# dbt Charts

> dbt Charts is an open, dbt-native language for dashboards: the query, charts, and layout of a board in one YAML file, rendered by the open-source `dct` CLI and hosted on dbtcharts.com. Boards live in git next to your dbt models and validate in CI.

An agent that has never used dbt Charts starts here, in a shell:

    uv tool install dbt-charts && dct skills intro

`dct skills intro` explains the tool, the shortest path from data to a rendered board, and which skill to read next. The same CLI carries the whole reference offline: `dct docs` (YAML fields), `dct examples` (complete boards), `dct skills` (workflows and layout patterns).

## Start here

- [Full documentation in one file](https://docs.dbtcharts.com/llms-full.txt): every page below, concatenated for one-fetch ingestion
- [Quick guide](https://docs.dbtcharts.com/quick-guide.md): install, `dct init`, the board syntax, and the render and serve commands
- [Installation and setup](https://docs.dbtcharts.com/guides/installation.md): `uv tool install`, pip, warehouse extras, the editor extension, upgrading
- [Getting started tutorial](https://docs.dbtcharts.com/guides/getting-started.md): a first dashboard from SQL, step by step
- [CLI and MCP for AI assistants](https://docs.dbtcharts.com/cli/ai-cli-and-mcp.md): when an agent should use the `dct` CLI and when the MCP server, and how skills reach each
- [Skills](https://docs.dbtcharts.com/cli/skills.md): the workflow and pattern skills that ship in the wheel, and `dct init skills`

## The language

- [Quick reference cheat sheet](https://docs.dbtcharts.com/reference/quick-reference.md): every top-level key on one page
- [Queries](https://docs.dbtcharts.com/queries.md): SQL, inline values, parameters, and how a query owns the data's grain
- [Sources](https://docs.dbtcharts.com/sources/index.md): dbt profiles, warehouses, DuckDB, and CSV, JSON, and Parquet file sources
- [Charts](https://docs.dbtcharts.com/charts/index.md): chart types and encodings
- [Boards](https://docs.dbtcharts.com/boards/index.md): layouts (rows, cols, grid, tabs), text, imports, linking
- [Variables](https://docs.dbtcharts.com/variables/index.md): filters and inputs that parameterize queries
- [Styling](https://docs.dbtcharts.com/styling.md) and [Themes](https://docs.dbtcharts.com/themes.md)
- [YAML schema reference](https://docs.dbtcharts.com/reference/yaml-reference.md): the generated field-by-field reference
- [Error reference](https://docs.dbtcharts.com/reference/errors.md): every diagnostic code `dct validate` and `dct render` can raise

## The CLI

- [CLI reference](https://docs.dbtcharts.com/cli/index.md): the command catalog
- [`dct init`](https://docs.dbtcharts.com/cli/init.md): scaffold a project, install skills, wire MCP, add CI
- [`dct render`](https://docs.dbtcharts.com/cli/render.md) and [`dct serve`](https://docs.dbtcharts.com/cli/serve.md): render to SVG, PNG, HTML, or terminal; live preview
- [`dct validate`](https://docs.dbtcharts.com/cli/validate.md): structural checks, `--warehouse` to prove the queries
- [`dct docs`](https://docs.dbtcharts.com/cli/docs.md): the reference offline, searchable
- [`dct mcp serve`](https://docs.dbtcharts.com/cli/mcp.md): the MCP server and its tools
- [`dct cloud`](https://docs.dbtcharts.com/cli/cloud.md): sign in, connect a repository, connections, sources, render, publish

## Cloud (dbtcharts.com)

- [dbt Charts Cloud](https://docs.dbtcharts.com/cloud/index.md): hosted boards from a git repository, with a warehouse connection and sharing
- [Cloud getting started](https://docs.dbtcharts.com/cloud/getting-started.md): the agent-driven setup and the manual one
- [Data connections](https://docs.dbtcharts.com/cloud/connections.md): BigQuery, Databricks, Postgres, Redshift, Snowflake
- [Claude and ChatGPT connector](https://docs.dbtcharts.com/cloud/claude-chatgpt-connector.md): Cloud as a remote MCP server

## Optional

- [Validating boards in CI](https://docs.dbtcharts.com/guides/ci.md)
- [Troubleshooting](https://docs.dbtcharts.com/guides/troubleshooting.md)
- [FAQ](https://docs.dbtcharts.com/faq.md)
- [VS Code and Cursor extension](https://docs.dbtcharts.com/editor-extension.md)
- [Source on GitHub](https://github.com/dbt-labs/dbt-charts) and [dbt-charts on PyPI](https://pypi.org/project/dbt-charts/)
- [dbtcharts.com](https://dbtcharts.com/llms.txt): the product site's index