dbt Cloud: Create a project

Now that we've successfully run our sample query in BigQuery, and chosen the way we want to develop, we can create a dbt project! In this step, we'll create a starter project with example models, before we build our own models.

info

These are the instructions for developing a project in dbt Cloud. If you're using the dbt CLI, follow the instructions here

Create the starter project

1. Create a dbt Cloud account here. If your organization already has a dbt Cloud account, ask an admin to add you as a Developer.
2. If you created a new account, a new project should automatically be created. If you were added to an existing account:
   • Click the hamburger menu, then Account Settings, then Projects.
   • Name your project "dbt Tutorial", and click Save. There's no need to fill in the other details.
   • Click the hamburger menu, and then Home.
   • Switch the project in the header bar to your new "dbt Tutorial" project.
3. Complete the project setup flow:
   • Connect to BigQuery using the credentials file from the Setting Up instructions.
   • Add a repository — choose managed repository, and name it dbt-tutorial. If you're comfortable with git, you can also choose to link to an existing, but bare, repository.

dbt Cloud Project Setup flow

4. Go to the Develop interface by either:

   • Selecting Start Developing, or
   • Selecting the hamburger menu, and then Develop.

5. Select Initialize a project to create your project. You should see a directory structure with .sql and .yml files that were generated by the init command.

   

   The starter project in dbt Cloud

6. Update the following values in the dbt_project.yml file:

dbt_project.yml

name: jaffle_shop # this normally says my_new_package

...

models:
  jaffle_shop: #this normally says my_new_package. It should match the value for `name:`
    ...

Perform your first dbt run

Our sample project has some example models in it. We're going to check that we can run them to confirm everything is in order. In the terminal bar at the bottom of the screen, type in dbt run and hit enter.

A successful run of the starter project in dbt Cloud

Commit your changes

We need to commit our changes so that our repository has up-to-date code. Click the commit button, with a message like "Create a starter project"

Commit your changes