Connect: BigQuery

Command

skippr-dbt connect warehouse bigquery \
  --project my-gcp-project \
  --dataset raw_data \
  --location US

Or run without flags to be prompted interactively.

Flags

Flag	Description
--project	GCP project ID
--dataset	BigQuery dataset
--location	Dataset location (e.g. US, EU)

Config output

Running connect warehouse bigquery writes the following to skippr-dbt.yaml:

warehouse:
  kind: bigquery
  project: my-gcp-project
  dataset: raw_data
  location: US

Authentication

Authentication uses a GCP service account key file.

Variable	Description
GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS	Path to a GCP service account JSON key file

Setting up a service account

1. In the GCP Console, go to IAM & Admin > Service Accounts.
2. Create a service account with the BigQuery Data Editor and BigQuery Job User roles.
3. Create a JSON key and download it.
4. Set the environment variable:

export GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS="/path/to/service-account.json"

Required permissions

The service account needs:

• bigquery.datasets.create (for silver/gold dataset creation)
• bigquery.tables.create, bigquery.tables.updateData (for loading data)
• bigquery.jobs.create (for running queries)

The BigQuery Data Editor and BigQuery Job User roles cover these.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Fix
Could not automatically determine credentials	Verify GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS points to a valid JSON key file
Access Denied: Dataset	Check the service account has the required roles on the project
Not found: Dataset	The dataset will be created automatically; ensure the service account has bigquery.datasets.create