CLI overview

dbt Core ships with a command-line interface (CLI) for running your dbt project. The dbt CLI is free to use and available as an open source project.

When using the command line, you can run commands and do other work from the current or working directory on your computer. Before running the dbt project from the command line, make sure the working directory is your dbt project directory. For more details, see "Creating a dbt project."

Use `pwd` to ensure that your terminal's working directory is your dbt project.

Once you verify your dbt project is your working directory, you can execute dbt commands. A full list of dbt commands can be found in the reference section.

Pro tip: Using the --help flag

Most command-line tools, including dbt, have a --help flag that you can use to show available commands and arguments. For example, you can use the --help flag with dbt in two ways: • dbt --help: Lists the commands available for dbt • dbt run --help: Lists the flags available for the run command