Debugging a circular dependency in your dbt DAG

dbt run just failed: Found a cycle. No idea which two models are pointing at each other.

IntermediateRead 6 minDoing: about an hour6 steps

What you'll have at the end

A dbt project that compiles and runs again: the two mart models that were pointing at each other now share a new intermediate model instead, and every downstream value comes out the same as the design intended.

Before you start

You need

A dbt project with a staging layer already in place and two mart-level models whose ref() calls point at each other, producing a failed run and a 'Found a cycle' error.

Not covered

A model that legitimately needs its own last build through the {{ this }} variable is a single model referencing itself, a different problem from two separate models pointing at each other.

Leans on

6 steps

Where to go next

Build a dbt staging model from a raw SQL script

start there first if a staging layer under the mart models does not exist yet

Finding what a column change would break with dbt's lineage graph

reach for this to see the whole dependency graph instead of untangling one loop

Checked 25 Aug 2026

Part of the dbt (Data Build Tool) cookbook