generate-cdm

Generate CDM

Translate the ontology into an implementation-ready Canonical Data Model using Kimball dimensional modeling.

Requires .schema/<cdm-name>/ontology.ison from create-ontology. If missing, run create-ontology first.

Read _name from .schema/<cdm-name>/taxonomy.json to determine <cdm-name> — all files in this skill are under that folder.

Reference: DBML format — https://dbml.org/docs/

Steps

1. Classify entities as fact or dimension

Read .schema/ontology.ison. For each entity, apply Kimball classification:

Signals	Classification
Describes a business event or transaction (e.g. EventAttendance, Order, PageView)	Fact table
Describes a stable business object (e.g. Person, Company, Product)	Reference table
A reference table shared across multiple fact tables	Shared reference table

Present the classification to the user and confirm before proceeding:

Here's how I'd structure your data model:

  Reference tables (who/what your data is about):
    dim_person — Person (shared across all facts)
    dim_company — Company (shared across all facts)
    dim_event — Event

  Fact tables (the events/transactions):
    fact_event_attendance — one row per person per event attended

Does this look right?

Agree on shared reference tables early — they must be consistent across all fact tables.

2. Define grain for every fact table

For each fact table, write an explicit grain statement:

"One row per [unit] per [unit]"

Example: "One row per person per event attended."

The grain drives:

• Which columns go in the fact table vs. a dimension
• The grain key (column combination used to detect duplicates)
• The surrogate key definition

Never proceed without a confirmed grain.

3. Design dimension tables

For each dimension entity:

• Add a surrogate key (<entity_name>_sk, bigint or string hash)
• Assign SCD type:
  • Type 1 (default): overwrite on change — use for attributes where history doesn't matter
  • Type 2: track history — adds valid_from (timestamp), valid_to (timestamp, nullable), is_current (bool)
  • Use Type 2 for: status, tier, segment, role — anything an analyst might want "as of" a date
• Include source_id (natural key from source) and source_pipeline for lineage
• Null semantics: assign sentinel rows (UNKNOWN, NOT_APPLICABLE) — never use NULL as FK (Kimball Rule #6)

4. Design fact tables

For each fact table:

• Reference dimension surrogate keys as FKs (never natural keys in the fact)
• Add a degenerate dimension for the natural transaction key if useful (e.g. event_id)
• Include additive measures (counts, amounts) and semi-additive measures clearly labelled
• No descriptive attributes — push those to dimensions

5. Review entity equivalence

Check for aliases that only become visible at the dimensional modeling stage — e.g. two ontology entities that would produce identical dimension tables. Do not re-open concept collapses already confirmed in taxonomy.json; those are settled.

If a new collapse is warranted, confirm with the user before merging the tables.

6. Write CDM

Write .schema/CDM.dbml using DBML syntax. Encode metadata in Table notes:

Table dim_person [note: 'table_type:dimension; surrogate_key:person_sk; scd_type:1; conformed:true'] {
  person_sk bigint [pk, note: 'surrogate key']
  source_id varchar [note: 'source key — original ID from the upstream system, stored for lineage']
  source_pipeline varchar
  email varchar
  first_name varchar
  last_name varchar
  company_sk bigint [ref: > dim_company.company_sk]
}

Table fact_event_attendance [note: 'table_type:fact; grain:one row per person per event attended'] {
  attendance_sk bigint [pk]
  person_sk bigint [ref: > dim_person.person_sk]
  event_sk bigint [ref: > dim_event.event_sk]
  registered_at timestamp
  attended bool
}

Required note fields per table type:

• Dimension: table_type, surrogate_key, scd_type, conformed
• Fact: table_type, grain

Output

• .schema/<cdm-name>/CDM.dbml — implementation-ready CDM schema

After writing the file, explicitly ask the user to open and review .schema/<cdm-name>/CDM.dbml before continuing:

Please review `.schema/<cdm-name>/CDM.dbml` — it contains the full data model with all tables, columns, and relationships.

Let me know if anything looks wrong or needs changing before we move on.

Wait for explicit confirmation before handing over to create-transformation skill.