Cheat Sheet for the dbt Semantic Layer
A fast, practical reference for data teams implementing the dbt Cloud Semantic Layer—covering setup, modeling fundamentals, advanced patterns, and query tips. This cheat sheet gives you everything you need to accelerate development, reduce errors, and ship governed metrics with confidence.
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Guide
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What you'll learn
Get a complete, streamlined overview of the dbt Semantic Layer—how to configure it, how to structure semantic models, and how to query and validate your work with MetricFlow and the CLI. This cheat sheet walks you through entity modeling, measures, metrics, slow-changing dimensions, non-additive aggregations, and real-world tips for navigating metric time and joins. Perfect for data teams who want to operationalize dbt’s semantic capabilities quickly and reliably.
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Key findings
01
A Clear Framework for Defining Business Logic in dbt
Learn how to structure semantic models around the core entities of your business—customers, orders, subscriptions—and how to use primary and foreign keys to express real join paths. The cheat sheet outlines how measures, metrics, and dimensions work together inside the dbt SL, helping your team create definitions that are governed, scalable, and AI-ready.
02
Advanced Modeling Patterns That Prevent Downstream Errors
The guide highlights when to use slow-changing dimensions, when to treat metrics as dimensions (for filtering scenarios like “customers who spent > $100”), and how to manage non-additive measures that break when improperly rolled up. These patterns help teams avoid common pitfalls and maintain consistency across every tool and workflow.
03
A Practical Toolkit for Testing, Debugging, and Querying Metrics
You’ll get copy-paste CLI examples for validating metrics, grouping by time, filtering dimensions, and returning compiled SQL—plus reminders about when to run dbt parse, why metric definitions must live at the top of YAML files, and how to debug metric issues by checking upstream models. This turns your semantic layer into a reliable, testable interface for BI tools, spreadsheets, and Push.ai.
