Installation

This page provides instructions for installing SQLMesh on your computer.

Python virtual environment

It is recommended, but not required, that you use a python virtual environment with SQLMesh.

First, create the virtual environment:

python -m venv .env

Then activate it:

source .env/bin/activate

Install SQLMesh core

Install the core SQLMesh library with pip:

pip install sqlmesh

Install extras

Some SQLMesh functionality requires additional Python libraries, which are bundled with SQLMesh via "extras".

In your pip command, specify the extra's name in brackets to automatically install the additional libraries. For example, you install the SQLMesh Github CI/CD bot extras with pip install "sqlmesh[github]".

There are two types of extras.

Some extras add features, like the SQLMesh VSCode extension or Github CI/CD bot:

Feature extras commands

Feature	pip command
VSCode extension	pip install "sqlmesh[lsp]"
Github CI/CD bot	pip install "sqlmesh[github]"
dbt projects	pip install "sqlmesh[dbt]"
dlt projects	pip install "sqlmesh[dlt]"
Slack notifications	pip install "sqlmesh[slack]"
Development setup	pip install "sqlmesh[dev]"
Browser UI	pip install "sqlmesh[web]"
LLM SQL prompt	pip install "sqlmesh[llm]"

Other extras are required to use specific SQL engines, like Bigquery or Postgres:

SQL engine extras commands

SQL engine	pip command
Athena	pip install "sqlmesh[athena]"
Azure SQL	pip install "sqlmesh[azuresql]"
Bigquery	pip install "sqlmesh[bigquery]"
ClickHouse	pip install "sqlmesh[clickhouse]"
Databricks	pip install "sqlmesh[databricks]"
GCP Postgres	pip install "sqlmesh[gcppostgres]"
MS SQL Server	pip install "sqlmesh[mssql]"
MySQL	pip install "sqlmesh[mysql]"
Postgres	pip install "sqlmesh[postgres]"
Redshift	pip install "sqlmesh[redshift]"
RisingWave	pip install "sqlmesh[risingwave]"
Snowflake	pip install "sqlmesh[snowflake]"
Trino	pip install "sqlmesh[trino]"

Multiple extras can be installed at once, as in pip install "sqlmesh[github,slack]".

Next steps

Now that you've installed SQLMesh, it's time to get started with the SQLMesh example project.

SQLMesh has three user interfaces - choose one for the example project and jump right in:

• Command line interface (CLI)
• Notebook interface
• Browser UI graphical interface

Have an existing dbt project you want to run? Install the dbt extra and check out SQLMesh's dbt adapter.