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Renart Docs

Quickstart

Create a local DuckDB pipeline, change it, explore its tables and schedule it. The product analytics demo generates its own data, so you do not need a warehouse account.

Before you start

Section titled “Before you start”

Install Renart before starting. The commands below also require Git.

1. Start Renart

Section titled “1. Start Renart”
Terminal window
mkdir my-pipelines && cd my-pipelines && git init
renart

Since the workspace has no pipelines yet, Renart opens the welcome screen with three options: Explore a demo, Connect your data and Start from scratch.

2. Create the demo project

Section titled “2. Create the demo project”

Choose Explore a demo. Product analytics is selected: a small SQL pipeline that models product events into user journeys, an activation funnel and daily activity. The preview on the right shows its assets and how they depend on each other. Demos marked Uses the internet download data or tools on their first run; the others only use local data.

Click Create and run. Renart creates the project files, a local DuckDB connection and, if needed, a Git repository, then runs the pipeline once. The first DuckDB run on a machine also downloads DuckDB’s driver. The assets turn fresh on the canvas as they build, and Renart opens the pipeline when the run finishes.

3. Read the canvas

Section titled “3. Read the canvas”

Each node on the canvas is an asset; arrows connect inputs to the assets that read them. Select product.user_journeys, then choose Code or Split to read its query.

4. Preview, edit and rebuild

Section titled “4. Preview, edit and rebuild”

Open Inspect in the results panel to see the asset’s rows. This previews the query without materializing its target.

Change the query, for example by adding a column; code edits save automatically. The asset is marked Edited, and the assets that read from it show Upstream changed. Click Review run: it lists the assets that are Out of date, with the environment and source above them. Nothing runs until you confirm. Run them to make the pipeline fresh again.

5. Explore the results

Section titled “5. Explore the results”

The demo includes a notebook and a dashboard on the pipeline’s tables:

  • Build → Notebooks → Product activity queries the tables in a local session, charts daily active users and filters users by plan.
  • Explore → Present → Product overview charts daily activity and the activation funnel.

Both are plain files in the project, next to the pipeline.

6. Put it on a schedule

Section titled “6. Put it on a schedule”

Open Run → Schedules and click New schedule. Select the product_analytics pipeline, the default environment, the cron expression 0 9 * * *, and your timezone. Under Deployment, keep Deploy current files: Renart shows the files it will deploy, then creates the schedule on that deployment. Check the schedule’s next run time.

Deployment saves a pipeline version; it does not run the pipeline. Scheduled runs appear under Run → Runs, with timing and logs for each asset. Keep Renart and the machine running for the schedule to fire. You can pause the schedule from its row after trying it.

Getting started in the top bar lists these steps and ticks each one off as you do it. Its progress is kept in your browser, not in the project.

Next steps

Section titled “Next steps”