About dbt Core setup

dbt Core is an open-source tool that enables data teams to transform data using analytics engineering best practices. You can install dbt locally in your environment and use dbt Core on the command line. It can communicate with databases through adapters.

This section of our docs will guide you through various settings to get started:

• Connecting to a data platform
• How to run your dbt projects

To learn about developing dbt projects in dbt Cloud, refer to Develop with dbt Cloud.

• dbt Cloud provides a command line interface with the dbt Cloud CLI. Both dbt Core and the dbt Cloud CLI are command line tools that let you run dbt commands. The key distinction is the dbt Cloud CLI is tailored for dbt Cloud's infrastructure and integrates with all its features.

If you need a more detailed first-time setup guide for specific data platforms, read our quickstart guides.