Support custom paths for internal dbt project via env vars

[michael-myaskovsky]

Summary by CodeRabbit

• New Features

  • CLI now respects EDR_INTERNAL_TARGET_PATH and DBT_PACKAGES_FOLDER to control where its internal dbt project writes compiled artifacts and installs packages; cleanup targets the configured path.

• Documentation

  • Added docs with examples for setting these environment variables and a note clarifying they are separate from the CLI's external --target-path option.

[github-actions]

👋 @michael-myaskovsky
Thank you for raising your pull request.
Please make sure to add tests and document all user-facing changes.
You can do this by editing the docs files in this pull request.

[coderabbitai]

No actionable comments were generated in the recent review. 🎉

ℹ️ Recent review info

⚙️ Run configuration

Configuration used: defaults

Review profile: CHILL

Plan: Pro

Run ID: 2a772c95-bd88-4de5-a4c6-9b991af30bc2

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between 7dc786a and 7ae3d49.

📒 Files selected for processing (2)

• docs/oss/cli-commands.mdx
• elementary/monitor/dbt_project/dbt_project.yml

---

📝 Walkthrough

Walkthrough

Change dbt_project.yml to read the internal dbt project's compiled-artifact path from an environment variable and add documentation describing EDR_INTERNAL_TARGET_PATH and DBT_PACKAGES_FOLDER (with examples) and how they differ from the CLI --target-path.

Changes

Internal dbt project path configuration

Layer / File(s)	Summary
dbt project configuration elementary/monitor/dbt_project/dbt_project.yml	target-path and the compiled-artifacts entry in clean-targets now use env_var('EDR_INTERNAL_TARGET_PATH', 'target') instead of a hard-coded "target". DBT_PACKAGES_FOLDER remains referenced for package cleanup.
Documentation for internal dbt directories docs/oss/cli-commands.mdx	Adds an “Internal dbt project directories” subsection documenting default internal artifact/package locations inside the installed elementary package, introduces EDR_INTERNAL_TARGET_PATH and DBT_PACKAGES_FOLDER with export examples, and clarifies these are separate from the CLI --target-path option controlling logs/reports.

Estimated code review effort

🎯 3 (Moderate) | ⏱️ ~20 minutes

Poem

🐰 I hopped through configs, soft and spry,
Paths once rigid now learn to fly,
Env whispers point where artifacts rest,
Packages settle where you think best,
A tiny change—flexible and shy.

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 5

✅ Passed checks (5 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Description Check	✅ Passed	Check skipped - CodeRabbit’s high-level summary is enabled.
Title check	✅ Passed	The title clearly and specifically describes the main change: supporting custom paths for the internal dbt project through environment variables.
Docstring Coverage	✅ Passed	No functions found in the changed files to evaluate docstring coverage. Skipping docstring coverage check.
Linked Issues check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.
Out of Scope Changes check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.

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✨ Finishing Touches

🧪 Generate unit tests (beta)

• Create PR with unit tests
• Commit unit tests in branch fix-file-permissions-issue

---

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[coderabbitai]

Caution

Some comments are outside the diff and can’t be posted inline due to platform limitations.

⚠️ Outside diff range comments (1)

elementary/monitor/dbt_project/dbt_project.yml (1)

24-27: ⚠️ Potential issue | 🟡 Minor | ⚡ Quick win

Update clean-targets to respect the environment variable overrides.

The clean-targets section still hardcodes "target" and "dbt_packages", but when users set DBT_TARGET_PATH or DBT_PACKAGES_FOLDER to custom locations, dbt clean will attempt to remove the wrong directories (the defaults) and leave stale artifacts in the custom locations.

🧹 Proposed fix to make clean-targets consistent with configurable paths

 clean-targets: # directories to be removed by `dbt clean`
-  - "target"
-  - "dbt_packages"
+  - "{{ env_var('DBT_TARGET_PATH', 'target') }}"
+  - "{{ env_var('DBT_PACKAGES_FOLDER', 'dbt_packages') }}"
   - "dbt_modules"

🤖 Prompt for AI Agents

Verify each finding against current code. Fix only still-valid issues, skip the
rest with a brief reason, keep changes minimal, and validate.

In `@elementary/monitor/dbt_project/dbt_project.yml` around lines 24 - 27, The
clean-targets entries are hardcoded and ignore
DBT_TARGET_PATH/DBT_PACKAGES_FOLDER overrides; update the clean-targets list in
dbt_project.yml to use dbt's Jinja env_var lookups instead of literals (e.g.,
replace "target" and "dbt_packages" with "{{ env_var('DBT_TARGET_PATH',
'target') }}" and "{{ env_var('DBT_PACKAGES_FOLDER', 'dbt_packages') }}" and
likewise handle "dbt_modules" via env_var if needed) so dbt clean removes the
actual configured directories; modify the clean-targets block (symbol:
clean-targets in dbt_project.yml) accordingly.

🤖 Prompt for all review comments with AI agents

Verify each finding against current code. Fix only still-valid issues, skip the
rest with a brief reason, keep changes minimal, and validate.

Outside diff comments:
In `@elementary/monitor/dbt_project/dbt_project.yml`:
- Around line 24-27: The clean-targets entries are hardcoded and ignore
DBT_TARGET_PATH/DBT_PACKAGES_FOLDER overrides; update the clean-targets list in
dbt_project.yml to use dbt's Jinja env_var lookups instead of literals (e.g.,
replace "target" and "dbt_packages" with "{{ env_var('DBT_TARGET_PATH',
'target') }}" and "{{ env_var('DBT_PACKAGES_FOLDER', 'dbt_packages') }}" and
likewise handle "dbt_modules" via env_var if needed) so dbt clean removes the
actual configured directories; modify the clean-targets block (symbol:
clean-targets in dbt_project.yml) accordingly.

---

ℹ️ Review info

⚙️ Run configuration

Configuration used: defaults

Review profile: CHILL

Plan: Pro

Run ID: dfddccf4-c636-4d8c-9de1-212ce34d9fea

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between 57dfbdc and b82b7d4.

📒 Files selected for processing (2)

• docs/oss/cli-commands.mdx
• elementary/monitor/dbt_project/dbt_project.yml

[MikaKerman]

DBT_TARGET_PATH conflicts with upload_source_freshness

DBT_TARGET_PATH is already used in upload_source_freshness.py with a different meaning — it overrides where edr looks for the user's sources.json:

elementary/elementary/operations/upload_source_freshness.py

Lines 77 to 88 in b82b7d4

	def get_target_path(self) -> Path:
	if not self.config.project_dir:
	raise click.ClickException(
	"Path to dbt project is missing. Please run the command with `--project-dir <DBT_PROJECT_DIR>`."
	)
	env_target_path = os.getenv("DBT_TARGET_PATH")
	if env_target_path:
	return Path(env_target_path)
	project_dir = Path(self.config.project_dir)
	project_yml = OrderedYaml().load(str(project_dir.joinpath("dbt_project.yml")))
	return project_dir / project_yml.get("target-path", "target")

Setting DBT_TARGET_PATH=/var/tmp/edr_target to fix internal project permissions will also cause edr upload-source-freshness to look for sources.json there instead of in the user's project target directory — silently breaking that command.

Consider renaming to something like EDR_INTERNAL_TARGET_PATH, or at minimum document the side effect.

PR title

"fix file permissions issue" doesn't describe what changed — something like "Support custom paths for internal dbt project via env vars" would be clearer.