dbt Flow Lineage

Animated column-level lineage visualization for dbt projects.

See exactly how each column flows through your dbt models — from source to final table — with color-coded animated paths that show passthrough, renames, transforms, and aggregations.

Features

Column-Level Lineage

Every column gets its own traced path showing where it comes from and where it goes. Click any column to highlight its full upstream and downstream journey.

Animated Data Flow

Glowing particles flow along column edges, visualizing data propagation through your models in real time.

Transformation Classification

Each column edge is color-coded by how the data changes:

Model-Focused View

Right-click any .sql file or click a model in the sidebar to see only that model's lineage. Filter by Upstream, Downstream, or Both.

Draggable Nodes

Drag model boxes to rearrange the graph layout. Edges and animations follow automatically.

Native IDE Integration

• Activity Bar icon with model/column tree sidebar
• CodeLens annotations above SELECT statements
• Right-click context menu on .sql files
• Status bar showing model count
• Keyboard shortcuts: +/- zoom, Esc clear, 0 fit-to-view
• Colored startup banner in the Terminal panel

Requirements

What you need

1. A dbt project with models
2. Columns defined in schema.yml — this is the only requirement. Every column you want to track must be listed:

models:
  - name: dim_artists
    columns:
      - name: artist_id
      - name: artist_name
      - name: total_streams
      # ... all columns you want to trace

3. Run dbt compile (or dbt docs generate) to create manifest.json

What works automatically

• SELECT * in CTEs and final selects
• Complex CTEs with multiple joins
• Jinja templates ({{ ref() }}, {{ source() }})
• Nested functions like round(sum(x) / 3600.0, 2)
• Any SQL dialect supported by dbt

Extension Settings

Commands

Keyboard Shortcuts

Compatibility

Works on:

• VS Code 1.85+
• Cursor
• Windsurf
• VSCodium
• Any VS Code fork

License

MIT