testing-a-datavault4dbt-project

# Testing a datavault4dbt project Turn the Primary-Key and Foreign-Key assumptions of Data Vault 2 into dbt tests. In DV2 these are **soft constraints** — implemented as dbt tests that warn (and let you investigate) rather than hard database constraints that would silently drop "bad and ugly" raw data you still want to capture. **Default to soft constraints (dbt tests).** Only use hard database constraints if you accept the risk of losing non-conforming raw data and have an Error Mart to catch it. ## Where these tests live Add `data_tests` in the model's YAML file (colocated with the `.sql`). Generic tests `unique` and `not_null` are built in; `relationships` covers FK integrity. For multi-column uniqueness (satellites) use `dbt_utils.unique_combination_of_columns` (add the `dbt_utils` package) or an equivalent. ## The technical test matrix | Entity | Column(s) | Test | |--------|-----------|------| | Hub | hashkey | `not_null`, `unique` | | Link | link hashkey | `not_null`, `unique` | | Link | each foreign hashkey | `relationships` to its connected hub's hashkey | | Satellite v0 | hashkey + load date | unique combination of columns | | Satellite v0 | hashkey | `relationships` to parent hub/link | | Non-historized link | link hashkey | `not_null`, `unique` | | Non-historized link | each foreign hashkey | `relationships` to connected hubs | | Non-historized satellite v0 | hashkey | `not_null`, `unique`, `relationships` to parent NH-link | | Multi-active satellite v0 | ha...