16 May WHAT IS AutomateDV?

How AutomateDV can help build your Data Vault

WHAT IS AutomateDV?

AutomateDV™ is a free, open-source tool for building Data Vault data platforms. In strict terms, it’s a package than runs on the dbt™ data engineering product and can help build your Data Vault with ease. The AutomateDV package does not constrain how you use dbt™ – it can be used to build other parts of the data pipeline that do not need Data Vault patterns.

AutomateDV™ uses metadata to generate and execute the ETL code needed for a Data Vault warehouse, removing the need to write SQL. This leads to better quality code, fewer mistakes and improving productivity resulting in increased agility

AutomateDV uses metadata to generate and execute the ETL code needed for a Data Vault, removing the need to write SQL. This leads to better quality code, fewer mistakes and improving productivity. Resulting in increased agility.

WHY USE AutomateDV?

There’s more to AutomateDV than automating your Data Vault!

• It’s based on over 10 years of experience building Data Vault solutions
• It covers the full range of Data Vault table types – Hubs, Links, Satellites
• The SQL complies with the dbt™ style guide – readable, testable, adaptable
• Includes an extensive range of macros – DRY code 
• It’s fully tested – over 3,000 tests for each supported platform
• It supports multiple platforms – Snowflake, SQL Server, Postgres, BigQuery, DataBricks 
• Get support from an active community – dedicated Slack channel
• It’s fully documented
• It comes with excellent Tutorials – teach yourself to use the tool, or get expert help
• We offer responsive support
• It’s under continuous development – new features released regularly
• It’s metadata driven. Meaning there’s little, or no SQL required.

HOW dbtvault – NOW AutomateDV – STARTED

The Datavault team created dbtvault in 2019 after hearing from data engineers and analysts looking for an easy, low-cost way to start building a Data Vault. Originally, we developed a Data Vault generator tool based on dbt™ for in-house purposes. However, we quickly realised our tool would be useful to others, and so dbtvault was born and released on an open-source basis.

Since release, we changed the name of dbtvault to Automate Data Vault (AutomateDV) to highlight the purpose of the tool. Our motivation for building AutomateDV

• We wanted to create a free tool for prototyping and production for the Data Vault community to use
• We wanted to build on the dbt™ platform, and leverage its excellent functionality 
• We wanted to be true to the dbt™ ethos and standards

WHAT is dbt™?

AutomateDV uses an open-source tool in Python called dbt. AutomateDV is one application of dbt, which has a wider application than just Data Vault data warehouses.

dbt™ is a great open-source tool from dbt Labs. In their words, it “is a command line tool that enables data analysts and engineers to transform data in their warehouses more effectively.” (“What, exactly, is dbt? – Transform data in your warehouse”) (“What, exactly, is dbt? – Transform data in your warehouse”) 

HOW TO GET STARTED with AutomateDV

Start your Data Vault building automation with AutomateDV today!

• Get the software on GitHub.
• We have an online community on Slack where the creators of AutomateDV are available for daily support.
• Read the extensive AutomateDV documentation on Read the Docs. We have also incorporated a worked example into our documentation that provides hands-on learning.