dbt Charts: Building a Viz Language that’s Easy on the I’s - AI, BI, CI, and ODI
Introducing dbt Charts, an open-source visualization language from Dave Fowler and RJ Andrews for AI-generated, git-backed dashboards.
Overview
Dashboards typically lack version control despite it being standard elsewhere in the stack. Demonstrates moving dashboard definitions into version control alongside dbt models, using AI to generate dashboard files, CI for validation, and an open declarative language instead of proprietary tools.
What you'll take away
- 01
dbt Charts is a simple YAML syntax for dashboards, built around variables, queries, charts, and rows, that sits in a charts folder next to a dbt project's models so changes run through the same git tests and deploys.
- 02
Unlike an AI-vibe-coded dashboard that comes out differently every time, dbt Charts gives an analytics engineer a consistent, traceable path back to the underlying query.
- 03
The language is open source under Apache 2.0 and runs locally through a CLI, with a hosted product at dbtcharts.com layering on permissioning, sharing, and a conversational AI editing interface.
Session speakers
Dave Fowler
FivetranRJ Andrews
Fivetran