Hot to set dbt variables consistently?

[pSpitzner]

Hi all,

I am currently working on a project where it is crucial to separate code from config.
Therefore, I need to split out the variables section of the dbt_project.yml.

The idea is to pass the variables manually to any dbt invocation (since dbt does not allow reading a separate config file).
This works well via the --vars option from the command line. I can simply read a custom json string from file and pass it.

However, in dbt power user, I have not found a consistent way to set this up.
Things I tried:

setting the argument in the .code-workspace

"settings": {
        "dbt.runModelCommandAdditionalParams": ["--vars", "{foo: bar}", "--debug"],
        "dbt.buildModelCommandAdditionalParams": ["--vars", "{foo: bar}", "--debug"],
}

• Works when building or running the model via the toolbar buttons.
• Does not work for the compilation preview or querying SQL. I suppose that is because those UI Elements do not invoke dbt from the cli but the python api via the dbt runner
• Also, those settings do not respect environment variables or typical vs code workspace syntax like ${env:MYVARS}. Thus, they cannot be populated dynamically, but would need to be hardcoded in the workspace file.
• see older discussion: How to use command line variable with dbt power user? #439

using DBT_VARS environment variable

• This seems to be undocumented, but here is the relevant code in the plugin init.
• Only works in compile + query (i.e. dbtRunner) but not for running + building.
• Again, setting something like "dbt.runModelCommandAdditionalParams": ["--vars", "{env:DBT_VARS}"] in workspace settings is not respected.
• Not supported by vanilla dbt.

Customizing the dbt runner

• possible via workspace setting
• not actually tried this, but from above I conclude that this would only work for compile previews and queries.

TLDR:

Did I overlook a central place the set dbt variables so they take effect throughout the plugin?
-> Having to set them in various places seems cumbersome, unportable, and prone to break.
Worth a PR?

Cheers,
Paul