Local storage

Store tables as files on the local filesystem.

Supported features

Feature	Status	Remarks
Read/write Delta tables	✅	Default file_format
Read/write Parquet, CSV and NDJSON files	✅	Set file_format on the model

Installation

No extra dependencies needed beyond the base package:

pip install dbt-polars

Profile configuration

Example

my_project:
  target: dev
  outputs:
    dev:
      type: polars
      catalog_type: local
      schema: dev
      root: ./data

To combine this catalog with others, put the same parameters in an entry of catalogs, with type: local and a name, see Catalog overview.

Parameter Reference

The following parameters are supported, in addition to the common profile parameters:

• catalog_type - (Required) Must be local.

• schema - (Required) Default schema for models. dbt-polars creates missing schemas.

• root - (Required) Directory where schemas and tables are stored. Relative paths resolve from the dbt project root. Paths with spaces are not supported (Polars limitation).

Directory layout

The local catalog organises data as:

<root>/
  <schema>/
    <table_name>/          # Delta Lake table (directory)
    <table_name>.parquet   # Parquet table
    <table_name>.csv       # CSV table
    <table_name>.ndjson    # NDJSON table

Schemas are directories. Creating a schema creates the directory; dropping it removes the directory and all its contents.