Test Failure on Cross-Environment Data Mismatch

warning

reliabilityUpdated Feb 12, 2026

Identifies test failures in CI that occur when relationships tests span modified and unmodified models, causing referential integrity checks to fail due to comparing data across dev and prod environments.

Sources

Caveats to state comparison | dbt Developer Hubdocs.getdbt.com

Technologies:

dbtSymptoms of this issue are visible in dbt metrics and logs

dbt.test.relationships.failure_count

dbt.test.failure_rate

dbt.ci.deferred_model_count

How to detect:

Monitor test failure rates specifically for relationships tests during CI runs with state:modified selection and --defer enabled. Alert when relationships test failures spike compared to other test types.

Recommended action:

Exclude relationships tests from state:modified CI runs using --exclude 'test_name:relationships', or ensure both sides of relationship tests are rebuilt together. Review test configuration to ensure appropriate test coverage without cross-environment mismatches.