Build your semantic layer

The developer track: install the CLI, add Tables, and define metrics and dimensions so your whole team can explore trusted data.

This track is for people who build in Lightdash. Everything you expose for BI is written as code in your dbt project, so the developer journey runs through the Lightdash CLI: you generate Tables from your models, then define the metrics and dimensions your team explores.

Start by installing the CLI and logging in. If you want to build conversationally with an AI coding agent, install the Lightdash skills too. From there, work through the core steps below in order: add Tables to Lightdash, then create dimensions and create metrics.

As your project grows, the rest of the Workflow area picks up the lifecycle around it: preview changes in an isolated project, deploy them to production, and automate deploys with CI/CD.

Tag the dbt models you want to appear in Lightdash. Before you start, add a lightdash (or similar) tag to the dbt models you want to expose as Tables, then set your project’s Table Configuration to match. This keeps staging and intermediate models out of Lightdash and makes your project easier to navigate.

Prefer to watch first? This overview walks through the Lightdash developer workflow end to end.