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Quickstart

fal is the easiest way to run Python with your dbt project.

The fal ecosystem has two main components: The fal CLI and the dbt-fal adapter.

With the dbt-fal Python adapter, you can:​

  • Enable a developer-friendly Python environment for most databases, including ones without dbt Python support such as Redshift, Postgres.
  • Use Python libraries such as sklearn or prophet to build more complex dbt models including ML models.
  • Easily manage your Python environments with isolate.
  • Iterate on your Python models locally and then scale them out in the cloud.

Go to the dbt-fal documentation for more details!

With the fal CLI, you can:​

  • Send Slack notifications upon dbt model success or failure.
  • Load data from external data sources before a model starts running.
  • Download dbt models into a Python context with a familiar syntax: ref('my_dbt_model')
  • Programatically access rich metadata about your dbt project using FalDbt.

Go to the fal CLI documentation for more details!

1. Install fal and dbt-fal​

$ pip install fal dbt-fal[postgres]

2. Go to your dbt directory​

$ cd ~/src/my_dbt_project

3. Create a Python script: send_slack_message.py​

import os
from slack_sdk import WebClient
from slack_sdk.errors import SlackApiError

CHANNEL_ID = os.getenv("SLACK_CHANNEL")
SLACK_TOKEN = os.getenv("SLACK_BOT_TOKEN")

client = WebClient(token=SLACK_TOKEN)

message_text = f"Model: {context.current_model.name}. Status: {context.current_model.status}."

if str(context.current_model.status) == 'success':
  # Read model as pandas.DataFrame
  df = ref(context.current_model.name)
  message_text += f" Size: {df.size}."

try:
    response = client.chat_postMessage(
        channel=CHANNEL_ID,
        text=message_text
    )
except SlackApiError as e:
    assert e.response["error"]

As you can see from the context object, fal makes certain variables (and functions) avaliable in this script. Check out the fal scripts section for more details

4. Add a meta section in your schema.yml​

models:
  - name: some_model
    meta:
      fal:
        scripts:
          - send_slack_message.py

5. Run fal flow run​

This command manages your dbt runs for you, by running scripts and models in the correct order.

$ fal flow run
# 1. dbt model `some_model` is run
# 2. slack message is sent with the run result