dbt-labs/dbt-core · error

Starburst

Error message

Starburst

What it means

A `todo!()` panic in `ColumnBuilder::build` (crates/dbt-adapter/src/column/column_builder.rs:36). The method maps an adapter type to a column-building strategy, and the Starburst arm was never implemented. Building column metadata from an Arrow field/type_ops while using the Starburst adapter panics with the message 'Starburst'.

Source

Thrown at crates/dbt-adapter/src/column/column_builder.rs:36

impl ColumnBuilder {
    pub fn new(adapter_type: AdapterType) -> Self {
        Self { adapter_type }
    }

    pub fn build(&self, field: &FieldRef, type_ops: &dyn TypeOps) -> AdapterResult<Column> {
        use AdapterType::*;
        match self.adapter_type {
            Snowflake => Ok(Self::build_snowflake(field, type_ops)),
            Bigquery => Ok(Self::build_bigquery(field, type_ops)),
            Databricks | Spark => Ok(Self::build_databricks(field, type_ops)),
            Redshift => Ok(Self::build_redshift(field, type_ops)),
            Postgres | Salesforce | DuckDB | LakeCompute => {
                Ok(Self::build_postgres_like(field, type_ops))
            }
            Fabric => Ok(Self::build_fabric(field, type_ops)),
            ClickHouse => Self::build_clickhouse(field, type_ops),
            Exasol => Ok(Self::build_exasol(field, type_ops)),
            Starburst => todo!("Starburst"),
            Athena => todo!("Athena"),
            Trino => todo!("Trino"),
            Dremio => todo!("Dremio"),
            Oracle => todo!("Oracle"),
            Datafusion => todo!("Datafusion"),
        }
    }

    pub fn build_from_parts(
        &self,
        name: String,
        dtype: String,
        char_size: Option<u32>,
        numeric_precision: Option<u64>,
        numeric_scale: Option<u64>,
        mode: Option<BigqueryColumnMode>,
    ) -> Column {
        use AdapterType::*;

View on GitHub (pinned to 0267ce9170)

Solutions

  1. Use a currently supported adapter (Postgres/DuckDB/LakeCompute-like, Fabric, ClickHouse, or Exasol) for schema-to-column workflows.
  2. Implement the Starburst arm by delegating to `build_postgres_like` (Trino/Starburst types are PostgreSQL-like) in column_builder.rs:36.
  3. Gate Starburst usage behind a feature flag until the builder is implemented so the failure is a clean error, not a panic.

Example fix

// before
Starburst => todo!("Starburst"),
// after
Starburst | Trino => Ok(Self::build_postgres_like(field, type_ops)),
Defensive patterns

Strategy: type-guard

Validate before calling

const SUPPORTED: &[AdapterType] = &[AdapterType::Postgres, AdapterType::Salesforce, AdapterType::DuckDB, AdapterType::LakeCompute, AdapterType::Fabric, AdapterType::ClickHouse, AdapterType::Exasol];
if !SUPPORTED.contains(&adapter) {
    return Err(anyhow!("column building not implemented for {:?}", adapter));
}

Type guard

fn build_supported(t: AdapterType) -> bool {
    matches!(t, Postgres | Salesforce | DuckDB | LakeCompute | Fabric | ClickHouse | Exasol)
}

Try / catch

let res = std::panic::catch_unwind(AssertUnwindSafe(|| ColumnBuilder::new(adapter).build(field, type_ops)));
if res.is_err() { eprintln!("column builder unimplemented for this adapter"); }

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: Any call path into `ColumnBuilder::build` — schema_to_columns, get_column_schema_from_query, update_node_columns — while the adapter type is Starburst. E.g. catalog/query-result schema introspection on a Starburst connection.

Common situations: Running `dbt docs generate` or query-result column extraction against a Starburst adapter before the builder arm was added. Developers enabling the Starburst adapter for testing hit this on the first schema query.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of dbt-labs/dbt-core@0267ce9170 (2026-09-07). Data as JSON: /api/errors/f3d313d34a607434. Report an issue: GitHub.