Drivers

Define which metrics influence each other in your .yml files and visualize those relationships automatically in Saved Trees.

Drivers are metrics that directly influence or feed into another metric. By defining drivers in your .yml files, you can automatically visualize how metrics relate to each other in Saved Trees — no manual drawing needed.

For example, total_order_amount is a driver of total_revenue, average_order_size, and total_completed_order_amount — because each of those metrics is influenced by the total order amount. On the canvas, this creates a tree where total_order_amount fans out to the metrics it drives.

Defining drivers

Add a drivers property to any metric listing the metrics that flow into it. You can reference metrics from the same table by name, or from other tables using the table.metric syntax:

dbt v1.9 and earlier

models:
  - name: orders
    columns:
      - name: order_amount
        meta:
          metrics:
            total_revenue:
              type: sum
              drivers:
                - total_order_amount
            average_order_size:
              type: average
              drivers:
                - total_order_amount
            total_completed_order_amount:
              type: sum
              drivers:
                - total_order_amount

dbt v1.10+ and Fusion

models:
  - name: orders
    columns:
      - name: order_amount
        config:
          meta:
            metrics:
              total_revenue:
                type: sum
                drivers:
                  - total_order_amount
              average_order_size:
                type: average
                drivers:
                  - total_order_amount
              total_completed_order_amount:
                type: sum
                drivers:
                  - total_order_amount

Lightdash YAML

type: model
name: orders

dimensions:
  - name: order_amount

metrics:
  total_revenue:
    type: sum
    sql: ${TABLE}.order_amount
    drivers:
      - total_order_amount
  average_order_size:
    type: average
    sql: ${TABLE}.order_amount
    drivers:
      - total_order_amount
  total_completed_order_amount:
    type: sum
    sql: ${TABLE}.order_amount
    drivers:
      - total_order_amount

This creates edges on the canvas pointing from each driver to the current metric (e.g., total_order_amount → total_revenue, total_order_amount → average_order_size, etc.).

Cross-table drivers

Drivers don’t have to live in the same table as the metric they drive. Use the table.metric syntax to reference a metric from another table:

metrics:
  conversion_rate:
    type: number
    sql: ${signups} / ${visits}
    drivers:
      - signups              # same-table metric
      - marketing.ad_spend   # cross-table: 'table.metric_name'

How drivers appear on the canvas

• Automatic: Driver edges appear as soon as both the driver and target metrics are on the canvas.
• Read-only: You cannot delete or modify driver edges from the UI — they are managed through your .yml configuration.

In Saved Trees, driver edges are displayed alongside manually-created edges, giving you a complete picture of both the relationships you’ve drawn and the ones defined in your data model.

Driver edges cannot be removed from a Saved Tree. If you don’t want a driver edge to appear, remove one of its endpoint nodes from the canvas.