Disable DBT models using code or config (not commands)

Hello I have the following DBT project directory structure:

my_dbt_project/ dbt_project.yml profiles.yml pyproject.toml requirements.txt <other config files here> models/ abc/ abc.yml abc.sql def/ def.yml def.sql ghi/ ghi.yml ghi.sql etc.

When I run dbt <cmd> --profiles-dir=. --select models/ where <cmd> is either compile, run or test, DBT runs the command on everything under models/.

In reality I have hundreds of "model subfolders" under models/ and I am trying to disable just one of them (say, def/) so that if I were to run, say, dbt run --profiles-dir=. --select models/, it would run all the model transforms except everything defined under models/def/*.

Because of factors outside the scope of this question, changing the DBT commands is not an option for me. I need a way to configure something in a project file or under the def/ directory (something in the code/configs) to tell DBT to skip over everything under def/ and completely ignore/disable it.

Based on what I've presented above, how can I disable DBT for this specific model?

1 Answer

You can use the enabled flag to disable models. In your example, you can add this to dbt_project.yml to disable all models in def folder:

models: def: +enabled: false

More details in the documentation: