malloy-notebooks

Malloy Notebooks

Files: .malloynb

Scope: when to use this skill vs skill:malloy-analysis-report

This skill is for curated .malloynb notebooks. Interactive parameter widgets render automatically from the given: declarations on the models it imports (or, in older models, from deprecated #(filter) annotations). The notebook itself never declares parameters or filters.

For ad-hoc reports generated by an analysis agent, combining queries into a quick narrative artifact, use skill:malloy-analysis-report instead. Ad-hoc reports also inherit whatever the source declares.

Important Limitations

Compile errors in .malloynb files are NOT shown in the IDE linter. You will only see errors when cells are executed. Be extra careful with syntax and test queries in the model first if unsure.

Multiple Models & Cross-Model Joins

A published .malloynb runs each run: cell against the whole notebook, which compiles with all its imports in scope. So a notebook can import several .malloy models, and a single cell can reference, and join, sources from different imported files. Import each model you need in a setup cell at the top; no "re-export" wrapper model is required.

>>>malloy
import "flights.malloy"
import "carriers.malloy"

>>>malloy
// joins `flights` (from flights.malloy) to `carriers` (from carriers.malloy)
run: flights extend {
  join_one: carriers on carrier = carriers.code
} -> {
  group_by: carriers.nickname
  aggregate: flight_count
}

Two things still hold:

• Imports are notebook-wide, declare them at the top, never inside a run: cell. A cell's query runs as a restricted query against the already-compiled notebook, so its imports must already be in place. You can't import a model inside a query cell to scope it there; an in-query import is rejected (file imports are not permitted in a restricted query).
• Compile errors surface only at publish/render, not in the IDE linter (see above). Verify a multi-model notebook by publishing to a scratch environment and loading it, rather than relying only on single-model query checks.