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dbt Charts Cloud

This section covers dbt Charts Cloud, the hosted product, not the open source dct engine documented everywhere else on this site. Cloud is the optional hosted layer on top of open source dbt Charts: it connects to the git repository holding your dashboards, and adds the things a team needs beyond a single local dct serve process: who can see and edit which dashboards, and when their data re-runs.

Everything else (the YAML language, boards, charts, queries, and variables) is unchanged. A dashboard authored for Cloud is the same board YAML you'd write and preview locally.

What Cloud adds

  • Getting started: connect your git repository and warehouse, and create your first project.
  • Data connections: org-level warehouse credentials mapped onto the source names your YAML uses.
  • Access control: who can view, edit, or refresh a dashboard, decided by where it lives in your project.
  • Refresh: when a dashboard's queries re-run versus when a viewer sees a cached result.
  • Git workflow: how edits become commits, change branches and merging, review mode, and the Git settings screen.
  • AI Copilot: what the in-app chat panel knows about your project, and how to extend it with your own instructions and skills.

Everything here from the terminal

Every setup step in this section also has a CLI verb: dct cloud signs you in, creates organizations, connects repositories and warehouses, maps sources, syncs, and invites teammates. It is how a coding agent or a CI job sets Cloud up; see Automating setup for the whole sequence.