref>— compares lineage between git refs, showing added / removed / modified nodes and edgesplan --base <ref>— emits a dbt selector for the minimal rebuild set; pipes intodbt run -s "$(…)"coverage— tests-per-model + per-column map; text, JSON, or SARIF (PR annotations)lint— flags unused sources, undefined refs, dead-end models, missing descriptions, models with only unresolved upstream, circular refssite— static lineage site (search, per-node pages with lineage diagram, column-level lineage, SQL) for GitHub/GitLab Pagesdocs— generates per-model Markdown with description, upstream / downstream, columns, embedded Mermaid lineageperf— joinsrun_results.jsonwith the DAG: slowest models, critical pathsverify— compares parsed lineage with dbt'smanifest.jsonand lists every dependency that differs; exits non-zero when parsing missed onecheck-manifest— flags drift betweenmanifest.jsonand current SQL files using dbt's recorded SHA-256 (mtime fallback); exits non-zero for CI gating
Column-level lineage
- AST-backed analyzer via
sqlparser(0.6.0+) handles aliases, JOINs, aggregations, and CTEs with proper transformation classification (Direct,Aliased,Derived) - Regex-based analyzer remains as a fallback for dialect-specific syntax sqlparser can't yet parse
MCP server (AI-agent integration)
dbt-lineage mcp— stdio Model Context Protocol server. Seedocs/MCP.mdfor setup and cookbook.- 10 tools:
summary,search_models,lineage,impact,get_model_details,read_model_sql,column_upstream,column_downstream,lineage_bundle,propose_test - Resources: model SQL, focused lineage diagrams, source/exposure metadata, always-fresh summary
- Prompts:
review-impact,propose-tests,explain-column,find-bottleneck,document-model,onboard-project
Output
- 6 formats — ASCII, Graphviz DOT, JSON, Mermaid, self-contained SVG, interactive HTML (pan / zoom / search)
- Mermaid niceties —
--show-columnsinlines column names in node labels;--group-by directoryemits Mermaid subgraphs - Graph collapse —
--collapse/--collapse=focaldrops intermediate nodes and labels transitive paths with(via N)edges - Structured errors —
--error-format jsonwrites{level, what, why, hint}to stderr for deterministic agent / CI consumers
Editor integration
dbt-lineage lsp— language server: hover and go-to-definition onref()/source(), lineage code lens per model, lint diagnostics. VS Code extension on the Marketplace and Open VSX (code --install-extension sipemu.dbt-lineage-viewer); Neovim and Helix setup indocs/EDITORS.md
Interactive TUI
- Navigate, search, and explore lineage in a terminal UI (
ratatui) with Unicode box-drawing nodes, orthogonal edge routing, and full mouse support - Run dbt from TUI — execute
dbt run/dbt teston selected models with scope control (+upstream,downstream+,+all+) via keyboard menu or right-click context menu - Run status tracking — color-coded nodes show success (green), error (red), outdated (yellow), or never-run (default)
- Path highlighting — trace upstream / downstream paths with impact analysis
Filtering and node types
- Selector expressions —
-s tag:finance,path:martsfilters by tag, path, or model name (comma-separated) - Node-type filters —
--include-tests,--include-seeds,--include-snapshots,--include-exposures - Node-type support — models, sources, seeds, snapshots, tests, exposures
Accuracy
dbt-lineage reads dependencies from your SQL without running dbt, so it can
miss dependencies that only exist once Jinja is rendered. dbt-lineage verify
measures that on your own project against a manifest.json from dbt parse.
Results on public dbt projects (manifests from dbt parse, dbt Core 1.12 with
the DuckDB adapter; packages measured through their integration_tests
project). scripts/accuracy/run.py produces this
table, and CI runs it on every parser change and weekly, failing on any missed
dependency:
| Project | Models compared | Dependencies found | Extra, not in manifest |
|---|---|---|---|
jaffle-shop 5beb145 |
13 | 17 / 17 | 0 |
tuva 465927a |
555 | 1,560 / 1,560 | 5 |
cal-itp data-infra 3801da6 |
625 | 1,192 / 1,192 | 0 |
Fivetran dbt_hubspot 5f00935 |
176 | 280 / 280 | 18 |
Fivetran dbt_jira 1a9f8b4 |
61 | 108 / 108 | 0 |
Fivetran dbt_shopify a033782 |
240 | 414 / 414 | 25 |
Fivetran dbt_quickbooks 0b9da0d |
114 | 210 / 210 | 35 |
Fivetran dbt_netsuite e3c026e |
106 | 183 / 183 | 7 |
Fivetran dbt_zendesk c5f2cfa |
88 | 162 / 162 | 6 |
Fivetran dbt_stripe 7f5d6ae |
65 | 117 / 117 | 2 |
Fivetran dbt_salesforce 8f9e9c0 |
24 | 42 / 42 | 1 |
Every extra dependency sits in a Jinja branch switched off by the project's
current vars ({% if var('hubspot_property_enabled') %}). dbt records only the
branches it renders; dbt-lineage keeps them so impact analysis doesn't miss a
dependency that a var can switch on.
What parsing can't follow: refs whose names are computed at render time from
variables or macro return values. verify lists those, and any command reads
--manifest for exact lineage when you need it.
Column lineage
Column impact ("removing stg_orders.customer_id breaks orders.customer_id")
is measured the same way against a reference: sqlglot
column lineage over the SQL dbt compiled after dbt seed and dbt run on
DuckDB (scripts/accuracy-columns/). CI re-runs
it alongside the model check and fails when a number drops below its
baseline. Packages are measured from their integration_tests project,
where dbt ran: its vars reach the package's models as a root project's do.
| Project | From SQL alone | Precision | With compiled SQL + catalog | Precision |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| jaffle-shop | 87 / 87 | 100% | 87 / 87 | 100% |
| tuva | 10,451 / 12,143 | 100% | 12,141 / 12,143 | 100% |
| Fivetran dbt_hubspot | 2,226 / 2,337 | 98% | 2,337 / 2,337 | 100% |
| Fivetran dbt_jira | 930 / 971 | 99% | 971 / 971 | 99% |
| Fivetran dbt_shopify | 5,192 / 5,436 | 98% | 5,436 / 5,436 | 100% |
| Fivetran dbt_quickbooks | 2,587 / 2,993 | 100% | 2,993 / 2,993 | 100% |
| Fivetran dbt_netsuite | 1,318 / 1,831 | 98% | 1,800 / 1,831 | 99% |
| Fivetran dbt_zendesk | 1,563 / 1,665 | 99% | 1,653 / 1,665 | 100% |
| Fivetran dbt_stripe | 1,588 / 1,816 | 96% | 1,809 / 1,816 | 100% |
| Fivetran dbt_salesforce | 719 / 719 | 100% | 719 / 719 | 100% |
From SQL alone, columns of models written in SQL are traced completely,
through CTEs, subqueries, joins, unions and select *. Where Jinja writes
the SELECT (loops, macros producing column lists or whole queries, as in
Fivetran's packages), dbt-lineage renders the model the way dbt compile
would, without dbt or a warehouse: the project's and installed packages'
macros (dbt_packages/, with adapter.dispatch), vars (the root
project's over each package's own), graph.nodes / graph.sources from the
parsed project, and the columns it
already knows for each upstream relation (YAML, seed headers, upstream
models) answering adapter.get_columns_in_relation. What stays out of reach
offline: macros that read data (pivots over dbt_utils.get_column_values,
run_query results; ci report lists such models as lineage gaps), columns
of sources that YAML doesn't declare, and staging models over those (Fivetran's
_tmp pass-throughs); the catalog closes most of that gap.
With dbt artifacts: when target/manifest.json holds dbt's compiled SQL
(from dbt compile or dbt run), column lineage reads it for every model
whose file still matches the checksum dbt recorded, so an outdated manifest
never stands in for edited code. target/catalog.json (from dbt docs generate) adds the warehouse's actual columns, so select * from a source
expands to columns YAML doesn't declare. For PR column impact, give ci report the base branch's manifest too (--base-manifest, e.g. the
production manifest many teams keep for slim CI) and run dbt compile in the
PR job; with compiled SQL on one side only, both sides use raw SQL so the
before/after columns are inferred the same way.
Where Jinja decides lineage at render time, the PR comment says so: a
Lineage may be incomplete section lists the affected models on the
impact path and why (a ref() with computed arguments, or columns written by
a loop or macro), so a short impact list isn't mistaken for a complete one.
Compared with dbt's own tools
dbt Labs' new engine (dbt v2, formerly "Fusion", GA since September 2026) also understands SQL statically, and its VS Code extension shows table-level lineage while you edit, and column-level lineage in strict mode. They solve different parts of the problem; as of November 2026:
| dbt-lineage | dbt v2 + VS Code extension | dbt platform Advanced CI | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Downstream impact as a PR/MR comment | GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, Azure DevOps | – | PR comment summarising a data diff; Enterprise plans |
| Needs warehouse access | no | not for parsing; column lineage needs static_analysis: strict and upstream schemas |
yes, builds the PR in the warehouse |
| Projects | dbt Core 1.x and v2 projects, any adapter | projects migrated to v2 (deprecations fixed); BigQuery, Databricks, Redshift, Snowflake, DuckDB and Spark on the CLI | BigQuery, Databricks, Postgres, Redshift, Snowflake |
| License | MIT | dbt OSS is Apache 2.0; the full engine, LSP and extension are proprietary (free, no login) | commercial |
Sources: supported features, new concepts, Advanced CI, licensing FAQ.
The two combine well: dbt's extension for type checking while you write SQL, dbt-lineage for reviewing what a pull request breaks downstream, on any CI.
Installation
From crates.io
cargo install dbt-lineage
pip / uv (no Rust needed)
pip install dbt-lineage-cli # installs the `dbt-lineage` command
uvx --from dbt-lineage-cli dbt-lineage --helpHomebrew (macOS, Linux)
brew install sipemu/tap/dbt-lineage
With cargo-binstall (no compile)
cargo binstall dbt-lineage
Pre-built binaries
Every tagged release ships pre-built binaries for Linux (x86_64 + aarch64), macOS (Intel + Apple Silicon), and Windows (x86_64) as downloadable assets on the Releases page. Download the archive for your platform, extract, and put the binary on your PATH.
As a GitHub Action
Live demo: sipemu/dbt-lineage-demo#1 shows the PR comment (lineage diff with SQL body changes, column impact, Mermaid impact diagram, rebuild selector, lint); sipemu.github.io/dbt-lineage-demo is the same project as a dbt-lineage site.
on: pull_request permissions: contents: read pull-requests: write # sticky PR comment security-events: write # only needed with `sarif:` jobs: lineage: runs-on: ubuntu-latest steps: - uses: actions/checkout@v5 with: fetch-depth: 0 # `diff` / `plan` need the base branch history - uses: sipemu/dbt-lineage-viewer@v0 with: base: ${{ github.base_ref }} # e.g. main; resolved to origin/main if needed project-dir: dbt/ comment: true # post a Markdown summary as a PR comment sarif: lint,coverage # also surface findings as PR annotations
@v0 tracks the latest 0.x release; pin an exact tag (e.g. @v0.9.1) if you prefer. The action installs the matching dbt-lineage binary from this repo's release artifacts, runs summary, diff, plan, and optionally lint/coverage SARIF, then posts a single sticky comment on the PR with the rendered report. See action.yml for the full input/output reference.
To check dbt-lineage against dbt on your own project in every PR, run dbt parse first (it needs your profiles.yml but never connects to the warehouse) and set verify: true; the comment then reports how much of dbt's lineage was found, and fail-on: verify-missed fails the check when a dependency was missed:
- run: pip install dbt-core dbt-snowflake && dbt parse # your adapter; no connection made - uses: sipemu/dbt-lineage-viewer@v0 with: verify: true fail-on: lint-errors,verify-missed
Container image
docker run --rm -v "$PWD:/workspace" ghcr.io/sipemu/dbt-lineage:latest summaryPublished to ghcr.io/sipemu/dbt-lineage on every release (latest, v0, 0.x, 0.x.y; amd64 + arm64), with git included for diff / plan / ci report. In GitLab CI, override the entrypoint:
dbt-lineage: image: { name: ghcr.io/sipemu/dbt-lineage:v0, entrypoint: [""] } script: dbt-lineage ci report --out report.md
As a pre-commit hook
# .pre-commit-config.yaml in your dbt repo repos: - repo: https://github.com/sipemu/dbt-lineage-viewer rev: v0.19.0 hooks: - id: dbt-lineage-lint - id: dbt-lineage-check-manifest # needs a compiled target/manifest.json args: [-p, path/to/dbt] # only if the project isn't at the repo root
From source
git clone https://github.com/sipemu/dbt-lineage-viewer.git cd dbt-lineage-viewer cargo install --path .
The binary is installed to ~/.cargo/bin/dbt-lineage.
Usage
Static output
# Full lineage of current directory's dbt project dbt-lineage # Focus on a specific model dbt-lineage stg_orders # Point at a different project directory dbt-lineage -p path/to/dbt/project # Show 2 levels upstream, 1 downstream dbt-lineage stg_orders -u 2 -d 1 # Include seeds, tests, snapshots, exposures dbt-lineage --include-seeds --include-tests --include-snapshots --include-exposures # Selector expressions dbt-lineage -s tag:finance,path:marts # Use manifest.json instead of parsing SQL dbt-lineage --manifest target/manifest.json # Output formats dbt-lineage -o dot > lineage.dot # Graphviz DOT dbt-lineage -o json # JSON graph dbt-lineage -o mermaid # Mermaid diagram dbt-lineage -o svg > lineage.svg # Self-contained SVG dbt-lineage -o html > lineage.html # Interactive HTML (pan/zoom/search)
Interactive TUI
dbt-lineage -i dbt-lineage -i -p path/to/dbt/project dbt-lineage -i stg_orders -u 3 -d 3
Breaking changes to governed models
diff, ci report and the PR comment flag changes that break consumers of governed models (dbt 1.5+ model governance in schema YAML):
- contracted models (
config: {contract: {enforced: true}}): a contract column removed or itsdata_typechanged, or the contract dropped; accessnarrowed (public→protected→private);- a model version (
versions:) or a governed model removed.
ci report --fail-on breaking-changes fails the check. lint adds a private-ref error for refs to access: private models from outside their group, which dbt rejects at parse time.
Impact analysis
Compute downstream impact for a model with severity scoring:
dbt-lineage impact orders -p path/to/project # text report dbt-lineage impact orders -o json # JSON for CI dbt-lineage impact orders --manifest target/manifest.json
Severity levels:
- Critical — impacts exposures (dashboards, reports)
- High — impacts table/incremental materializations or mart models
- Medium — impacts staging or intermediate models
- Low — impacts tests only
Lineage diff
Compare lineage between git refs to see what changed:
dbt-lineage diff --base main # compare main to working tree dbt-lineage diff --base main --head feature-branch # compare two branches dbt-lineage diff --base HEAD~1 -o json # JSON for CI integration
Shows added, removed, and modified nodes and edges with a summary of changes.
Static lineage site
A self-contained static site — search, one page per model/source/seed/exposure with its lineage diagram, columns with column-level lineage, and highlighted SQL — ready for GitHub or GitLab Pages:
dbt-lineage site -p path/to/project --out site
Light/dark, phone-friendly, no server or CDN. See docs/SITE.md for Pages workflows.
Project summary
One-shot project overview, designed as the first thing an agent (or human) runs against an unfamiliar dbt project:
dbt-lineage summary -p path/to/project # text dbt-lineage summary --manifest target/manifest.json # manifest mode dbt-lineage summary -o json # structured for piping into jq
Reports counts per node type, tag distribution, top downstream-reach models, and orphan models (no downstream consumers).
BI dashboards as exposures
Generate dbt exposures from Metabase, anofox-visualization, Tableau, Looker, Superset or Power BI dashboards, so impact analysis knows which dashboards a change reaches:
METABASE_API_KEY=mb_… dbt-lineage exposures metabase --url https://metabase.example.com \ --write models/exposures_metabase.yml
From a LookML project, offline (LookML dashboards → explores → views → tables):
dbt-lineage exposures looker --lookml path/to/lookml-project --write models/exposures_looker.yml
From anofox-visualization dashboards (DuckDB .sql files with ::ROLE panels):
dbt-lineage exposures anofox --dashboards dashboards/ --url 'https://viz.example.com/d/{name}' \
--write models/exposures_anofox.ymlFrom Tableau workbooks, offline (.twb / .twbx):
dbt-lineage exposures tableau --workbooks workbooks/ --write models/exposures_tableau.yml
From Superset dashboard exports, offline (ZIPs from superset export-dashboards or the UI; dashboard → charts → datasets → tables, virtual-dataset SQL included):
dbt-lineage exposures superset --exports exports/ \
--url 'https://superset.example.com/superset/dashboard/{name}/' --write models/exposures_superset.ymlFrom Power BI, offline: PBIP projects (*.Report + *.SemanticModel, TMDL or model.bim) and .pbit templates; tables come from the partitions' Power Query (M) sources and native SQL:
dbt-lineage exposures powerbi --reports powerbi/ --url 'https://app.powerbi.com/groups/me/reports/{name}' \
--write models/exposures_powerbi.ymlTables the dashboards read are mapped onto models and sources; unmatched tables are listed on stderr. See docs/BI.md.
CI report
One Markdown report for PR/MR comments — lineage diff, rebuild selector, manifest freshness, lint, and project summary — plus exit codes for gating:
dbt-lineage ci report # base = PR/MR target branch from CI env dbt-lineage ci report --base main --out report.md # explicit base, write to file dbt-lineage ci report --fail-on lint-errors,plan-empty --outputs "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
--base auto (default) reads the target branch from GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Bitbucket Pipelines or Azure Pipelines, and resolves it as origin/<branch> (fetching it if the checkout is shallow). --outputs appends selector=… and failed=… lines, usable as $GITHUB_OUTPUT or a GitLab dotenv report. dbt-lineage ci comment --file report.md posts it as one sticky PR/MR comment, and dbt-lineage ci annotations --format sarif|codeclimate|bitbucket|azure turns lint findings into inline annotations (Bitbucket Code Insights with --post). The GitHub Action, the GitLab component, the Bitbucket Pipe and the Azure Pipelines template are thin wrappers around these commands; see docs/CI.md.
Verify lineage against dbt
Measure how closely parsed lineage matches dbt's own on your project:
dbt parse # writes target/manifest.json, no warehouse queries dbt-lineage verify -p path/to/project # text; exit 1 if a dependency was missed dbt-lineage verify -o json # every mismatch, plus recall/precision
verify compares the upstream models, seeds, snapshots and sources of every model in both graphs and lists dependencies dbt has that parsing missed, dependencies parsing found that dbt doesn't record (usually Jinja branches switched off by vars), and models only one side knows. Run it in CI next to dbt parse to keep SQL-parse mode honest on your project.
Manifest freshness
CI-friendly drift check between a distributed manifest.json and current SQL files:
dbt-lineage check-manifest -p path/to/project # text; exit 1 if stale dbt-lineage check-manifest -o json # JSON for tooling
Flags three kinds of drift: SQL files referenced by the manifest that are now missing, files modified since the manifest was generated, and SQL files added but not yet compiled into the manifest.
Graph collapse
Collapse intermediate nodes so big projects render as just their endpoints, with transitive paths labeled (via N):
dbt-lineage --collapse -o mermaid # keep endpoints + focus model dbt-lineage orders --collapse=focal -u 3 -o mermaid # focal: only sources/exposures/focus dbt-lineage --collapse -o json # JSON edges carry a via_hops field
Positional focus models (e.g. dbt-lineage orders --collapse) are always preserved even when they would otherwise be classified as intermediate.
Mermaid options
dbt-lineage -o mermaid --show-columns # inline column names in node labels dbt-lineage -o mermaid --group-by directory # group nodes by directory via subgraph dbt-lineage -o mermaid --show-columns --collapse # combine: endpoint nodes with full column lists
Structured errors for agents and CI
dbt-lineage --error-format json some_unknown_model
# stderr: {"level":"error","what":"model not found","why":"...","hint":"..."}--error-format json writes one JSON object per line to stderr. stdout is unaffected, so piping into jq still works.
Editor integration (language server)
dbt-lineage lsp serves the Language Server Protocol over stdio: hover and go-to-definition on ref() / source(), a code lens with upstream/downstream counts and impact on every model, and lint findings as diagnostics. Use the VS Code extension in editors/vscode, or point Neovim, Helix or any LSP client at dbt-lineage lsp. See docs/EDITORS.md.
MCP server
Expose lineage as stdio MCP tools, resources, and prompts that Claude Code, Claude Desktop, and other MCP-aware clients can call directly:
claude mcp add dbt-lineage -- dbt-lineage mcp --project-dir /abs/path/to/project # SQL-parse mode claude mcp add dbt-lineage -- dbt-lineage mcp --manifest /abs/path/to/manifest.json # manifest mode
Works in both SQL-parse and manifest mode (target/manifest.json is picked up automatically when present). Tools: summary, search_models, lineage, impact, get_model_details, read_model_sql, column_upstream, column_downstream, lineage_bundle, propose_test; plus model resources and predefined prompts. MCP Registry name: mcp-name: io.github.sipemu/dbt-lineage. See docs/MCP.md for client setup, prompt walkthroughs, and composition recipes.
CLI Reference
Run dbt-lineage <command> --help for per-subcommand options.
Usage: dbt-lineage [OPTIONS] [MODEL] [COMMAND]
Commands:
impact Compute downstream impact analysis for a model
summary Print a one-shot project overview: counts, tags, top fan-out, orphans
mcp Run an MCP (Model Context Protocol) stdio server exposing lineage tools to AI agents. Reads JSON-RPC requests on stdin, writes responses to stdout
lsp Run a Language Server (stdio) for editors: hover and go-to-definition on ref()/source(), a lineage code lens per model, and lint diagnostics
perf Critical-path and slowest-model performance report from target/run_results.json
macros Show the macro call graph (macros calling other macros)
site Generate a static lineage site (search, one page per node with columns, column lineage, SQL and a lineage diagram) for GitHub/GitLab Pages
docs Generate Markdown documentation per model (or one consolidated file)
lint Structural lint: dead-end models, unused sources, undefined refs, missing docs. Exit code 1 if any error-severity finding is reported
coverage Test coverage map: which models have which tests, column coverage gaps
check-manifest Verify a manifest.json is still in sync with the project's SQL files. Exits with code 1 on staleness, making it directly usable in CI pipelines
plan Emit a dbt selector expression covering models added or modified since `--base`. Designed to pipe into `dbt run -s "$(dbt-lineage plan --base main)"`
ci CI integration: one Markdown report for PR/MR comments, plus exit codes for gating. Works on GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Bitbucket Pipelines and Azure Pipelines
exposures Import BI dashboards as dbt exposures (YAML), mapping the tables they read onto the project's models and sources
diff Compare lineage between git refs
help Print this message or the help of the given subcommand(s)
Arguments:
[MODEL] Model name to focus on (shows full lineage if omitted)
Options:
-p, --project-dir <PROJECT_DIR> Path to dbt project directory [default: .]
-u, --upstream <UPSTREAM> Upstream levels to show (default: all)
-d, --downstream <DOWNSTREAM> Downstream levels to show (default: all)
-i, --interactive Launch interactive TUI mode
-o, --output <OUTPUT> Output format: ascii (default), dot, json, mermaid, svg, html [default: ascii] [possible values: ascii, dot, json, mermaid, svg, html]
--include-tests Include test nodes
--include-seeds Include seed nodes
--include-snapshots Include snapshot nodes
--include-exposures Include exposure nodes
-s, --select <SELECT> Selector expression: tag:X, path:Y, or model name (comma-separated)
--manifest <MANIFEST> Use manifest.json instead of parsing SQL (path to manifest file or directory containing target/manifest.json)
--show-columns Mermaid only: inline column names inside each node's label
--group-by <GROUP_BY> Mermaid only: group nodes by directory using Mermaid subgraphs [default: none] [possible values: none, directory]
--error-format <ERROR_FORMAT> How errors are written to stderr: human-readable text (default) or one JSON object per line (`{level, what, why, hint}`) for agent/CI consumers [default: plain] [possible values: plain, json]
--collapse [<COLLAPSE>] Drop intermediate nodes and replace transitive paths with `(via N)` edges. Bare `--collapse` is equivalent to `--collapse auto` (keep endpoints + focus); `--collapse focal` keeps only sources, exposures, and the focus model [default: none] [possible values: none, auto, focal]
--no-cache Bypass the on-disk parse cache (.dbt-lineage/cache.bin). Useful when debugging parser changes or you want a clean baseline benchmark
-h, --help Print help (see more with '--help')
-V, --version Print version
TUI Keybindings
Navigation
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
h j k l / arrow keys |
Navigate between nodes (left/down/up/right) |
H J K L |
Pan the viewport |
+ / - |
Zoom in / out (adjusts spacing) |
Tab / Shift+Tab |
Cycle through nodes sequentially |
r |
Reset view (center + zoom) |
Mouse
| Action | Target | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Left click | Node on graph | Select node (no viewport jump) |
| Left click | Empty graph area | Begin drag to pan |
| Drag | Graph area | Pan the viewport |
| Scroll up / down | Graph area | Zoom in / out |
| Left click | Node list entry | Select node and center viewport |
| Left click | Group header | Collapse / expand group |
| Right click | Node on graph | Open context menu (run options) |
Search
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
/ |
Open search (fuzzy, powered by nucleo — type any few characters in any order) |
Tab |
Next search result |
Esc / Enter |
Close search |
Analysis
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
p |
Toggle path highlighting (upstream/downstream trace with impact analysis) |
C (Shift+C) |
Toggle column-level lineage in detail panel |
v |
Toggle in-app SQL viewer (syntax-highlighted SQL of the selected node) |
m |
Toggle minimap overlay (top-right corner of the graph area) |
Node list panel
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
n |
Toggle node list sidebar |
c |
Collapse/expand directory group |
Running dbt
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
x |
Open run menu for selected node |
| Right click | Open context menu on a node (same run options) |
o |
View last run output |
Run menu / context menu options:
| Key | Command |
|---|---|
r |
dbt run (this model) |
u |
dbt run +upstream |
d |
dbt run downstream+ |
a |
dbt run +all+ |
t |
dbt test |
General
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
q |
Quit |
Ctrl+C |
Quit (any mode) |
Node colors in TUI
By run status (when target/run_results.json exists):
| Color | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Green | Last run succeeded |
| Red | Last run failed |
| Yellow | Outdated (source file modified after last run) |
| DarkGray | Skipped |
By node type (when never run):
| Color | Type |
|---|---|
| Blue | Model |
| Green | Source |
| Yellow | Seed |
| Magenta | Snapshot |
| Cyan | Test |
| Red | Exposure |
| DarkGray | Phantom (unresolved ref) |
How it works
- Parse
dbt_project.ymlto find model/seed/snapshot paths (or readmanifest.json) - Walk those directories, collecting
.sqland.ymlfiles - Extract
ref('model')andsource('schema', 'table')from the Jinja in each SQL file (after a lexer blanks out comments and string literals), including calls inside macros the model uses and loops over literal lists - Parse YAML schema files for sources, model descriptions, and exposures
- Build a directed acyclic graph (petgraph) where edges flow from dependency to dependent
- Resolve column-level lineage by tracing SELECT/FROM/JOIN through the graph
- Filter by focus model, depth, selectors, and node type
- Layout using a Sugiyama-style layered algorithm (longest-path layering + barycenter ordering)
- Render as ASCII, DOT, JSON, Mermaid, SVG, HTML, or interactive TUI
uv / virtualenv support
When running dbt from the TUI, the tool auto-detects whether to use uv run dbt or plain dbt:
- If
uv.lockorpyproject.tomlexists in the dbt project directory, usesuv run dbt - Otherwise, if
dbtis on PATH, uses it directly - If
dbtis not on PATH butuvis, falls back touv run dbt
Building without TUI
The TUI is enabled by default. To build a minimal binary with only static output:
cargo build --release --no-default-features
Further reading
CHANGELOG.md— per-release notes from 0.1.0 onward.docs/MCP.md— cookbook for the MCP server: setup, tool reference, prompt walkthroughs, composition recipes.docs/CACHE.md— parse-cache contract, file format, when it helps.BENCHMARKS.md— baseline numbers from the bench harness.
Credits
The agent-oriented additions in 0.3.0 — summary, check-manifest, mcp, --collapse, --error-format json, and the Mermaid --show-columns / --group-by directory options — were inspired by eitsupi/dlin, a hard fork that focuses on non-interactive (CI/agent) workflows. dbt-lineage retains its TUI focus and brings these ideas back upstream.
License
MIT

