dbt-edith

A small browser IDE for dbt projects: file tree, editor, terminal and lineage, read straight from target/manifest.json.

It is one Rust binary with its UI inside it: no runtime, no Node, no installer, nothing to set up on the machine that runs it. It was made for a locked-down Windows machine, and runs the same on macOS and Linux. The lineage is already in the manifest, so dbt-edith reads it once, keeps a compact graph in memory and draws the part around the model you are on. It never runs dbt itself: dbt runs in its terminal, when you run it.

cd /path/to/your-dbt-project
dbt-edith

What it does

• Lineage of the model you are editing, drawn from the manifest and following the editor, with a dot that says whether the manifest still matches your files.
• Custom selection: what any dbt selector or named selector matches, drawn on the canvas, and answered on the command line by --select without a server.
• Editor links: ref(), source(), macro calls and the folder keys of dbt_project.yml open what they name, and a hover card says what it is, the value of a var() or an env_var() included.
• Catalog: a node's columns, tests and incremental strategy, where it is built in each of your .env environments, and the compiled and run SQL dbt left for it.
• Column lineage, parsed from the compiled SQL by collin, or fetched from Snowflake on click, and answered on the command line by --column.
• Command line: a node's card, the project's shape, a selection or a column, answered without a server, for scripts and agents, and over MCP for an agent that asks it (optional; with a terminal prefer the skill).
• Jobs and Reports: which Airflow DAG or dbt Cloud job runs a model, which models no scheduled job runs, and what the last dbt command did.
• Terminal and Git: a real shell in your Python environment, and a Git tab that stages, commits, pulls, diffs and resolves conflicts, with no command that can destroy work.
• Snowflake, switched on per project: your query history, Snowsight links, and the statements that clone a model into your schema.

In the page, ? lists every shortcut, and Give me a tour at the top of that list walks through the page on one of your own models.

The Catalog: each column's type, description, tests and lineage	One column's lineage, from the seed to the marts, read by collin
The Jobs tab: which DAG and which job run the model	collin's report: what it read, and what to fix

Every picture is of dbt Labs' Jaffle Shop, with invented jobs.

Getting started

What you need

• A dbt project parsed at least once. dbt-edith reads target/manifest.json, which any dbt parse writes. A manifest from dbt-core 1.x and one from dbt Fusion 2 both load; Fusion is what it is used against day to day.
• Rust, on the machine that builds, from rustup.rs. The machine that runs it needs nothing.
• git on PATH, for the Git tab. On Windows, Git for Windows, or its PortableGit archive where nothing can be installed, also brings the Git Bash the terminal runs. Without git the rest still works.
• A browser.

Install it

git clone https://github.com/IL-William/dbt-edith.git
cd dbt-edith
cargo install --path . --locked

That builds it and puts dbt-edith in ~/.cargo/bin, which rustup already has on your PATH. The repository is public, so the clone needs no account and no key. There is no published download: building is how you get a binary. --locked builds the crate versions Cargo.lock names, the ones CI audits; without it, cargo picks the newest it may. cargo build --release --locked leaves the same binary at target/release/dbt-edith if you would rather not install it.

To update, run git fetch --tags --force origin and git merge --ff-only vX.Y.Z for the release you want (a plain git pull takes main, which may be past it), then the same cargo install again, then cargo clean --release in the clone, which empties the target/release folder the build leaves there. dbt-edith asks GitHub, through git, whether a newer release is out, every hour from midnight to 09:00 Paris time, and offers that command in the status bar when one is (for a release's own Windows .exe, a download of the next one). Check for updates, in the menu under Edith at the top left, asks at once (docs/features/updates.md).

On Windows

Running the .exe needs no administrator rights and nothing installed. There are three ways to get one, all in docs/windows.md:

• download dbt-edith.exe (or dbt-edith-arm64.exe for Windows on ARM) from the latest release and check it against the .sha256 beside it; Update then downloads the next one;
• cross-compile it on a Mac or Linux with ./scripts/build_windows.sh, copy it over, and check that certutil -hashfile dbt-edith.exe SHA256 gives the hash the script printed;
• or build it on the machine with cargo install --path . --locked, which needs a C toolchain there: Visual Studio Build Tools with administrator rights, or WinLibs from winget without.

Run it

cd /path/to/your-dbt-project
dbt-edith

With no argument it opens the current directory, the one holding dbt_project.yml; from anywhere else, pass that directory. It prints what it found, then opens a browser:

  reading /home/you/analytics/target/manifest.json
  2104 nodes in 180 ms  (412 models, 96 sources, 1508 tests)

  dbt-edith  1.0.0  (v1.0.0, built 2026-10-10)
  project   /home/you/analytics
  shell     /bin/zsh -l
  venv      dbt-env (activated, python 3.12.4)
  open      http://127.0.0.1:4321/?key=3f9c…
            the key in it is this launch's: a tab opened without it can read nothing

Those lines say which manifest, shell and Python environment were picked up, which is where most setup mistakes show first. The version carries the build it came from, from git describe in the clone it was built in, so two installs of one release are still told apart; the status bar shows it at the bottom right of the page, and dbt-edith --version prints it without starting anything.

Opening the link makes the page keep its key for that port and take it out of the address bar, so a reload or a new tab at the same address works. Every launch draws a new key: after a restart, open the new link (0052, 0122). Ctrl+C stops the server.

If something looks off

Symptom	Cause	Fix
dbt-edith: command not found once cargo install finishes	~/.cargo/bin is not on your PATH	add that directory to your PATH, then open a new terminal
empty lineage, and startup said no manifest at ...	dbt has not written one, or it is elsewhere	run dbt parse in the project, or pass --manifest path/to/manifest.json
startup said no dbt_project.yml in ...	pointed at the wrong folder	pass the directory holding dbt_project.yml
the terminal opens PowerShell on Windows	Git Bash was not found where it is usually installed	point at it: --shell '"C:\Program Files\Git\bin\bash.exe" -i', quotes included because of the space
the Git tab reports no repository	git is not on PATH, or the folder is not a clone	check git -C <project> status
column types are missing in the Catalog	no catalog.json	dbt Fusion: dbt compile --write-catalog; dbt-core: dbt docs generate
the URL says a port other than 4321	4321 was busy, so it walked forward to a free one	use the URL it printed, or pass --port
no browser opened	--no-open, or no default browser	open the printed URL by hand, key included
a red bar says no key for this server in this tab	the tab was not opened from the link this launch printed, or dbt-edith restarted since	open the link it printed; the browser keeps the key until it closes
a fix seems to have no effect after reinstalling	the running binary is an older build	compare dbt-edith --version with git describe --tags --always --dirty in the clone; on Windows, stop dbt-edith first, since the .exe cannot be replaced while it runs

Anything about Snowflake is in docs/features/snowflake.md.

Options

dbt-edith [PROJECT]                       dbt project root, default the current directory
         [-p, --port 4321]               tries up to 20 ports from there, then gives up
         [--manifest path/manifest.json] default <project>/target/manifest.json
         [--catalog path/catalog.json]   default <project>/target/catalog.json, beside the manifest for --run-collin, --describe, --overview and --columns
         [--column-lineage path.json]    default the tool last picked, else the newest cache
         [--shell "zsh -l"]              the terminal's shell, default $SHELL -l, Git Bash on Windows
         [--no-open]                     do not open a browser at startup
         [--no-update-check]             never look on GitHub for a newer release, hourly or on demand
         [-s, --select "line"]           print what the line selects and exit, without serving
         [--exclude "line"]              what --select leaves out
         [--selector name]               print what a named selector selects and exit
         [--count-by KEY]                with --select or --selector, count by kind, materialized, source, folder, tag or package instead of listing
         [--column model.column]         print one column's lineage from the cache and exit
         [--up N|all] [--down N|all]     how far --column walks, default 0
         [--stop-at window,aggregate]    roles --column does not walk past downstream
         [--indirect]                    --column crosses collin's indirect edges too, left out by default
         [--column-tool collin]          whose cache --column reads, default collin's or Fusion's newest
         [--run-collin]                  run collin over the manifest first, and answer --column from its cache
         [--compiled DIR]                the compiled SQL --run-collin reads, default compiled/ beside the manifest
         [--describe name[,name...]]     print a node's card as the Catalog shows it, or a macro's, and exit, without serving
         [--sql]                         --describe prints the node's own SQL file, or the macro's lines of its file, after its card
         [--columns]                     with --describe or --select, print only the columns: a line each for a selection
         [--compiled-sql]                --describe prints the SQL dbt compiled for the node, from the file under the target folder, after its card
         [--overview]                    print what the project holds, by kind, materialization and folder, and exit
         [--job name]                    print one DAG or dbt Cloud job, step by step, from .dbt-edith/jobs.yml and exit
         [--job-order]                   print the dbt dependencies between jobs' steps that no job file orders, from .dbt-edith/jobs.yml, and exit
         [--job-coverage]                print the models no scheduled job runs, and the steps that select nothing, from .dbt-edith/jobs.yml, and exit
         [--depth N]                     how many folder levels --overview lists or --count-by folder counts, default 3
         [--output name|json|compact]    what those modes print, default one name per line
         [--mcp]                         answer an MCP client over stdio, through one tool taking these flags, and exit when it closes
         [--skill [command|mcp]]         print the agent skill (a SKILL.md) matching this version, `mcp` for a client that defers MCP tools, and exit, with nothing beside it
         [-V, --version]                 print the version and the build it came from, and exit

A relative path in --manifest, --catalog, --column-lineage or --compiled is relative to where you run the command, not to the project. dbt-edith --help prints the same list.

Changing dbt-edith

AGENTS.md says how to build and check a change, and the rules that hold everywhere; ./scripts/check.sh runs every test (docs/testing.md). docs/decisions/ says why it is built the way it is, docs/state.md what is not built yet and in what order, and CHANGELOG.md what shipped in which version.

Security

The server listens on 127.0.0.1 only and answers its own page alone: a request whose Host or Origin names anything else is refused, and the API and the terminal want the key the launch printed. Nothing outside the project is read but the dbt profile and the job folders you name, and the profile's passwords, tokens and keys never reach the browser. SECURITY.md says what is and is not covered.

License

Functional Source License 1.1 with an MIT future license (FSL-1.1-MIT), see LICENSE. Copyright 2026 Datadorelix.

Use it free of charge for anything except a competing use: making dbt-edith available to others in a commercial product or service that substitutes for it or offers substantially the same features. Using it inside a company, and in professional services for a client, is allowed by name in the license. Two years after a version is published, that version is also available under MIT.

Bundled third-party libraries keep their own licenses, listed in THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md.