About selected_resources context variable

The selected_resources context variable contains a list of all the nodes selected by the current dbt command.

Currently, this variable is not accessible when using the command run-operation.

Warning!

dbt actively builds the graph during the parsing phase of running dbt projects, so the selected_resources context variable will be empty during parsing. Please read the information on this page to effectively use this variable.

Usage

The selected_resources context variable is a list of all the resources selected by the current dbt command selector. Its value depends on the usage of parameters like --select, --exclude and --selector.

For a given run it will look like:

["model.my_project.model1", "model.my_project.model2", "snapshot.my_project.my_snapshot"]

Each value corresponds to a key in the nodes object within the graph context variable.

It can be used in macros in a pre-hook, post-hook, on-run-start or on-run-end to evaluate what nodes are selected and trigger different logic whether a particular node is selected or not.

check-node-selected.sql

/*
  Check if a given model is selected and trigger a different action, depending on the result
*/

{% if execute %}
  {% if 'model.my_project.model1' in selected_resources %}
  
    {% do log("model1 is included based on the current selection", info=true) %}
  
  {% else %}

    {% do log("model1 is not included based on the current selection", info=true) %}

  {% endif %}
{% endif %}

/*
  Example output when running the code in on-run-start 
  when doing `dbt build`, including all nodels
---------------------------------------------------------------
  model1 is included based on the current selection


  Example output when running the code in on-run-start 
  when doing `dbt run --select model2` 
---------------------------------------------------------------
  model1 is not included based on the current selection
*/

Usage​

Usage