Is there a way to use persist_docs and inherited column descriptions to show field descriptions in Snowflake?

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1

The problem I’m having:

I can use persist_docs to surface model and column descriptions in Snowflake but this seems to require every description field to be filled out rather than leveraging inherited column descriptions as shown in dbt explore.

The context of why I’m trying to do this:

If I can use a combination of persist_docs and inherited column descriptions, I will only have to write a column definition once rather than copying it over in every model or using a doc block.

What I’ve already tried:

I’ve tested that persist_docs works when a field description is explicitly filled out and inherited column descriptions works in dbt explore, but I cannot get them to work in combination in Snowflake.

Some example code:

I’m using the config described here in the dbt_project yml for persist_docs and not doing anything for inherited column descriptions, as that is automatic.

2

Not at the moment. They are separate features.

  1. Persist docs, a dbt-core library feature, takes what you’ve written in your yaml and adds it as table/column comments in your dwh.
  2. Inherited col descriptions, a dbt Cloud Catalog/Explorer feature - which can propagate column descriptions down to child columns. This is entirely all in dbt Cloud Catalog/Explorer UI and has nothing to do with the objects that live on your dwh (unlike 1).

Note: @Jeremy Yeo originally posted this reply in Slack. It might not have transferred perfectly.