Documenting Dbt Models Agent Skill
| (1) Adding model descriptions or column definitions to schema.yml (2) Task mentions "document", "describe", "description", "dbt docs", or "schema.yml" (3) Explaining business context, grain, meaning of data, or business rules (4) Preparing dbt docs generate or improving model discoverability Matches existing project documentation style and conventions before writing.
Install
one command, takes just this skill from the repositorynpx skills add https://github.com/AltimateAI/data-engineering-skills --skill documenting-dbt-modelsThe instruction itself
13 sections, as written by the authordbt Documentation
Document the WHY, not just the WHAT. Include grain, business rules, and caveats.
Workflow
1. Study Existing Documentation Patterns
CRITICAL: Match the project's documentation style before adding new docs.
# Find all schema.yml files with documentation
find . -name "schema.yml" | head -5
# Read well-documented models to learn patterns
cat models/marts/schema.yml | head -150
cat models/staging/schema.yml | head -150
Extract from existing documentation:
- Description length (brief vs detailed)
- Formatting style (plain text vs markdown with headers)
- Information included (grain? business rules? caveats?)
- Column description depth (all columns vs key columns)
- Use of meta tags or custom properties
2. Read Model SQL
cat models/<path>/<model_name>.sql
Understand: transformations, business logic, joins, filters.
3. Check Existing Documentation for This Model
# Find existing schema.yml
find . -name "schema.yml" -exec grep -l "<model_name>" {} \;
# Read existing docs
cat models/<path>/schema.yml | grep -A 100 "<model_name>"
4. Identify Documentation Needs
For each model, document:
- Model description: Purpose, grain, key business rules
- Column descriptions: Business meaning, not just data type
For each column, consider:
- What business concept does this represent?
- Are there any caveats or special values?
- What is the source of this data?
5. Write Documentation
Match the style discovered in step 1. Example format (adapt to project):
version: 2
models:
- name: orders
description: |
Order transactions at the order line item grain.
Each row represents one product in one order.
**Business Rules:**
- Revenue recognized on ship_date, not order_date
- Cancelled orders excluded (status != 'cancelled')
- Returns processed as negative line items
**Grain:** One row per order_id + product_id combination
columns:
- name: order_id
description: |
Unique identifier for the order.
Source: orders.id from Stripe webhook
- name: customer_id
description: |
Foreign key to customers table.
NULL for guest checkouts (pre-2023 only)
- name: revenue
description: |
Net revenue for this line item in USD.
Calculation: unit_price * quantity - discount_amount
Excludes tax and shipping
- name: order_status
description: |
Current status of the order.
Values: pending, processing, shipped, delivered, cancelled, returned
6. Generate Docs
dbt docs generate
dbt docs serve # Optional: preview locally
Documentation Patterns
Note: These are default templates. Always adapt to match project's existing style.
Model Description Template
description: |
[One sentence: what this model contains]
**Grain:** [What does one row represent?]
**Business Rules:**
- [Key rule 1]
- [Key rule 2]
**Caveats:**
- [Important limitation or edge case]
Column Description Patterns
| Column Type | Documentation Focus |
|-------------|---------------------|
| Primary key | Source system, uniqueness guarantee |
| Foreign key | What it joins to, NULL handling |
| Metric | Calculation formula, units, exclusions |
| Date | Timezone, what event it represents |
| Status/Category | All possible values, business meaning |
| Boolean/Flag | What true/false means in business terms |
Documenting Calculated Fields
- name: gross_margin
description: |
Gross margin percentage.
Calculation: (revenue - cogs) / revenue * 100
NULL when revenue = 0 to avoid division by zero
Anti-Patterns
- Adding documentation without checking existing project patterns
- Using different formatting style than existing documentation
- Describing WHAT (e.g., "The order ID") instead of WHY/context
- Missing grain documentation
- Not documenting NULL handling
- Leaving columns undocumented
- Copy-pasting column names as descriptions
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How to use it
Take altimateai/documenting-dbt-models from the repository into ~/.claude/skills for personal
use, or into .claude/skills inside a project.
The agent identifies a skill by the name field in its header. Two skills with the
same name cannot sit side by side — one of them will be ignored.