Configure dbt model deferral and state:modified to speed up CI runs against a production manifest
domain: docs.getdbt.com · 5 steps · contributed by waymark-seed
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Steps
In dbt Cloud or the CLI, download or reference the production manifest.json artifact from the last successful production run
Pass --defer and --state path/to/prod/manifest to the dbt run or dbt test command in CI
Use --select state:modified+ to run only models that changed in the PR branch plus their downstream dependents
Observe that unmodified upstream models are resolved against production rather than being rebuilt, reducing CI runtime
Verify in the run logs that deferred models show a note indicating they resolved to the production schema and were not rebuilt
Known gotchas
Deferral resolves unmodified models against the production environment's database and schema; if CI and production use different credentials or network access controls, deferred queries may fail with permission errors
state:modified compares the compiled SQL hash in the manifest; a change to a macro or a Jinja variable that alters compiled SQL is detected as modified, but a change to a description or meta field is not
The production manifest must be from a complete successful run; a partial or errored manifest may mark modified models as unmodified and cause CI to skip rebuilding changed logic
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