Troubleshooting Dbt Job Errors

---
name: troubleshooting-dbt-job-errors
description: Diagnoses dbt Cloud/platform job failures by analyzing run logs, querying the Admin API, reviewing git history, and investigating data issues. Use when a dbt Cloud/platform job fails and you need to diagnose the root cause, especially when error messages are unclear or when intermittent failures occur. Do not use for local dbt development errors.
user-invocable: false
metadata:
  author: dbt-labs
---

# Troubleshooting dbt Job Errors

Systematically diagnose and resolve dbt Cloud job failures using available MCP tools, CLI commands, and data investigation.

## When to Use

- dbt Cloud / dbt platform job failed and you need to find the root cause
- Intermittent job failures that are hard to reproduce
- Error messages that don't clearly indicate the problem
- Post-merge failures where a recent change may have caused the issue

**Not for:** Local dbt development errors - use the skill `using-dbt-for-analytics-engineering` instead

## The Iron Rule

**Never modify a test to make it pass without understanding why it's failing.**
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