dbt-labs/dbt-core · error · minijinja::Error (InvalidOperation)

Contract Error for {} from {}: {}

Error message

Contract Error for {} from {}: {}

What it means

Contracted models require every column listed in YAML to declare a `data_type`. When the contract validation helper finds column(s) missing a data_type, it raises this error, prefixed with the node id and file path when node metadata is available in the Jinja state.

Source

Thrown at crates/dbt-jinja-utils/src/functions/base.rs:1258

                // Convert column_names to a vector of strings
                let column_names_string = if column_names.is_undefined() {
                    "".to_string()
                } else {
                    match column_names.try_iter() {
                        Ok(iter) => {
                            let strings: Vec<String> = iter.map(|v| v.to_string()).collect();
                            strings.join(", ")
                        }
                        Err(_) => "".to_string(),
                    }
                };

                let message = format!(
                    "Contracted models require data_type to be defined for each column.  Please ensure that the column name and data_type are defined within the YAML configuration for the {column_names_string} column(s)."
                );
                if let Some((node_id, file_path)) = node_metadata_from_state(state) {
                    Err(Error::new(
                        ErrorKind::InvalidOperation,
                        format!(
                            "Contract Error for {} from {}: {}",
                            node_id,
                            file_path.display(),
                            message
                        ),
                    ))
                } else {
                    Err(Error::new(
                        ErrorKind::InvalidOperation,
                        format!("Contract Error: {message}"),
                    ))
                }
            }
            // (msg, node=None)
            "raise_fail_fast_error" => {
                let mut args = ArgParser::new(args, None);

View on GitHub (pinned to 0267ce9170)

Solutions

1. Add a `data_type:` to every column in the model's YAML `columns:` block.
2. Verify the model has `config: contract: enforced: true` and the YAML matches the warehouse types.
3. Regenerate the YAML (e.g. `dbt docs generate` / codegen) and fill in data types.

Example fix

# before
columns:
  - name: id
  - name: amount

# after
columns:
  - name: id
    data_type: bigint
  - name: amount
    data_type: numeric(18,2)

# Check every contracted column declares data_type before running dbt
import yaml
cfg = yaml.safe_load(open('models/my_model.yml'))
for col in cfg['models'][0]['columns']:
    assert 'data_type' in col, f"column {col.get('name')} missing data_type"

When it happens

Trigger: `get_contract_mismatches`/contract-checking path in `call_method` encounters a YAML `columns:` entry for a contract-enforced model whose `data_type` (and/or name) is absent, e.g. from the `(column_names)` validation branch.

Common situations: Enabling `contract.enforced: true` on a model whose YAML columns were defined without `data_type:`; hand-written or generated YAML omitted data_type; copying a non-contracted model's YAML to a contracted one.

Understand the failure class

Background: Schema validation failed / invalid input schema: payload rejected because its shape doesn't match the expected schema — this error's family across 28 libraries.

Related errors

• Contract Error: {message}
• Compilation Error for {} from {}: {}
• Column 'name' must be a string
• Expected a list of column definitions
• describe_dynamic_table is not supported by the {} adapter

AI-assisted analysis of dbt-labs/dbt-core@0267ce9170 (2026-09-07). Data as JSON: /api/errors/58b35cb978221397. Report an issue: GitHub.