dbt testing & code quality · dbt Labs (open source project)

dbt_project_evaluator

Official dbt Labs package that audits a dbt project's modeling, testing, documentation and structure against best practices.

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dbt_project_evaluator is a dbt package, published and maintained by dbt Labs, that installs directly inside a dbt project and runs as a set of dbt models rather than as an external service. It checks a project against dbt Labs' own recommended best practices across five areas: modeling (fanned-out joins, model layering), testing (coverage gaps), documentation (missing descriptions), structure (naming and folder conventions) and performance, materialising the findings as warehouse tables a team can query or dashboard. It is effectively a linter for project architecture rather than for SQL syntax, complementing tools like SQLFluff and dbt-checkpoint, and it powers the recommendations that appear automatically in dbt Explorer for teams on dbt Cloud. Being a dbt package, it requires a live warehouse connection and runs in CI or during development; it is free and Apache-2.0 licensed.

At a glance

Vendor dbt Labs (open source project)
Pricing model Open source + paid options
Free tier Yes
Deployment Self-hosted
Open source Yes (Apache-2.0)
Best for Analytics engineering teams wanting an automated, warehouse-native audit of dbt project architecture and best-practice compliance.

Pricing

Free, open-source dbt package; no paid tiers.

Pricing has not been verified yet — see the vendor's site.

Features

  • Automated checks across modeling, testing, documentation and structure
  • Materialises findings as queryable warehouse tables
  • Governance rule checks for dbt 1.5+ model contracts and access
  • Powers dbt Explorer's built-in recommendations on dbt Cloud
  • Runs in CI or ad hoc during development
  • Configurable rule thresholds per project

Integrations

Profile last reviewed September 21, 2026

Alternatives

SQLFluff Open-source SQL linter and auto-formatter with a dedicated templater for dbt projects across multiple SQL dialects. dbt-checkpoint Open-source pre-commit hook library that enforces naming, documentation and testing standards on dbt models before they merge. Recce Open-source data-diffing agent that reviews the downstream impact of a dbt pull request before it merges.

dbt_project_evaluator in the index now

Terms to know

dbt (data build tool) An open-source tool from dbt Labs that lets analytics teams write data transformations as version-controlled, tested SQL. Data governance The policies, roles and processes that determine how data is defined, owned, accessed and kept compliant. Data modeling The practice of organizing data into entities, relationships and schemas that make it accurate and efficient to query. Analytics engineer A role that builds and maintains the transformed, tested data models analysts and dashboards rely on.

Related guides

How to choose a dbt testing and code quality tool Work out which layer you are missing — SQL style, project governance, data-impact review, or a whole dev environment — before comparing products.