sqb clone

Copies selected relations from one target to another. It uses adapter-native cloning where supported and physical copies where required; --hard-copy forces a physical copy on adapters that support both.

No manifest.json generation or artifact management is required. Clone works directly against live targets.

When --to is omitted, the destination is the active target selected by sqlbuild_local.toml or default_target, in that order.

--from selects only the origin namespace and its clone-origin policy. --to, or the active target when it is omitted, selects the sole physical connection used by the operation. The origin namespace must therefore be visible and readable through the destination connection. SQLBuild never resolves or opens the origin target’s connection, including for direct and deferred clone. Clone cannot perform a cross-account, cross-server, or cross-file transfer by opening a second connection.

Clone never runs SQL analysis: it reads relation names, dependencies, and rendered view and function SQL from each target’s project, so SQL analysis errors never stop it; structural errors, such as an unknown reference, still do. The hidden --no-sql-analysis flag (alias --no-sql-validation) is still accepted but has no effect.

With --debug, clone logs how long each phase took: compiling each target it reads, inspecting sources, planning, and execution. The --json-output document reports the same durations in seconds under phase_timings.

Usage

sqb --project-dir <path> clone --from <target> [--to <target>] [flags]

Flags

Flag	Description
--from	Source target (required)
--to	Destination target; defaults to the active target
--hard-copy	Force physical table copies instead of zero-copy cloning
--select, -s	Select specific models to clone
--exclude	Exclude specific models from cloning
--warehouse <name>	Snowflake warehouse for this invocation; overrides the target’s build warehouse group and the connection warehouse

Examples

# Clone all models from prod to dev
sqb clone --from prod --to dev

# Equivalent when dev is the active target
sqb clone --from prod

# Clone only marts to dev
sqb clone --from prod --to dev --select path:models/marts

# Force physical copies
sqb clone --from prod --to dev --hard-copy

Managed sources

Clone includes selected managed physical sources when the destination target reads its own loader namespace. Sources are copied before seeds and models so views can be recreated in a destination that has never been built.

Source locations respect target configuration:

• The origin relation comes from the target that the origin uses for managed source reads.
• The destination relation uses the destination target’s loader_schema, falling back to its model schema.
• If the destination defers source reads to another target, clone reuses that target’s source relation and does not copy or overwrite it.
• Expression sources and unmanaged external sources are not cloned.

--hard-copy controls how included relations are copied. It does not change which managed sources are selected.

Clone policies

Targets deny cloning by default. Enable the origin and destination explicitly in sqlbuild_project.toml:

[targets.prod.clone]
allow_as_clone_origin = true

[targets.dev.clone]
allow_as_clone_destination = true

The origin target must already contain the built relations being cloned. The destination connection’s credentials must be able to read the origin namespace and create relations in the destination. Managed physical sources may bootstrap a destination that has not been built. See Project Configuration for details.