Schedules as Code

What are Paradime YAML-Based Schedules?

Paradime YAML schedules are configuration-as-code definitions, allowing you to define, version, and manage your data pipeline schedules directly within your dbt project repository. These schedules are configured in a single file named paradime_schedules.yml located in the root directory of your dbt project (alongside dbt_project.yml).

File Location and Structure

your-dbt-project/
├── dbt_project.yml
├── paradime_schedules.yml    # All schedules must be defined here
├── models/
├── tests/
└── ...

Why Use YAML-Based Schedules?

1. Version Control

   • Schedule configurations are tracked alongside your dbt models

   • Review schedule modifications through Pull Requests

   • Enforce team review processes for schedule changes

2. Infrastructure as Code

   • Schedules are treated as code, not just UI configurations

   • Easy replication across environments

   • Enables automated deployment pipelines

3. Team Collaboration

   • Simplified schedule review process

   • Standard formatting and validation

   • Documentation lives with the code

How YAML-bases schedules are deployed?

Schedules are always read from the paradime_schedules.yml file on your default branch (usually main or master).

• Automatic Refresh: Paradime checks for changes every 10 minutes.

• Manual Refresh: For immediate updates, navigate to the Bolt interface and click Parse Schedules.

💡 Note: To update your schedules, make sure to merge your changes to the default branch first.

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Configuration Reference

This section describes the YAML configuration format for scheduling and managing automated tasks. The configuration supports various execution modes including scheduled runs, trigger-based execution, deferred scheduling, CI/CD integration and API.

💡 Looking for complete examples? Jump to the Example Configurations section below.

Base Configuration

Every scheduler configuration must include these basic fields:

name: string               # Name of the schedule
description: string        # Job description
owner_email: string       # Email of the job owner
git_branch: string        # Target Git branch
environment: string       # Only "production" is supported
commands:                 # List of commands to execute
  - string

Execution Modes

1. Schedule-Triggered Execution

Basic scheduled execution using cron expression:

schedule: '0 */2 * * *'     # Runs every 2 hours

2. Run Completion Trigger

Triggers execution based on completion of another job:

schedule: 'OFF'
schedule_trigger:
  enabled: true
  schedule_name: string     # Name of the trigger schedule
  workspace_name: string    # Workspace containing the trigger schedule
  trigger_on:               # Events that trigger execution
    - passed
    - failed

3. Merge Trigger

Triggers execution on merge events:

schedule: 'OFF'
trigger_on_merge: true     # Enables merge-triggered execution

Requires GitHub integration.

4. Deferred Scheduling

Allows schedules to used dbt defer to artifacts comparison:

schedule: 'OFF'
deferred_schedule:
  enabled: true
  deferred_schedule_name: string  # Name of the deferred schedule
  successful_run_only: boolean    

5. Turbo CI Configuration

Configuration for CI pipelines:

schedule: 'OFF'
turbo_ci:
  enabled: true
  deferred_schedule_name: string  # Name of the schedule for CI
  successful_run_only: boolean    # Whether to run only after successful executions

6. API Configuration

Basic configuration when triggering Bolt via API:

schedule: 'OFF'

For more details on Paradime APIs check our Developers guide.

7. Suspended State

Configuration for suspended jobs:

suspended: true            # Indicates the job is suspended

Notifications Configuration

Notifications can be configured for various events through multiple channels:

notifications:
  emails:                  # Email notifications configuration
    - address: string      # List of recipient email address
      events:              # List of events to notify for each recipient
        - passed           # Schedule completed successfully
        - failed          # Schedule completed successfully with errors
        - sla             # SLA threshold exceeded
        
  microsoft_teams:         # Microsoft Teams notifications
    - channel: string      # List of Teams channel name
      events:              # List of events to notify for each recipient
        - passed          # Schedule completed successfully
        - failed          # Schedule completed successfully with errors
        - sla             # SLA threshold exceeded
        
  slack_channels:
    - channel: string      # List of Slack channel name
      events:              # List of events to notify for each recipient
        - passed          # Schedule completed successfully
        - failed          # Schedule completed successfully with errors
        - sla             # SLA threshold exceeded
        
sla_minutes: number        # SLA threshold in minutes

For Slack and MS Teams notifications, check our integrations guide:

• Slack

• Microsoft Teams

Example: Complete Configuration

Scheduled Trigger

schedules:
  - name: daily run
    description: "Daily build of all dbt models"
    owner_email: [e-mail] 
    environment: production
    git_branch: main  
    commands:
      - dbt run
      - dbt test
    schedule: 0 10 * * *    
    sla_minutes: 60
    notifications:
      emails:                 
        - address: [e-mail] 
          events:
            - failed
            - sla
      slack_channels:
        - channel: data-team    
          events:            
            - passed         
            - failed         
        - channel: pipeline-monitoring    
          events:                    
            - failed         
            - sla  

Run Completion Trigger

schedules:
  - name: "Finance reports update"
    description: "Update all finance models"
    owner_email: [e-mail] 
    environment: production
    git_branch: main  
    commands:
      - dbt run --select tag:finance
    schedule: 'OFF'
    schedule_trigger:
      enabled: true
      schedule_name: "Daily Run"
      workspace_name: data-platform
      trigger_on:
        - passed
        - failed  
    sla_minutes: 60
    notifications:
      emails:                 
        - address: [e-mail] 
          events:
            - failed
            - sla
      slack_channels:
        - channel: data-team    
          events:            
            - passed         
            - failed         
        - channel: pipeline-monitoring    
          events:                    
            - failed         
            - sla  

Merge Trigger

schedules:
  - name: "On Merge run CD"
    description: "Continuos deployment run to deploy changes as soon as Merged to the MAIN branch"
    owner_email: [e-mail] 
    environment: production
    git_branch: main  
    commands:
      - dbt run --select state:modified+
    schedule: 'OFF'
    trigger_on_merge: true 
    deferred_schedule:
      enabled: true
      deferred_schedule_name: "On Merge run CD"  
      successful_run_only: True     
    sla_minutes: 60
    notifications:
      emails:                 
        - address: [e-mail] 
          events:
            - failed
      slack_channels:
        - channel: data-team    
          events:            
            - passed         
            - failed         
        - channel: pipeline-monitoring    
          events:                    
            - failed         

Deferred Schedules

schedules:
  - name: "High Frequency run"
    description: "Trigger run and build models only when new data landed in sources tables"
    owner_email: [e-mail] 
    environment: production
    git_branch: main  
    commands:
      - dbt source freshness
      - dbt build --select source_status:fresher+ state:modified+ result:error+ result:fail+
    schedule: '0,30 6-23 * * *'
    deferred_schedule:
      enabled: true
      deferred_schedule_name: "High Frequency run"
      successful_run_only: False     
    sla_minutes: 60
    notifications:
      emails:                 
        - address: [e-mail] 
          events:
            - failed
            - sla
      slack_channels:
        - channel: data-team    
          events:            
            - passed         
            - failed         
        - channel: pipeline-monitoring    
          events:                    
            - failed         
            - sla

Turbo CI Configuration

schedules:
  - name: "Turbo CI run"
    description: "Trigger run and build models when a Pull Request is opened in a temporary schema"
    owner_email: [e-mail] 
    environment: production
    git_branch: main  
    commands:
      - dbt build --select state:modified+
    schedule: 'OFF'
    deferred_schedule:
      enabled: true
      deferred_schedule_name: "High Frequency run"
      successful_run_only: False     
    sla_minutes: 60
    notifications:
      emails:                 
        - address: [e-mail] 
          events:
            - failed
            - sla
      slack_channels:
        - channel: data-team    
          events:            
            - passed         
            - failed         
        - channel: pipeline-monitoring    
          events:                    
            - failed         
            - sla 

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Best Practices

Schedule Format

• Use standard cron expressions for scheduling

  • ✅ Standard cron to define days 0-6

    • 10 * * * 0-6 : At minute 10 on every day-of-week from Sunday through Saturday.

  • ❌ Non-standard cron to define days 1-7

    • 10 * * * 1-7 : At minute 10 on every day-of-week from Monday through Sunday

• Use 'OFF' to disable scheduled execution

• Use crontab.guru to validate your cron expressions

SLA Configuration

• sla_minutes should be set based on job complexity

  Consider dependencies when setting SLA

• Recommended minimum: 30 minutes

Notification Configuration

• Configure at least one notification channel

• Include critical events (failed, SLA) in notifications

• Use team channels for collaborative workflows

• Make sure to set the Slack / MS Teams Channel or Email for System notifications. Check our guide here for Notifications Settingss

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Paradime schedules terminal commands

Before running any of the following commands, navigate to your dbt™️ project directory where paradime_schedules.yml is located.

CLI command	Description
paradime schedule verify	Validate File Format - This command checks the paradime_schedules.yml for formatting errors and outputs the result.
paradime schedule run	Run Schedule Locally - To run all defined schedules based on your local context: (ie. based on your development environment and your current branch).
paradime schedule run <schedule_name>	Run Selected Schedule Locally - To run the named schedule based on your local context: (ie. based on your development environment and your current branch).
paradime schedule run --dry-run	Dry run - To simulate all schedule executions without running dbt™️ models.
paradime schedule run --dry-run <schedule_name>	Dry run - To simulate the named schedule executions without running dbt™️ models.