# dbt-external-tables with Snowflake S3 stage - what will it do?

**URL:** <https://discourse.getdbt.com/t/dbt-external-tables-with-snowflake-s3-stage-what-will-it-do/19871>\
**Category:** Help\
**Tags:** external-tables\
**Created:** [July 16, 2025, 2:51pm UTC](https://discourse.getdbt.com/t/dbt-external-tables-with-snowflake-s3-stage-what-will-it-do/19871 "2025-07-16T14:51:49Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![anentropic](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/discourse.getdbt.com/anentropic/32/5764_2.png) [@anentropic](https://discourse.getdbt.com/u/anentropic)\
**Post date:** [July 16, 2025, 2:51pm UTC](https://discourse.getdbt.com/t/dbt-external-tables-with-snowflake-s3-stage-what-will-it-do/19871/1 "2025-07-16T14:51:49Z")

</div>

> **[GitHub - dbt-labs/dbt-external-tables: dbt macros to stage external sources](https://github.com/dbt-labs/dbt-external-tables)**
>
> dbt macros to stage external sources

## The problem I’m having

I’m looking for more detail of what this package actually does, specifically if I just define an external stage as a source.

Let’s say I define this source:

```yaml
      - name: people_csv_unpartitioned
        external: &csv-people
          location: '@{{ target.schema }}.dbt_external_tables_testing/csv'
          file_format: '( type = csv skip_header = 1 )'
        columns: &cols-of-the-people
          - name: id
            data_type: int
          - name: first_name
            data_type: varchar(64)
          - name: last_name
            data_type: varchar(64)
          - name: email
            data_type: varchar(64)
        tests: &equal-to-the-people
          - dbt_utils.equality:
              compare_model: ref('people')
              compare_columns:
                - id
                - first_name
                - last_name
                - email

```

The readme says:

> This package provides:
> 
> - Macros to create/replace external tables and refresh their partitions, using the metadata provided in your `.yml` file source definitions
> - Snowflake-specific macros to create, backfill, and refresh snowpipes, using the same metadata

So I think this means that the package will do nothing, unless I also want to set up external tables or snowpipes derived from the stage. Which is fine. And if I did want those then the package provides helpers to make that happen?

I just want to understand if say I just want to define a model that reads directly from the stage then I don’t need this package at all? Or if I did add it and specify some stage properties, without using the table/snowpipe macros, then it wouldn’t mess with the stage at all?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![a\_slack\_user](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/discourse.getdbt.com/a_slack_user/32/1629_2.png) [@a\_slack\_user](https://discourse.getdbt.com/u/a_slack_user)\
**Post date:** [July 18, 2025, 5:04pm UTC](https://discourse.getdbt.com/t/dbt-external-tables-with-snowflake-s3-stage-what-will-it-do/19871/2 "2025-07-18T17:04:30Z")

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Because you have to execute the `stage_external_sources` macro to get any actual work done with the package, you are correct in it not doing anything when you define external tables in your yamls.

If you just want to query the stage directly:  
• You don’t need this package at all  
• You can define a model like `select * from '@{{ target.schema }}.dbt_external_tables_testing/csv'`  
• The external properties in your source definition are just metadata  
If you add the package but don’t run macros:  
• The package won’t touch your stage at all  
• The stage\_external\_sources macro only processes source nodes with external properties when run  
• Your stage remains untouched until you run dbt run-operation stage\_external\_sources

Note: `@Abigail Green (CHG Healthcare)` originally [posted this reply in Slack](https://getdbt.slack.com/archives/CBSQTAPLG/p1752858251623519?thread_ts=1752677535.107909&cid=CBSQTAPLG). It might not have transferred perfectly.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![anentropic](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/discourse.getdbt.com/anentropic/32/5764_2.png) [@anentropic](https://discourse.getdbt.com/u/anentropic)\
**Post date:** [July 18, 2025, 7:11pm UTC](https://discourse.getdbt.com/t/dbt-external-tables-with-snowflake-s3-stage-what-will-it-do/19871/3 "2025-07-18T19:11:01Z")

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Thanks that is helpful to know

Finally… am I right in understanding I can define sources like:

```yaml
version: 2
sources:
  - name: raw_data
    tables:
      - name: '@my_stage'

```

and use them from models via

```sql
select * from {{ source('raw_data', '@my_stage') }}/csv

```

?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![a\_slack\_user](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/discourse.getdbt.com/a_slack_user/32/1629_2.png) [@a\_slack\_user](https://discourse.getdbt.com/u/a_slack_user)\
**Post date:** [July 18, 2025, 7:20pm UTC](https://discourse.getdbt.com/t/dbt-external-tables-with-snowflake-s3-stage-what-will-it-do/19871/4 "2025-07-18T19:20:15Z")

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I think that pattern resolves to something like this so it won’t work: `"database"."schema"."@my_stage"/csv`

If you want to define a proper source for it, I believe it should look like this. There’s a\<[https://github.com/dbt-labs/dbt-external-tables/blob/main/sample\_sources/snowflake.yml|](https://github.com/dbt-labs/dbt-external-tables/blob/main/sample_sources/snowflake.yml%7C) sample yaml \>file in the github. But you’ll also need to run the macro as mentioned above.

````auto
sources:
  - name: raw_data
    tables:
      - name: people_data
        external:
          location: '@my_stage/csv'
          file_format: '(type = csv skip_header = 1)'
        columns:
          - name: id
            data_type: int```
If you want to reference the external table directly, you can do a direct reference to it in sql and not worry about the DBT syntax.
```-- models/staging/stg_my_data.sql
SELECT * FROM @my_stage/csv```
This <https://stackoverflow.com/questions/76155101/dbt-snowflake-reference-internal-stage-as-source|stackoverflow discussion> might also be viable. It's a bit different.

<sub>Note: `@Abigail Green (CHG Healthcare)` originally [posted this reply in Slack](https://getdbt.slack.com/archives/CBSQTAPLG/p1752866403499239?thread_ts=1752677535.107909&cid=CBSQTAPLG). It might not have transferred perfectly.</sub>
````

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![anentropic](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/discourse.getdbt.com/anentropic/32/5764_2.png) [@anentropic](https://discourse.getdbt.com/u/anentropic)\
**Post date:** [July 19, 2025, 5:15pm UTC](https://discourse.getdbt.com/t/dbt-external-tables-with-snowflake-s3-stage-what-will-it-do/19871/5 "2025-07-19T17:15:57Z")

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ah ok

so if I go all in with dbt-external-tables and define an actual external table from the stage, that external table then becomes a source I can reference in my models

otherwise I should not define the stage as a source and just refer to the source via its raw sql identifier in the model code

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![a\_slack\_user](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/discourse.getdbt.com/a_slack_user/32/1629_2.png) [@a\_slack\_user](https://discourse.getdbt.com/u/a_slack_user)\
**Post date:** [July 21, 2025, 2:39pm UTC](https://discourse.getdbt.com/t/dbt-external-tables-with-snowflake-s3-stage-what-will-it-do/19871/6 "2025-07-21T14:39:19Z")

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Yup - that summary sounds right to me 🙂

Note: `@Abigail Green (CHG Healthcare)` originally [posted this reply in Slack](https://getdbt.slack.com/archives/CBSQTAPLG/p1753108748506479?thread_ts=1752677535.107909&cid=CBSQTAPLG). It might not have transferred perfectly.