What is the purpose of the command 'dbt run --full-refresh'?

The command 'dbt run --full-refresh' is designed to build models from scratch, disregarding any incremental data that may have been previously stored. This is particularly useful in situations where you want to ensure that your models reflect the current state of the source data without any reliance on prior incremental loads. By utilizing the --full-refresh flag, dbt will drop the existing tables or views associated with the models and recreate them entirely.

This command is especially beneficial when significant changes have been made to the underlying data or logic in the models, as it allows for a fresh start rather than appending only the new data. Therefore, it ensures that the resulting models represent a comprehensive view of the current data.

Other choices, such as exporting data to external storage or only running new models added to the project, do not accurately capture the specific functionality of the 'dbt run --full-refresh' command, focusing instead on actions that dbt is not primarily designed to perform or scenarios that it does not address within its model-building framework.