dbt-schemify 0.1.0

Generate and update dbt schema.yml files from a template, manifest, and database

dbt-schemify

Generate and update dbt schema.yml files automatically from a template, your dbt manifest, and live database columns.

How it works

Three sources are merged in priority order (highest first):

1. Existing schema.yml — values already there are never overwritten
2. manifest.json — fills fields marked with the schemify sentinel
3. .schemify.yml template — defines which fields to include and their static defaults

The sentinel value schemify in the template means "auto-populate this field from the manifest or database".

Installation

pip install dbt-schemify

With your database adapter:

pip install "dbt-schemify[snowflake]"
pip install "dbt-schemify[postgres]"
pip install "dbt-schemify[bigquery]"
pip install "dbt-schemify[duckdb]"

Quick start

1. Create a .schemify.yml template in your dbt project root:

version: '1.0'
models:
  - name: schemify
    description: schemify      # filled from manifest
    meta:
      owner: analytics         # static default applied to all models
    config:
      enabled: true            # static default
    columns:
      - name: schemify
        data_type: schemify    # filled from DB
        description: schemify  # left empty for humans to fill in
        meta:
          gdpr_tags: schemify

2. Compile your dbt project to get a manifest:

dbt compile

3. Run dbt-schemify:

dbt-schemify --schema models/my_folder/schema.yml

Reads .schemify.yml, target/manifest.json, and ~/.dbt/profiles.yml automatically.

Usage

dbt-schemify --schema PATH [options]

Options:
  --schema PATH          Path to schema.yml to generate or update (required)
  --manifest PATH        Path to manifest.json
                         Default: <project-dir>/target/manifest.json
  --template PATH        Path to .schemify.yml template
                         Default: <project-dir>/.schemify.yml
  --project-dir DIR      dbt project root. Default: current directory
  --profile NAME         dbt profile name. Default: read from dbt_project.yml
  --target NAME          dbt target (e.g. dev, prod). Default: profile default
  --profiles-dir DIR     Directory containing profiles.yml. Default: ~/.dbt/
  --models MODEL ...     Only process specific model names
  --no-db                Skip database connection; no column fetching

Examples

# Generate schema without DB (manifest data only)
dbt-schemify --schema models/example/schema.yml --no-db

# Generate schema with DB columns
dbt-schemify --schema models/example/schema.yml --profile my_profile --target dev

# Only specific models
dbt-schemify --schema models/example/schema.yml --models my_model_a my_model_b --no-db

# Custom paths
dbt-schemify \
  --schema models/example/schema.yml \
  --manifest target/manifest.json \
  --template .schemify.yml

Merge rules

Situation	Result
Field exists in schema.yml	Kept as-is
Field is schemify sentinel + value in manifest	Filled from manifest
Field is schemify sentinel + column data_type	Filled from DB
Field has a static value in template	Used as default
Field not in template	Not included in output
Column in DB but not in existing schema	Added using template column structure
Column in existing schema but not in DB	Preserved