// the find
dbt-labs/dbt-charts
Declarative YAML around SQL for dbt-native dashboards: easy for agents to write, easy for humans to audit.
dbt Charts turns YAML board files into dashboards. Each chart's query is plain SQL, and the layout, styling and variables are declared in YAML. The `dct` CLI validates boards without a warehouse, renders them to HTML, PDF, PNG or SVG, and serves a live preview. It is aimed at analytics engineers who keep their models in a repo and want dashboards reviewed in the same pull requests.
The validator is the strongest part. It runs with no warehouse, and each error carries a code, a file and line, a suggested fix and a pointer into the built-in docs, which suits an agent that cannot see rendered output. `dct impact <column>` shows which boards break before a rename ships. Rendering goes through Vega-Lite via vl-convert, so HTML, PDF and PNG output is produced locally rather than by a hosted service.
It is pre-1.0, and the README says the YAML syntax will change before 1.0. Older boards are migrated in memory and `dct migrate` rewrites files, so the churn is handled, but anything written now will likely be rewritten at least once. Development happens in a private upstream, and this repo is a read-only mirror that closes pull requests, so the issue tracker is the only way to influence it. The playground, collaboration features and hosted boards all point at dbtcharts.com, so check which parts work from the CLI alone before committing to it.