rules.md

Rules reference

Use dbt-lint rule --all for full details including rationale and remediation guidance.

Modeling

Rule	Description
modeling/direct-join-to-source	Models referencing both source and model parents
modeling/downstream-depends-on-source	Intermediate/marts models depending directly on sources
modeling/staging-depends-on-staging	Staging models depending on other staging models
modeling/staging-depends-on-downstream	Staging models depending on intermediate/marts
modeling/mart-depends-on-mart	Mart models depending on other mart models
modeling/root-models	Models with zero parents
modeling/hard-coded-references	Hard-coded table references in SQL
modeling/duplicate-sources	Multiple source entries for the same table
modeling/unused-sources	Sources with no downstream consumers
modeling/multiple-sources-joined	Models joining more than one source directly
modeling/source-fanout	Sources with multiple direct child models
modeling/model-fanout	Models exceeding the fanout threshold
modeling/too-many-joins	Models with too many direct parents
modeling/staging-model-too-many-parents	Staging models with more than one parent
modeling/intermediate-fanout	Intermediate models with too many direct dependents
modeling/rejoining-upstream-concepts	Models that rejoin a previously consumed concept
modeling/duplicate-mart-concepts	Same entity modeled in multiple mart subdirectories

Testing

Rule	Description
testing/missing-primary-key-tests	Models without primary key uniqueness/not-null tests
testing/missing-relationship-tests	Models with model parents but no relationship tests
testing/untested-models	Models with no generic tests
testing/sources-without-freshness	Sources without freshness checks
testing/test-coverage	Test coverage below target by model type

Documentation

Rule	Description
documentation/undocumented-models	Models without a description
documentation/undocumented-sources	Sources without a source-level description
documentation/undocumented-source-tables	Source tables without a table-level description
documentation/documentation-coverage	Documentation coverage below target by model type
documentation/column-documentation-coverage	Column documentation coverage below target (disabled by default)

Structure

Rule	Description
structure/model-name-format	Model name is not valid snake_case
structure/model-naming-conventions	Model name doesn't match prefix for its type
structure/column-naming-conventions	Column name violates naming conventions (disabled by default)
structure/model-directories	Model not in expected directory for its type
structure/source-directories	Source YAML not in staging directory
structure/test-directories	Test YAML in different directory than model
structure/staging-naming-convention	Staging model doesn't follow stg_<source>__<entity> pattern
structure/yaml-file-naming	YAML schema file doesn't follow _<dir>__<type>.yml convention
structure/staging-materialization	Staging model with disallowed materialization
structure/intermediate-materialization	Intermediate model with disallowed materialization
structure/marts-materialization	Marts model with disallowed materialization

Performance

Rule	Description
performance/chained-views	View chains exceeding depth threshold
performance/exposure-parent-materializations	Exposures with view/ephemeral/source parents
performance/incremental-missing-unique-key	Incremental model without unique_key config

Governance

Rule	Description
governance/public-models-without-contract	Public models without contract enforcement
governance/undocumented-public-models	Public models missing description or column docs
governance/intermediate-public-access	Intermediate models with public access
governance/exposures-depend-on-private-models	Exposures depending on non-public models