dbt-schema-verify

dbt schema-verify

When to invoke this skill — every time

Run altimate-dbt schema-verify --model <name> before declaring any of the following tasks complete:

• Creating a new dbt model that has (or will have) a schema.yml entry
• Modifying an existing model whose schema.yml declares columns
• Refactoring a CTE into its own intermediate model
• Renaming columns or changing their order
• Changing materialization config in a way that re-creates the table
• Any task that says "match the schema", "produce these columns", "the output should have columns X, Y, Z", or references a _models.yml
• Any task with AUTO_*_equality or AUTO_*_existence tests on a model

If the task touched N models, run schema-verify on all N of them, not just the last one. A build is not a verify.

How to run it

altimate-dbt schema-verify --model <name>

Note: altimate-dbt build --model <name> already runs schema-verify automatically after a successful build and includes the verdict in its response under a schema_verify field. You will see the diff in the same result that reported the build outcome — read it there before deciding the task is done. If you need to re-check after editing, call schema-verify directly.

Returns a structured JSON result:

{
  "model": "int_asana__project_user_agg",
  "verdict": "mismatch",
  "expected_columns": ["project_id", "users", "number_of_users_involved"],
  "actual_columns": ["project_id", "users"],
  "columns_extra": [],
  "columns_missing": ["number_of_users_involved"],
  "columns_reordered": [],
  "type_mismatches": []
}

How to read the verdict

verdict	meaning	what to do
match	actual columns match the spec exactly (case-insensitive on names)	DONE — proceed
mismatch	one or more of columns_extra, columns_missing, columns_reordered, type_mismatches is non-empty	NOT DONE — read the diff, fix the model SQL, rebuild, re-run schema-verify
no-spec	the model has no columns declared in schema.yml	DONE for shape-fidelity purposes — no contract to verify against