# Python model injecting SQL
**URL:** https://discourse.getdbt.com/t/python-model-injecting-sql/7490
**Category:** Help
**Tags:** python-models
**Created:** [March 27, 2023, 12:54pm UTC](https://discourse.getdbt.com/t/python-model-injecting-sql/7490 "2023-03-27T12:54:31Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Jan](https://discourse.getdbt.com/u/Jan)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2023, 12:54pm UTC](https://discourse.getdbt.com/t/python-model-injecting-sql/7490/1 "2023-03-27T12:54:31Z")
Welcome everybody! 🙂
## The problem I’m having
I just started using python models and right on the first one I am experiencing some weird behaviour. My model bases on an SQL model (which I think is valid given the documentation [here](https://docs.getdbt.com/docs/build/python-models#referencing-other-models)). However, when generating the .py file, it injects pure SQL into the code
### Input (model.py)
```import
def model(dbt, session):
dbt.config(materialized = "table")
df = dbt.ref("my-sql-model")
dx = df
...
```
### Output (.py file on GCS)
```auto
from pyspark.sql import SparkSession
spark = SparkSession.builder.appName('smallTest').getOrCreate()
spark.conf.set("viewsEnabled","true")
spark.conf.set("temporaryGcsBucket","my-bucket-name")
with __dbt__ cte __dictionary__ xxx as (
select
something1 as column1,
something2 as column2
from
`my-project`.`my-dataset`.`my-table`
where
xxx
)def model(dbt, session):
dbt.config(materialized = "table")
import pandas as pd
df = dbt.ref("my-sql-model")
dx = df
```
### Setup
BigQuery, GCS, dbt Cloud v1.3
There is not much I was able to do here as I really don’t understand where it is coming from. Did you ever face that issue before?
---
### Author:  [@Jan](https://discourse.getdbt.com/u/Jan)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2023, 1:59pm UTC](https://discourse.getdbt.com/t/python-model-injecting-sql/7490/2 "2023-03-27T13:59:37Z")
I spent some more time with it and I noticed that that the base model being set to ephemeral is causing this issue. Probably, I should’ve caught it much earlier cause the SQL is pretty distinct.
Still, isn’t it somewhat of a bug? For example, ephemeral model could still be passed as a python query or there could be a validation that would prevent from using such models in python models.
---
### Author:  [@joellabes](https://discourse.getdbt.com/u/joellabes)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2023, 5:46am UTC](https://discourse.getdbt.com/t/python-model-injecting-sql/7490/3 "2023-03-28T05:46:20Z")
You’re correct that your issue is because you’re ref-ing an ephemeral model. I would open an issue on the core repo for this - I suspect this is a bug as opposed to an intentional decision to not support accessing ephemeral models. If it is intentional then it should have a better error message at least!
---
### Author:  [@system](https://discourse.getdbt.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2023, 5:47am UTC](https://discourse.getdbt.com/t/python-model-injecting-sql/7490/4 "2023-04-04T05:47:19Z")
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