What's new in dbt Cloud - January 2025

Hello and happy new year! We’re only a few weeks in, and already we can tell 2025 is gonna be a good one. Many exciting new features to share, and the big news of our acquisition of SDF Labs! Looking forward to keeping the good times rolling with our upcoming dbt Cloud Launch Showcase event—register here—that’s coming to an internet browser near you on March 19.

For now, keep reading to learn what’s new in dbt Cloud (and you can catch up on our last "What’s New" post from November here). 👇

A new standard for SQL comprehension with SDF

In case you missed it, we recently announced that we have acquired SDF Labs! This is a monumental step forward not just for dbt, but for the analytics industry. SDF will bring SQL comprehension to the dbt engine to supercharge the developer experience: 100x faster performance, the ability to validate code in dev to boost data quality and optimize compute costs, and rich metadata to improve lineage and enable nuanced governance use cases. Definitely be sure to sign up for our upcoming webinar hosted by dbt Labs CEO Tristan Handy and SDF’s CEO to hear their perspective on the bright future ahead for dbt and our users.

dbt Copilot

🔑 Azure OpenAI bring your own key (BYOK): Enterprises can now use their Azure-hosted OpenAI API keys with dbt Copilot, providing full control over LLM usage, costs, and compliance. This allows data teams to leverage dbt Copilot AI capabilities like automated documentation and SQL generation securely within their Azure environment, combining the productivity of AI with enterprise-grade security and governance—perfect for organizations with strict data requirements. Read the docs to learn more, and reach out to your sales rep if you’re interested in getting involved in the ongoing dbt Copilot beta.

dbt Semantic Layer

📊 Sigma integration: Business users can now query metrics defined in the dbt Semantic Layer directly within Sigma's analytics platform (in Preview), ensuring consistent metric definitions across the organization. Check out Sigma’s docs for details on how to configure the integration, or watch the demo video below.

📝 Alias argument in the dbt Semantic Layer query API: The dbt Semantic Layer query API now includes an alias argument, allowing you to rename metric column names directly in your query results. This feature simplifies downstream integration by aligning column names with your team’s naming conventions or tool-specific requirements, improving consistency and clarity in reporting workflows. To see how to use the alias argument in your queries, check out the JDBC API docs and the GraphQL docs.

👥 New grouping options via the query_with_all_group_bys API endpoint: The new query_with_all_group_bys endpoint simplifies analysis by returning all valid dimensions for a given set of metrics. This helps data teams quickly identify grouping options for downstream tools to streamline data exploration. Check out examples of how to use this endpoint in our documentation.

📖 MetricFlow now compiles SQL using CTEs: SQL generated by MetricFlow now uses Common Table Expressions (CTEs), improving performance for multi-metric queries and making the SQL easier to read. You can use the compile flag on a query request to inspect the updated SQL structure. Read more in our documentation.

Deploy

🪄 Customize compare runs: Users can now change the default state:modified into whatever they want as they compare changes with Advanced CI. This enables you to tailor how comparisons are run, with the ability to exclude certain models or tags or run further downstream each time. Read more about dbt compare custom commands.

🖇️ Group by PR: The CI interface has been updated to include a new ‘Group by PR’ tab that shows each PR with its name and status, ensuring that users merge the correct changes into production.

🧺 SQL linting in CI jobs: You can now enable SQL linting in your CI jobs, using SQLFluff, to automatically lint all of the modified SQL files in your project as a run step before your CI job builds. This feature is now GA for dbt Cloud Team or Enterprise accounts who are running on release tracks. Refer to the documentation for more information.

📸 Snapshots improvements: A series of snapshots improvements just landed for customers running on release tracks:

• The dbt_valid_to_current config lets you set a custom indicator for the value of dbt_valid_to in current snapshot records (like a future date). This makes it easier to assign a custom date, work in a join, or perform range-based filtering that requires an end date.
• The hard_deletes config and new_record method let you track deleted records by inserting a new row for the deleted state with a dbt_is_deleted flag.

🗓️ Orchestration for Tableau auto-exposures: Last year, we launched auto-exposures for Tableau, giving users the ability to automatically populate and visualize downstream Tableau exposures directly in dbt Explorer. Now, you can take it one step further by configuring dbt to automatically orchestrate your pipeline and refresh those same Tableau dashboards when new data is available upstream, simply as part of running dbt. Reach out to your account team today to join the private beta.

Observe

🤳 Model notifications: Now GA, model owners can receive email alerts on job status (success, warnings, fail) in real-time—as the job is running—so they’re always first to know of any issues and can keep pipelines humming. Read the docs to learn more.

Platform

☁️ Support for Azure deployments: Now in GA for both America and European regions, dbt Cloud multi-tenant can be deployed natively on Microsoft Azure and procured directly in the Azure Marketplace! This is in addition to the existing support for AWS deployments, bringing the same powerful dbt Cloud experience to even more data teams—regardless of your choice of cloud. Available for dbt Cloud Enterprise customers, read the docs to learn more.

📀 Release tracks: Say goodbye to manual dbt version upgrades for good. With release tracks, you have an automated and flexible way to manage your dbt version upgrades across your dbt Cloud environments. With three flexible options, you can ensure that you’re always enjoying the latest (or very recent) capabilities without any added maintenance overhead. Read the blog post to learn more.

🌑 Dark mode: You asked, we listened! Dark mode is now available in Preview for Developer accounts (with access for Team and Enterprise plans rolling out over the coming weeks). Just jump to your profile settings and toggle the theme to “Dark” or you can configure the setting directly in the IDE. Read the docs to learn more.

🏠 New account homepage: The new account homepage gives you quick insights on data delivery, project performance, and more. You can easily “favorite” your projects to navigate to them with ease, and get a birds’-eye view of data quality by sorting your projects by test or documentation coverage. Check it out and customize your account homepage today.

Onto the next one

Hitting “post” on these "What’s New" blogs is so rewarding because we absolutely love to see your responses and feedback to new features. Keep them coming! And be sure to sign up for next week’s webinar where we’ll dive deep into all things SDF + dbt and answer any questions you may have about the upcoming integration. See you there!