new-style cumulative metric should compile without error

Error message

new-style cumulative metric should compile without error

What it means

Test-only panic: a new-style cumulative metric (7-day rolling, `base_l7d`) failed to compile for DuckDB, panicking at `.expect("new-style cumulative metric should compile without error")`. The comment notes the pre-fix failure was 'cumulative metric base_l7d has no aggregation params', so this guards against regressing cumulative metrics defined with the new syntax lacking proper aggregation parameter materialization.

Source

Thrown at crates/dbt-metricflow/src/lib.rs:11626

        let spec = SemanticQuerySpec {
            metrics: vec!["base_l7d".into()],
            group_by: vec![GroupBySpec::TimeDimension {
                name: "metric_time".into(),
                granularity: "day".into(),
                date_part: None,
            }],
            where_filters: vec![],
            order_by: vec![],
            limit: None,
            time_constraint: None,
            apply_group_by: true,
        };

        // Pre-fix: fails with "cumulative metric base_l7d has no aggregation params".
        // Post-fix: compiles and the SQL contains a rolling window condition.
        let sql = compile(&mut store, &spec, Dialect::DuckDB)
            .expect("new-style cumulative metric should compile without error");

        assert!(
            sql.contains("INTERVAL"),
            "rolling-window cumulative SQL must contain an INTERVAL for the 7-day window\n  SQL:\n{sql}"
        );
    }
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 0267ce9170)

Solutions

Ensure the cumulative metric has valid window/aggregation type params (e.g. measure + window: 7 days)
Check the compiler path that materializes cumulative base_l7d rolling window params
Verify generated SQL contains the INTERVAL rolling condition for the 7-day window
Update the regression fix referenced in the test comment

Example fix

null

Defensive patterns

Strategy: try-catch

Validate before calling

// check cumulative metric has aggregation params before compile
assert!(!metric.type_params.measures.is_empty() || metric.type_params.window.is_some(),
        "cumulative metric needs measures and window");

Try / catch

let sql = compile(&mut store, &spec, Dialect::DuckDB)
    .unwrap_or_else(|e| panic!("cumulative compile failed: {e:?}"));

Prevention

Use the new cumulative syntax consistently (avoid mixing old/new forms)
Always specify window/gravity for rolling cumulative metrics
Keep the rolling-window -> aggregation params conversion covered by tests

When it happens

Trigger: Compiling a cumulative metric spec where the compiler cannot derive aggregation params for the base window metric — the new-style cumulative definition's `window: 7 days` wasn't converted into rolling aggregation params, so `compile` returns Err (or the SQL lacks the INTERVAL rolling condition).

Common situations: Mixing old/new cumulative syntax; metric defined without `type_params.window`/`gravity` handled; compiler refactor dropping the rolling-window conversion for cumulative base metrics.

Understand the failure class

Background: "query failed", "%w: SQL error" — wrapped database query errors in Go libraries explained — this error's family across 3 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of dbt-labs/dbt-core@0267ce9170 (2026-09-07). Data as JSON: /api/errors/54e2677145462b79. Report an issue: GitHub.