What causes "Datafusion" in dbt-labs/dbt-core?

Implement the `Datafusion` arm in `create_static_relation`, constructing the Datafusion-specific `RelationStatic`/`StaticBaseRelationObject`

dbt-labs/dbt-core · error

Datafusion

Error message

Datafusion

What it means

This is a Rust `todo!()` panic from `create_static_relation` in crates/dbt-adapter/src/relation/factory.rs:32. The `Datafusion` match arm is an unimplemented placeholder, so calls resolving to `AdapterType::Datafusion` panic with the message 'Datafusion'. It indicates Datafusion static relation creation is not yet written in the Rust adapter.

Source

Thrown at crates/dbt-adapter/src/relation/factory.rs:32

    adapter_type: AdapterType,
    quoting: ResolvedQuoting,
) -> Option<Value> {
    use AdapterType::*;
    let result = match adapter_type {
        Snowflake | Databricks | Spark | Fabric | DuckDB | LakeCompute | Exasol | Postgres
        | Redshift | Salesforce | Bigquery | ClickHouse => {
            let relation_type = RelationStatic {
                adapter_type,
                quoting,
            };
            StaticBaseRelationObject::new(Arc::new(relation_type))
        }
        Starburst => todo!("Starburst"),
        Athena => todo!("Athena"),
        Trino => todo!("Trino"),
        Dremio => todo!("Dremio"),
        Oracle => todo!("Oracle"),
        Datafusion => todo!("Datafusion"),
    };
    Some(Value::from_object(result))
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 0267ce9170)

Solutions

Implement the `Datafusion` arm in `create_static_relation`, constructing the Datafusion-specific `RelationStatic`/`StaticBaseRelationObject`
Guard call sites to return an explicit unsupported-adapter error for `AdapterType::Datafusion`
Exercise the factory only with adapters whose arms are implemented

Example fix

// before
Datafusion => todo!("Datafusion"),
// after
Datafusion => {
    let relation_type = RelationStatic { adapter_type, quoting };
    StaticBaseRelationObject::new(Arc::new(relation_type))
}

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

if matches!(adapter_type, AdapterType::Datafusion) {
    return Err("create_static_relation is not implemented for Datafusion".into());
}

Type guard

fn static_relation_supported(t: AdapterType) -> bool {
    !matches!(t, AdapterType::Datafusion | AdapterType::Starburst | AdapterType::Athena | AdapterType::Trino | AdapterType::Dremio | AdapterType::Oracle)
}

Try / catch

match std::panic::catch_unwind(|| create_static_relation(adapter_type)) {
    Ok(v) => v,
    Err(_) => return Err("create_static_relation unimplemented for Datafusion"),
}

Prevention

Check adapter support in the relation factory before running Datafusion models that use the relation factory
Implement new arms immediately when adding AdapterType variants, or return typed errors
Add exhaustiveness/integration tests so placeholder arms are caught in CI, not at runtime

When it happens

Trigger: Calling `create_static_relation` (directly, via `get_value`/`adapter_api_value`, or via the static-relation quote-policy tests) with `adapter_type == AdapterType::Datafusion`.

Common situations: A Datafusion-profiled dbt session invoking the relation factory from jinja; a developer sweeping all AdapterType variants in tests; onboarding a Datafusion adapter before the factory arm exists.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of dbt-labs/dbt-core@0267ce9170 (2026-09-07). Data as JSON: /api/errors/b1058411bda11467. Report an issue: GitHub.