Selection

The sqb dbt commands use --select and --exclude to scope what runs. Selectors work across both dbt and SQLBuild, with the system determining which side owns each selector and how to route work.

SQLBuild-recognized selectors

These selectors match SQLBuild models directly:

Selector	Example	Behavior
Model name	fact_orders	Selects that SQLBuild model. Auto-includes its immediate dbt upstream dependencies.
Leading +	+fact_orders	Selects the model plus walks upstream through both SQLBuild and dbt models.
Trailing +	fact_orders+	Selects the model plus all downstream SQLBuild models.
Both +	+fact_orders+	Full upstream (including dbt) and downstream expansion.
Tag	tag:nightly	Selects all SQLBuild models with that tag. Auto-includes dbt dependencies.
Tag with +	+tag:nightly	Tag match plus upstream expansion through the combined graph.
Path	path:models/marts	Selects SQLBuild models under that project-relative directory - the same syntax as dbt’s path: selector.
Path with +	+path:models/marts	Path match plus upstream/downstream expansion.

When a SQLBuild model is selected, its immediate dbt upstream dependencies are always included so dbt can build the tables that SQLBuild models read from.

dbt-only selectors

Selectors that SQLBuild does not recognize (like state:modified, package:stripe, source:stripe.charges) are passed to dbt ls to resolve:

Selector	Example	Behavior
Without +	state:modified	dbt-only work. No SQLBuild models selected.
With trailing +	state:modified+	SQLBuild runs dbt ls to find which dbt models match, then walks downstream into SQLBuild territory.
With both +	+state:modified+	Same downstream expansion, plus upstream dbt expansion.

This means you can use dbt-native selectors like state:modified+ to trigger rebuilds of SQLBuild models that depend on changed dbt models. If dbt ls returns no matching models, no SQLBuild work is triggered.

Exclude

--exclude removes matching SQLBuild models from the final selection:

sqb dbt build --select fact_orders+ --exclude tag:nightly

Examples

# Build a specific SQLBuild model and its dbt dependencies
sqb dbt build --select downstream_orders

# Build everything downstream of a SQLBuild model
sqb dbt build --select downstream_orders+

# Build a SQLBuild model with full upstream dbt chain
sqb dbt build --select +downstream_orders

# Build SQLBuild models downstream of modified dbt models
sqb dbt build --select state:modified+

# Build all SQLBuild models tagged "nightly" with their dbt dependencies
sqb dbt build --select tag:nightly

# Build SQLBuild models under a path
sqb dbt build --select path:models/marts

Execution order

For sqb dbt run and sqb dbt build:

1. dbt runs - a single dbt run/build command executes with the user’s selectors merged with any additional dbt models required by selected SQLBuild models
2. SQLBuild runs - selected SQLBuild models execute against the now-built dbt tables