dbt Semantic Designer

Visualize and design FK (foreign key) relationships between dbt models within curated business domains.

Features

• Visual Domain Diagrams — See your dbt models and their relationships in an interactive graph
• Design Mode — Plan new models, columns, and relationships before building them
• Built vs Design States — Built models (from manifest) shown in blue, design models in orange
• Relationship Cardinality — Visualize 1:1, 1:N, and N:M relationships with crow's foot notation
• Layer Organization — Organize models by medallion layers (bronze, silver, gold, platinum)
• Auto-Reconciliation — Automatically detect when design models are built and update their status

Getting Started

1. Open a dbt project in VS Code
2. Click the Semantic Domains icon in the Activity Bar
3. Click Get Started to create your first domain
4. Add models from your manifest or design new ones

Requirements

• A valid dbt project with dbt_project.yml
• Run dbt compile or dbt build to generate manifest.json for built model detection

Usage

Creating a Domain

1. Open the command palette (Cmd+Shift+P / Ctrl+Shift+P)
2. Run dbt: Create Semantic Domain
3. Enter a domain name and select a layer

Adding Models

• From Manifest: Right-click in the diagram → Add Built Model
• Design New: Right-click in the diagram → Add Design Model

Creating Relationships

1. Click and drag from a column handle on one model
2. Drop onto a column handle on another model
3. Configure the relationship cardinality

Extension Settings

• dbtSemantic.projectPath: Path to dbt project root (auto-detected)
• dbtSemantic.semanticDir: Relative path to semantic domain files (default: models/semantic)
• dbtSemantic.autoReconcile: Auto-transition design models to built when detected

License

MIT