[Epic] Snapshots as a First Class Citizen

[gshank]

An epic to improve the usability and accuracy of snapshots.

P0 - must

Beta Give feedback

1. Snapshot config doesn't work in schema.yml #4000
   snapshots user docs +2
   
2. Warn if updated_at field for snapshot is not same datatype (or timezone) as what's returned in snapshot_get_time() #10234
   snapshots user docs +2
   
3. Allow customizing names of metadata fields in snapshots #10185
   snapshots user docs +2
4. Allow custom date for dbt_valid_to in snapshots #10187
   snapshots user docs +2
5. Improve capturing the history of records in a deleted state #10235
   snapshots user docs +2
6. [CT-2701] [Bug] Snapshot dbt_updated_at not updated #7869
   snapshots user docs +2

P1 - should

Beta Give feedback

1. New snapshot config to validate uniqueness before merge #10236
   snapshots user docs +2
2. [CT-2869] Add new snapshot records when source removes a field #8207
   Refinement enhancement snapshots +3
3. [Feature] Snapshots should respect generate schema/database name macro #10301
   enhancement user docs +2

p2 - could

Beta Give feedback

1. [Feature] Allows snapshots to have a list as a unique key #9992
   enhancement snapshots +2
2. [CT-2280] Tracking changes in the non-chronological insertions of data in dbt snapshots (check strategy) #7138
   enhancement snapshots +2

revisit, refine, prioritize

Beta Give feedback

1. [Feature] option to generate dbt_scd_id as an integer column instead of a string for performance improvements #10300
   enhancement snapshots +2
2. [CT-2699] [Feature] "interactive" compile should include the compiled code of a snapshot #7867
   enhancement help_wanted snapshots +3
3. [Feature] No more jinja block for snapshots - new snapshot design #10246
   enhancement snapshots user docs +3
4. Incorrect identifiers in snapshot schema test when overriding the ref() macro #2848
   bug stale +2
5. [CT-137] [Bug] Snapshot job creates duplicate valid records for unique_key #4661
   bug snapshots +2
6. dbt snapshots to handle append tables #3878
   enhancement snapshots stale +3

Discussions

Problems & (Potential) Solutions for Snapshots
Toggling values when snapshotting a table with a key violation