Code Style Guide

Data Models

We generally follow the dbt style guides for mart and field names, even in sqlmesh. We recommend reading through these official style guides first:

• dbt directory structure
• dbt models

Optionally, there is an excellent blog piece on best practices in naming for your stakeholders

In addition to the official guides, we follow these additional guidelines:

• Use consistent naming: Ensure consistent naming in all int tables. For example if we use artifact_namespace, do not rename this to source, network, domain, or chain somewhere else.

• Avoid complex marts: Push all complexity to intermediate tables. Marts should simply be a direct copy or less granular version of an intermediate table. View models are also a relatively cheap way to separate out complex CTEs.

• Enumerate all columns explicitly in models: concretely, this mean

  • Avoid using * statements in a mart model. This makes it easier to trace any changes through version control.
  • Avoid using positional arguments (i.e. GROUP BY 1, 2, 3). This can lead to easy bugs if columns get re-ordered
  • Avoid using acronyms or single-letter names. Prioritize easy-to-understand names over speed.