SQL Models¶

smelt models are SQL files in the models/ directory with optional YAML frontmatter for configuration.

Basic model¶

SELECT
  user_id,
  COUNT(*) as event_count
FROM smelt.ref('events')
GROUP BY 1

YAML frontmatter¶

Add configuration inline using YAML frontmatter:

---
name: user_activity
materialization: table
incremental:
  enabled: true
  event_time_column: event_time
  partition_column: event_date
tags: [users, daily]
owner: analytics-team
description: Daily user activity summary
---

SELECT
  DATE(event_time) as event_date,
  user_id,
  COUNT(*) as event_count
FROM smelt.ref('events')
GROUP BY 1, 2

References¶

Use smelt.ref() to reference other models:

SELECT * FROM smelt.ref('upstream_model')

Named parameters are supported:

SELECT * FROM smelt.ref('events', filter => date > '2024-01-01', limit => 1000)

Sources¶

Use smelt.source() for external tables defined in sources.yml:

SELECT * FROM smelt.source('raw.users')

Configuration precedence¶

SQL frontmatter > smelt.yml > defaults

Frontmatter in SQL files overrides project-level smelt.yml settings.

Supported metadata fields¶

Field	Type	Description
`name`	string	Model name (optional, inferred from filename)
`materialization`	`table` \| `view`	How to materialize
`incremental.enabled`	boolean	Enable incremental updates
`incremental.event_time_column`	string	Column for time-based filtering
`incremental.partition_column`	string	Column for partition deletion
`tags`	string[]	Organization tags
`owner`	string	Responsible team or person
`description`	string	Model documentation