What does the dbt deps command do?

The dbt deps command is designed to handle dependencies within a dbt project. When you run this command, it interacts with the project's packages.yml file, which defines the external packages that the dbt project relies on. Specifically, the command retrieves the most recent versions of those dependencies from the appropriate version control repositories, such as GitHub.

This functionality is crucial for ensuring that your dbt project has access to the latest features, bug fixes, and enhancements from its dependencies, which can include various data transformation libraries or packages developed by the dbt community or other contributors. By pulling the latest versions, dbt allows you to leverage improvements and new functionalities in your analytics workflows.

The other options do not accurately represent the purpose of the dbt deps command. For example, pulling the latest version of the dbt documentation pertains to acquiring documentation resources rather than managing package dependencies. Updating the dbt project configuration file does not relate to managing external packages directly, and while the command may install new packages if they are specified as dependencies, its main function is to ensure you have the latest version of already-defined dependencies. Thus, the correct answer reflects the core operation of the dbt deps command.