Git for Data Teams

⎇ technical training

Git for Data Teams

Branches, commits, and pull requests -
the version control workflow every data professional needs

GS

Garrett Stack

Senior Technical Instructor

Session 1 of 1 · 15 min

Learning objectives

By the end of this session…

You will be able to confidently do all three of these things.

1

Explain what a Git branch is and why it prevents broken production data

2

Create a branch, commit a change, and open a pull request in a real terminal

3

Connect this workflow to how dbt Cloud manages changes to your data models

Agenda

What we're covering today

15 minutes, structured to get you hands-on fast.

Time

Topic

Type

0-2 min

Hook - the "final_final_v3" problem

concept

2-5 min

What is a branch? Commits explained

concept

5-10 min

Live demo - branch, commit, pull request

demo

10-12 min

Your turn - try it in the terminal

active

12-14 min

Check for understanding

check

14-15 min

Next steps + the dbt connection

wrap

Hook · activation of prior knowledge

Sound familiar?

"Has anyone ever had a file called final_final_v3_REAL.sql on their desktop?"

revenue_model_FINAL.sql revenue_model_v2.sql revenue_model_v2_fixed.sql revenue_FINAL_REAL.sql USE_THIS_ONE.sql

We've all been there. This is the problem Git solves - not just for software engineers, but for every data team that touches SQL, Python, or dbt models.

Today we'll fix this. For good.

Core concept

Branches & commits, explained

⎇

A branch is your test shots pile

Experiment freely without touching the official album. Main stays unchanged until you're ready to merge.

git checkout -b my-fix

📷

A commit is a photograph

Every meaningful change gets a permanent snapshot with a caption. You can always go back to any earlier photo.

git commit -m "fix revenue"

🔀

A PR is showing your photos to the family

Teammates review before anything goes in the album. No surprises in production.

git push - open PR

💡

The mental model

Test shots - photograph - show the family - add to the album.

In dbt Cloud: branch - edit - commit and sync - merge.

Live demo

Let's do this in the terminal

Watch, then you'll try it yourself.

bash - data-project

# Step 1: create a new branch

$ git checkout -b fix/revenue-null-values

Switched to a new branch 'fix/revenue-null-values'

# Step 2: make your change, then stage it

$ git add models/revenue.sql

# Step 3: commit with a meaningful message

$ git commit -m "handle null values in revenue calc"

[fix/revenue-null-values 3f2a1c] handle null values in revenue calc

# Step 4: push and open a PR

$ git push origin fix/revenue-null-values

Active learning · your turn

Try it yourself

You have 2 minutes. I'll be watching and helping.

Scenario: You've been asked to add a new column to a SQL model. You don't want to touch main yet. Create a branch, make a fake change, and commit it.

✓Step 1 - Create a branch named feature/add-customer-column

✓Step 2 - Open any .sql file and add a comment line

✓Step 3 - Stage with git add and commit with a meaningful message

⭐Bonus - Run git log --oneline to see your commit history

Check for understanding

Quick check

Pick the best answer - no pressure.

Your teammate asks you to review their SQL change before it goes to production. Which Git workflow handles this?

A

Push directly to main so everyone gets the update immediately

B

Create a branch, commit the change, open a pull request for review

C

Email the .sql file and ask them to copy-paste it manually

D

Save a new file named revenue_v2_FINAL.sql

✓ B is correct. A pull request is Git's built-in code review workflow - teammates comment on specific lines, approve, and merge when happy. All tracked forever in the project history.

Summary & next steps

What you can do now

✓Create a branch and work safely without touching main

✓Commit changes with meaningful messages that explain the why

✓Open a pull request so teammates can review before merging

The dbt connection: Every dbt Cloud project is a Git repo. When you create a branch in dbt Cloud and edit a model, that's exactly the workflow you practised today - just with a UI on top. You're already thinking like a dbt developer.

📖

Pro Git Book

git-scm.com/book - free, comprehensive

⚡

GitHub Skills

skills.github.com - hands-on courses

Session slides

A branch is your test shots pile

A commit is a photograph

A PR is showing your photos to the family

The mental model

Pro Git Book

GitHub Skills

Analytics dashboard

Visual explainer

Command reference

Live quiz

Results dashboard

Session feedback