sqb plan

Shows the execution plan without making any changes. Useful for inspecting change detection, backfill policies, and selector scope before building.

Usage

sqb --project-dir <path> plan [flags]

Flags

Flag	Description
--no-sql-analysis	Disable compile-time SQL analysis (--no-sql-validation is an alias)
--no-cache	Bypass the reusable compile-analysis cache for this invocation
--no-python	Exclude read-side Python tasks and assets from the plan
--defer-to	Resolve unselected model references against another target
--as	Compile for another target and show its plan, including model migration decisions, using the current connection. Inspection only.
--json	Output the plan as JSON
--full-refresh	Plan a full rebuild for selected models unless a model sets full_refresh false; full_refresh true forces a model without this flag
--start-cursor-ts	Override start cursor for timestamp incremental models (ISO format)
--end-cursor-ts	Override end cursor for timestamp incremental models (ISO format)
--start-cursor-int	Override start cursor for integer incremental models
--end-cursor-int	Override end cursor for integer incremental models
--select, -s	Select specific models
--exclude	Exclude specific models

Output

First run:

Plan ready (13 selected)

First run (12)
  stg_customers               view
  stg_payments                view
  stg_orders                  view
  daily_order_partitioned     partition_tracked (custom)
  daily_revenue               table
  dim_customers               table
  fact_orders                 table
  customer_status_snapshot    merge (timestamp)
  hourly_order_activity       delete_insert (timestamp, microbatch)
  daily_activity_rollup       delete_insert (timestamp, microbatch)
  hourly_activity_with_daily_context delete_insert (timestamp, microbatch)
  order_status_index          delete_insert (integer)

Seeds (1)
  waffle_types

Steady state:

Plan ready (13 selected)

Normal (12)
    3 view
    3 table
    3 delete_insert (timestamp, microbatch)
    1 partition_tracked (custom)
    1 merge (timestamp)
    1 delete_insert (integer)

Seeds (1)
  waffle_types

When query or schema changes are detected, the plan shows the affected models with backfill actions and cascade information.

Missing upstream dependencies

Planning a scoped selection whose upstream inputs were never built in the target fails with S301 rather than producing a plan that would break at build time:

error[S301]: cannot build selected scope: 3 missing upstream dependencies (stg_orders, stg_payments, waffle_types)

Build the upstream chain first, or select it along with the model: sqb build --select +fact_orders.