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Preset Checks

Define validation checks that run automatically for every PR. Preset checks ensure consistent validation across your team.

Goal: Configure recurring checks that execute automatically when Recce runs.

Prerequisites

  • Recce Cloud account or Recce installed in your dbt project
  • At least one validation check you want to automate

Recce Cloud

Create preset checks directly in the Recce Cloud interface. When a PR is created, preset checks run automatically.

From the checklist

Mark any existing check as a preset check:

  1. Run a diff or query in your Recce session
  2. Add the result to your checklist
  3. Open the check menu and select Mark as Preset Check

Mark as Preset Check from checklist

From project settings

Create preset checks directly in your project configuration:

  1. Navigate to your project's Preset Checks page
  2. Click Add Preset Check
  3. Configure the check type and parameters

Project Preset Checks page

Create Preset Checks directly in Recce Cloud

When preset checks are configured, they run automatically each time a PR is created.

Recce OSS

For local Recce, configure preset checks in recce.yml and run them manually or in CI.

Configure in recce.yml

  1. Start by adding a check to your checklist manually:

    1. Run a diff or query in Recce

    2. Add the result to your checklist

      Add check to checklist

    3. Open the check menu and select Get Preset Check Template

    4. Copy the YAML config from the dialog

      Get preset check template

  2. Paste the config into recce.yml at your project root:

    # recce.yml
checks:
  - name: Query diff of customers
    description: |
      This is the demo preset check.

      Please run the query and paste the screenshot to the PR comment.
    type: query_diff
    params:
      sql_template: select * from {{ ref("customers") }}
    view_options:
      primary_keys:
        - customer_id

Run preset checks

In Recce server

When you launch Recce, preset checks appear in your checklist automatically (but not yet executed):

Preset checks in checklist

Click Run Query to execute each check.

With recce run

Execute all preset checks from the command line:

recce run

Output: 

───────────────────────────────── DBT Artifacts ─────────────────────────────────
Base:
    Manifest: 2024-04-10 08:54:41.546402+00:00
    Catalog:  2024-04-10 08:54:42.251611+00:00
Current:
    Manifest: 2024-04-22 03:24:11.262489+00:00
    Catalog:  2024-04-10 06:15:13.813125+00:00
───────────────────────────────── Preset checks ─────────────────────────────────
                            Recce Preset Checks
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Status      Name                 Type         Execution Time   Failed Reason
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
[Success]   Query of customers   Query Diff   0.10 seconds     N/A
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
The state file is stored at [recce_state.json]

View results by launching the server with the state file:

recce server recce_state.json

Verification

Confirm preset checks work:

  1. Add a check config to recce.yml
  2. Run recce run
  3. Verify the check appears in output with [Success] status
  4. Launch recce server recce_state.json and confirm the check appears in your checklist

Troubleshooting

Issue Solution
Check not appearing Verify recce.yml is in project root and YAML syntax is valid
Check fails to run Check that the SQL template references valid models
Wrong results Ensure base and current artifacts are up to date