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Medallion Architecture with dbt and Snowflake: A Complete Implementation Guide

DatakryptonByJune 14, 2026
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Medallion architecture has become the default pattern for modern data lakehouses — and for good reason. It gives your data platform a clear, maintainable structure: raw data flows in at the Bronze layer, gets cleaned and standardised at Silver, and emerges as business-ready aggregates at Gold. When you combine this pattern with dbt and Snowflake, you get one of the most powerful and cost-effective data stacks available today.

This guide walks through a complete implementation: folder structure, naming conventions, dbt model configuration, and the Snowflake objects you need at each layer.

Medallion architecture in Snowflake and dbt with Bronze raw history, Silver validated models, Gold products, tests, and lineage.
Medallion layers are valuable when each one has a distinct contract, quality level, owner, and consumer responsibility.

Why Medallion Architecture Works

Before the medallion pattern, most data warehouses had ad-hoc layering — staging tables, reporting tables, and a tangle of views with no consistent logic. The medallion pattern enforces discipline:

  • Bronze — raw, unmodified ingestion of source data. No transformations, no joins.
  • Silver — cleaned, typed, and deduplicated data. Schema is enforced here.
  • Gold — business aggregates and dimensional models. Directly queried by BI tools.

Each layer is idempotent and auditable. If something breaks at Gold, you can always reprocess from Bronze without re-ingesting from source.

Setting Up the dbt Project Structure

Your dbt project folder structure should mirror the medallion layers:

  • models/
    bronze/
    raw_orders.sql
    raw_customers.sql
    silver/
    stg_orders.sql
    stg_customers.sql
    gold/
    dim_customers.sql
    fct_orders.sql
    agg_daily_revenue.sql
    In your dbt_project.yml, configure each layer to materialise differently in Snowflake:
    models:
    your_project:
    bronze:
    +materialized: table
    +schema: bronze
    silver:
    +materialized: table
    +schema: silver
    gold:
    +materialized: table
    +schema: gold

The Bronze Layer: Raw Ingestion

Bronze models simply select from your source system tables. If you are using Fivetran, Airbyte, or Snowpipe for ingestion, your source data lands in a raw schema. Bronze models reference these sources directly with minimal transformation:

  • -- models/bronze/raw_orders.sql
    {{ config(materialized='table') }}

    SELECT *
    FROM {{ source('raw', 'orders') }}
    Define your sources in a sources.yml file so dbt can track freshness and lineage automatically.
    The Silver Layer: Cleaning and Standardisation
    Silver models apply business logic to clean and standardise the Bronze data:
    -- models/silver/stg_orders.sql
    {{ config(materialized='table') }}

    SELECT
    order_id::VARCHAR AS order_id,
    customer_id::VARCHAR AS customer_id,
    order_date::DATE AS order_date,
    UPPER(TRIM(status)) AS status,
    total_amount::DECIMAL(18,2) AS total_amount,
    _loaded_at AS ingested_at
    FROM {{ ref('raw_orders') }}
    WHERE order_id IS NOT NULL
    Add dbt schema tests at the Silver layer to enforce data contracts:
    models:
    - name: stg_orders
    columns:
    - name: order_id
    tests:
    - not_null
    - unique
    - name: status
    tests:
    - accepted_values:
    values: ['PENDING', 'CONFIRMED', 'SHIPPED', 'CANCELLED']

The Gold Layer: Business Aggregates

Gold models join Silver tables to produce the metrics your business actually uses:

  • -- models/gold/agg_daily_revenue.sql
    {{ config(materialized='table') }}

    SELECT
    o.order_date,
    c.customer_segment,
    COUNT(DISTINCT o.order_id) AS orders,
    SUM(o.total_amount) AS revenue,
    AVG(o.total_amount) AS avg_order_value
    FROM {{ ref('stg_orders') }} o
    LEFT JOIN {{ ref('stg_customers') }} c
    ON o.customer_id = c.customer_id
    WHERE o.status = 'CONFIRMED'
    GROUP BY 1, 2

Snowflake-Specific Optimisations

    • Clustering keys on Gold tables — add clustering on your most common filter columns (date, region) to reduce query costs
    • Transient tables for Bronze — Bronze data is reprocessable from source, so use transient=true to save on Snowflake storage (no Fail-safe overhead)
    • Dynamic tables at Silver — Snowflake Dynamic Tables can automate Silver refreshes without orchestration overhead
    • Zero-copy cloning for development — clone your Gold schema for development environments without duplicating storage costs

Running the Full Stack

Once your models are built, your CI/CD pipeline runs:

  • dbt run --select bronze        # refresh raw layer

    dbt test --select bronze       # validate sources

    dbt run --select silver        # clean and standardise

    dbt test --select silver       # enforce schema contracts

    dbt run --select gold          # build business aggregates

    dbt docs generate              # update lineage documentation

Need Help Building This?

The medallion architecture pattern is straightforward in theory but requires careful design decisions in practice — particularly around partitioning, incremental processing, and cost management in Snowflake. DataKrypton has implemented this stack for multiple organisations and can help you design, build, and optimise your dbt and Snowflake environment from day one.

Reach out to our team to discuss your data platform needs. We offer hands-on implementation support and architecture reviews.

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Primary sources and technical references

Use these first-party standards and platform references to validate implementation details and current capabilities.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are Bronze, Silver, and Gold layers?

Bronze preserves source-aligned history, Silver publishes cleaned and conformed reusable models, and Gold serves defined analytical products and metrics.

Does medallion architecture require three physical schemas?

No. Physical organization should fit the platform, but the responsibilities and quality transitions between layers should remain explicit.

Where should dbt tests run?

Run source and contract checks near Bronze, conformance and business-rule tests in Silver, and product and reconciliation tests in Gold.

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