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

Implement the `Starburst` match arm in `create_static_relation`, constructing the appropriate `RelationStatic`/`StaticBaseRelationObject` (Starburst is Trino-based, so mirror the Trino quoting/behavior)

dbt-labs/dbt-core · error

Starburst

Error message

Starburst

What it means

This is a Rust `todo!()` panic from `create_static_relation` in crates/dbt-adapter/src/relation/factory.rs:27. The function builds a static `StaticBaseRelationObject` for adapters with a dedicated match arm, but the `Starburst` adapter type was never implemented, so reaching that arm unconditionally panics with the message 'Starburst'. It is a deliberate placeholder marking unfinished adapter support, not a runtime-detected failure.

Source

Thrown at crates/dbt-adapter/src/relation/factory.rs:27

use minijinja::Value;

/// Create a static relation value from an adapter type
/// To be used as api.Relation in the Jinja environment
pub fn create_static_relation(
    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 `Starburst` match arm in `create_static_relation`, constructing the appropriate `RelationStatic`/`StaticBaseRelationObject` (Starburst is Trino-based, so mirror the Trino quoting/behavior)
Until implemented, guard callers: reject or fall back for `AdapterType::Starburst` before calling `create_static_relation`
Use a non-Starburst adapter type (e.g. Snowflake, BigQuery, Redshift) when exercising the static relation factory

Example fix

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

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

fn supports_static_relation(t: AdapterType) -> bool {
    !matches!(t, AdapterType::Starburst)
}
if !supports_static_relation(adapter_type) {
    return Err(format!("static relation factory does not support {adapter_type:?} yet"));
}

Type guard

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

Try / catch

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

Prevention

Before routing a profile through the static relation factory, check the adapter type against the list of implemented arms in factory.rs
Prefer explicit error returns over todo!() when adding new AdapterType variants
Run the static-relation quote-policy tests with the target adapter type enabled before shipping
Track unimplemented match arms with a clippy/exhaustiveness check in CI

When it happens

Trigger: Calling `create_static_relation` (exposed via `get_value`, `adapter_api_value`, or the static-relation unit tests) with `adapter_type` resolving to `AdapterType::Starburst`; any dbt-jinja `api.Relation.create`-style invocation for a Starburst profile in a context that routes through the static relation factory.

Common situations: A developer enables a Starburst profile in their profiles.yml and runs a model whose jinja code calls the relation factory; a test author parameterizes static-relation quote-policy tests over all AdapterType variants including Starburst; an adapter matrix sweep iterating every AdapterType hits the unimplemented arm.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of dbt-labs/dbt-core@0267ce9170 (2026-09-07). Data as JSON: /api/errors/af84efbf43721739. Report an issue: GitHub.