Materializations

Materializations are strategies for persisting dbt models in a warehouse, with five built-in types: table, view, incremental, ephemeral, and materialized view; custom materializations extend dbt for specific needs. By default, models are materialized as views, rebuilt via a create view as statement on each run so no additional data is stored. Set a different materialization with the materialized configuration parameter in dbt_project.yml, applied per model directory as in the example materializing all models in models/events as tables; directly in model SQL files with {{ config() }}, useful alongside performance optimization configs such as Redshift sort and dist settings; or in the model's properties.yml file. Scope: dbt. Reviewed October 4, 2026.