Run the dbt warehouse tests starter end to end

At a glance

Learning objectives

• Layer staging, intermediate, and marts models
• Run the seed/build/docs loop the starter ships with
• Enforce unique + not_null on the fact grain key

What you need

• The dbt-warehouse-tests starter repo
• A Postgres or DuckDB dev target
• dbt installed (dbt deps, dbt seed)

Steps

1. dbt deps && dbt seed (from project-dbt-warehouse-tests )
2. dbt build --target dev (from project-dbt-warehouse-tests )
3. dbt docs generate && dbt docs serve (from project-dbt-warehouse-tests )
4. Write tests that protect the grain. (from project-dbt-warehouse-tests )
5. unique + not_null on the fct grain key (from project-dbt-warehouse-tests )
6. relationships from fct to dims (from project-dbt-warehouse-tests )

Check yourself

• dbt build --target dev finishes with every test passing and docs render for the full DAG.
• The fct_orders grain key carries unique + not_null, and relationships link fct to dims.

Worked example

dbt deps && dbt seed
dbt build --target dev
dbt docs generate && dbt docs serve

# models/schema.yml - tests + descriptions on every node
models:
  - name: fct_orders
    columns:
      - name: <grain key>      # unique + not_null on the fct grain key
        tests:
          - unique
          - not_null
      - name: <fk column>      # relationships from fct to dims
        tests:
          - relationships:
              to: ref('<dim model>')
      - name: status           # accepted_values on status
        tests:
          - accepted_values:
              values: [<allowed statuses>]

Sourced from

• dbt → warehouse → tests → docs
• dbt Test Writer

Security scan

Last sweep 2026-10-24: 0 finding(s), 0 marked as examples.

Common gotchas

• Late-arriving order missed → lookback window too short.
• Grain key not unique → a join fanned out upstream.
• CI green but prod differs → CI ran on a different target/schema.

Production considerations

• CI builds to a per-PR staging schema and runs full tests.
• Declare source freshness checks on raw and exposures for dashboards.

Diagram

starter run
   |
   |- dbt deps && dbt seed --> dbt build --target dev
   |
   |- staging --> intermediate --> fct_orders --> marts
   |
   |- unique + not_null on grain --> relationships to dims --> docs + CI

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