[idea] Add more quickstarts which use a local db

[dradetsky]

Which of these best describes you?

• dbt Community member
• Partner
• dbt Labs employee
• Other

What's your idea for new content?

As a user, I would like at least one quickstart guide for using dbt with a local database. Ideally more than one. All the existing quickstart guides involve using a cloud service, which means signing up and providing a credit card. This is suboptimal for various reasons.

Currently, work seems to be ongoing for a DuckDB-based quickstart [#5783]. (I'd help, but I can't actually see the vercel error, and it's not immediately obvious if this is a permission issue, a didn't-install-a-github-app issue, or an I'm-not-being-smart-right-now issue). This would definitely be a step in the right direction. Also, when I originally complained on slack:

https://getdbt.slack.com/archives/C2JRTGLLS/p1733789906454009

my attention was directed to https://github.com/dbt-labs/jaffle_shop_duckdb, which is definitely useful, but also something I didn't find by looking at the beginner docs. The quickstarts in question should be something a user would reasonably expect to find when looking at beginner documentation (see recommendation below).

Ideally, however, there should be more than one option if that's not too difficult. For example, since Postgres is an official adapter for dbt, it makes sense to have a quickstart for a local Postgres instance. Also, it should ideally be clearly signposted that these options work for a local instance and are not just another variation of cloud services.

Where would you recommend this content live on the docs.getdbt.com?

On https://docs.getdbt.com/docs/get-started-dbt

In one or more little boxes under "dbt Core" analogous to the ones under "dbt Cloud" like

• Quickstart for dbt Core and local DuckDB
• Quickstart for dbt Core and local Postgresql DB
• ...

[mirnawong1]

hey @dradetsky , thanks for opening this issue up and those are all great points! you're right that we're currently working through the duckdb quickstart and we appreciate your offer to help! the quickstart pr is something we're still working through and can reference your issue as we make progress.

in terms of beginner documentation, we can for sure add cards to represent the core quickstarts, which will be helpful as we add the duckdb one in the future. i'm happy to create a pr to address that in the short term as we continue to assess your feedback for local db.