What does the dbt run command do?

The dbt run command is designed specifically to execute the SQL definitions that have been defined in your dbt project. When you run this command, dbt compiles the SQL scripts for your models, and then it executes those compiled statements against your data warehouse to perform transformations on your data. This process means that your analytics models, which might include aggregations, joins, or other transformations, are applied to the source data to produce structured outputs that are ready for analysis.

This command is central to the workflow of using dbt, as it allows analysts and data engineers to build and maintain data pipelines efficiently, ensuring the necessary transformations take place in the data warehouse as specified by the model definitions. The focus here is on executing these defined transformations rather than validating configurations, deploying models, or generating documentation, which are functions associated with different commands or aspects of the dbt workflow.