metabase-reference

Metabase Reference

REPL Recipes

Inspect tables: (t2/select [:model/Table :id :name :db_id] :db_id 1)

Check settings: (t2/select-one :model/Setting :key "site-name")

Create saved question (native SQL):

(mt/user-http-request :crowberto :post 200 "card"
  {:name "Test Question" :database_id 1
   :dataset_query {:database 1 :type :native :native {:query "SELECT 1"}}
   :display :table :visualization_settings {} :collection_id nil})

Create MBQL question (via API — preferred for card creation):

api_call(method="POST", path="/card", body='{"name":"Test Question","database_id":1,"dataset_query":{"database":1,"type":"query","query":{"source-table":3,"aggregation":[["count"]],"breakout":[["field",63,{"temporal-unit":"month"}],["field",18,null]],"order-by":[["asc",["field",63,{"temporal-unit":"month"}]]]}},"display":"bar","visualization_settings":{},"collection_id":null}')

Key fields: database_id (top-level, required), dataset_query.database (must match), dataset_query.type = "query" for MBQL. Use "native" only for raw SQL.

Create MBQL question (via REPL — use only for non-UI bugs):

(mt/user-http-request :crowberto :post 200 "card"
  {:name "Test Question" :database_id 1
   :dataset_query {:database 1 :type :query
                   :query {:source-table 3
                           :aggregation [[:count]]
                           :breakout [[:field 63 {:temporal-unit :month}]
                                      [:field 18 nil]]}}
   :display :bar :visualization_settings {} :collection_id nil})

Returns the full card map with :id. Do NOT use t2/insert-returning-instance! for cards — it silently fails due to internal validation.

Card creation pitfall: Never use t2/insert-returning-instance! for :model/Card — it silently returns nil when the internal pMBQL validation rejects the query format. Always use api_call or mt/user-http-request which give clear error messages on schema violations.