Manifest destiny: Orchestrating dbt using Airflow

Presented by Jonathan Talmi at Airflow Summit 2023.

Airflow is a popular choice for organizations looking to integrate open-source dbt within their existing data infrastructure. This talk will explore two primary methods of running dbt in Airflow: job-level and model-level. We’ll discuss the tradeoffs associated with each approach, highlighting the simplicity and efficiency of job-level orchestration, contrasted with the enhanced observability and control provided by model-level orchestration. We’ll also explain how the balance has shifted in recent years, with improvements to dbt core making model-level more efficient and innovative Airflow extensions like Cosmos making it easier to implement.