dbt — what it actually does

dbt (data build tool) lets you write SQL transformations as files in a Git repository. You define models — SELECT statements that produce tables or views — and dbt runs them in the right order based on dependencies between them.

The value is not magic. It is bringing software engineering practices to SQL: version control, code review, testing, and documentation. Over 30,000 companies use dbt because it turns ad-hoc SQL scripts into a maintainable codebase.