What are the best practices for installing dbt Core with pip?

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The dbt Fusion Engine is a next-generation, Rust-based engine that powers dbt development across the platform and local tooling. See dbt Fusion Engine for more information.

Best practices

Managing Python local environments can be challenging! You can use these best practices to improve the dbt Core installation with pip.

Best practice	Recommendation	Why it matters
Install dbt Core with an adapter and keep versions in sync	Install with: python -m pip install dbt-core dbt-ADAPTER_NAME (For example, python -m pip install dbt-core dbt-snowflake) Match adapter versions to your dbt Core version	Provides a complete, compatible, and ready-to-run dbt setup Prevents runtime errors and adapter incompatibilities
For tooling without a warehouse connection, install dbt Core without an adapter	python -m pip install dbt-core	Keeps your setup lean, predictable, and easier to maintain
Use virtual environments	Install dbt in an isolated environment (for example, venv, pipenv, poetry)	Avoids dependency conflicts
Reactivate your virtual environment for each session	Reactivate your virtual environment at the start of each new session before installing dependencies or running dbt commands	Keeps your dbt setup predictable, isolated, and reproducible
Create a project	Use the dbt init command to create and initialize your first project	Creates a standard dbt project and verifies your installation
Ensure you have the latest versions of pip, wheel, and setuptools	Before installing dbt, upgrade your Python packaging tools: python -m pip install --upgrade pip wheel setuptools	Helps ensure a smoother, more predictable dbt installation

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Note, dbt adapters and dbt Core are versioned and installed independently to prevent unintended changes to an existing dbt Core installation.

Using virtual environments

We recommend using virtual environments to namespace pip modules. Here's an example setup:

python3 -m venv dbt-env				# create the environment
source dbt-env/bin/activate			# activate the environment for Mac and Linux
dbt-env\Scripts\activate			# activate the environment for Windows

If you install dbt in a virtual environment, you need to reactivate that same virtual environment each time you create a shell window or session.

Tip: You can create an alias for the source command in your $HOME/.bashrc, $HOME/.zshrc, or whichever rc file your shell draws from. For example, you can add a command like alias env_dbt='source <PATH_TO_VIRTUAL_ENV_CONFIG>/bin/activate', replacing <PATH_TO_VIRTUAL_ENV_CONFIG> with the path to your virtual environment configuration.

Using the latest versions

dbt installations are tested using the latest versions of pip and setuptools. Newer versions have improved behavior around dependency resolution, as well as much faster install times by using precompiled "wheels" when available for your operating system.

Before installing dbt, make sure you have the latest versions:

python -m pip install --upgrade pip wheel setuptools

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