using-dbt-state

using-dbt-state is a skill for Claude Code from dbt-labs/dbt-agent-skills. It costs 101 tokens per session (2,770 once invoked), scanned A, original, Apache-2.0.

A guide to dbt State, a server-backed system that reuses existing data objects when possible instead of rebuilding every selected model. A model is a saved transformation of data.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it when configuring or debugging dbt State, investigating unexpected rebuilds, or improving development and CI build times.
Why use it?
It clarifies how dbt decides whether to skip, clone, or rebuild work, and separates dbt State from similarly named file-comparison and deferral features.

Skill for Claude Code

Written for Claude Code: user-invocable in frontmatter.

Part of the dbt plugin — 11 skills shipped together

Good fit Use it when configuring or debugging dbt State, investigating unexpected rebuilds, or improving development and CI build times.

Compare 6 skills from other repositories ↓
Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/dbt-labs/dbt-agent-skills/using-dbt-state
Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

Any agent
npx skills add dbt-labs/dbt-agent-skills --skill using-dbt-state
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/dbt-labs/dbt-agent-skills

Made for: Claude Code.

Or install dbt, the plugin that ships this one along with the rest of its 11 skills.

Wrote this? Show the measurements

A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.

agentmods badge for using-dbt-state

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/dbt-labs/dbt-agent-skills/using-dbt-state/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/dbt-labs/dbt-agent-skills/using-dbt-state)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/dbt-labs/dbt-agent-skills/using-dbt-state"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/dbt-labs/dbt-agent-skills/using-dbt-state/github.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>

Or the 80×15 button, for a site that already has a row of RSS and ATOM ones. Only the verdict fits; the numbers stay here.

agentmods 80×15 button for using-dbt-state

Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/dbt-labs/dbt-agent-skills/using-dbt-state"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/dbt-labs/dbt-agent-skills/using-dbt-state.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 101 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 2,770 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. A grade says what 26 rules found in the file — not that it is safe. Third-party audits
  • NVIDIA SkillSpector pass 7 Sept 2026
How audits are shown
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5.1 $0.00101 $0.02770
Opus 5 $0.00051 $0.01385
Sonnet 5 $0.00020 $0.00554
Haiku 4.5 $0.00010 $0.00277

Measured 10d ago against content hash 5fea67a5be77, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-09, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

using-dbt-state scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 10d ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

skills/dbt/skills/using-dbt-state/SKILL.md · 119 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 119 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Using dbt State

dbt State is a server-backed reuse mechanism. It should not be conflated with dbt's state:modified selector or --state deferral.

Before building each selected node, dbt asks the dbt State server whether the object can be skipped (reuse from the target schema), cloned (reuse from another schema), or must be built. It is the successor to State-Aware Orchestration, but works in dbt Core, in development, and in CI — not just Fusion in production.

dbt State is a paid product, but it does not require a dbt platform (fka dbt Cloud) subscription.

Common Misconceptions

Misconception Reality
"dbt State is just state:modified / --state" No. state:modified hashes file contents against a manifest you manage (and must keep fresh — e.g. via dbt parse or similar) and rebuilds state:modified+ (all descendants). dbt State manages state automatically on a server and does not require maintaining a fresh comparison manifest — it parses SQL into a syntax tree and compares semantic hashes, considers upstream data freshness, and rebuilds a descendant only if it actually depends on the change (not the whole + subtree).
"It's Fusion-only / production-only" Works in dbt Core, the dbt platform, and Fusion, across dev, CI, and production, with any orchestrator.
"dbt Core users can't use it" They can. dbt Core 1.7–1.11 require pip install dbt-state. It's baked into dbt Core 1.12 / v2.0 and Fusion.
"It's free / it's local" It calls the dbt State server and requires authentication via a dbt platform account or a standalone dbt State account (app.state.dbt.com). Reuse is metered in DATTs — daily active target tables (see Billing below).
"It sends my data to dbt Labs" It sends last-modified timestamps and SQL text. The SQL is hashed then discarded — dbt Labs cannot read query contents after hashing, and can never access raw data.

Read the full file on GitHub · 119 lines

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. 10d ago First seen · 119 lines · 101 tokens per session scan A 5fea67a5be77

Subscribe to this mod's changes

using-dbt-state is a skill published in the GitHub repository dbt-labs/dbt-agent-skills (708 stars, last pushed yesterday), licensed Apache-2.0. It adds 101 tokens to every session and 2,770 once invoked, about $0.0005 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-30.

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