Phase 4 - dbt Test Syntax Deprecation

Date: 2026-01-16 Tags: dbt, testing, yaml, deprecation, syntax, schema

Context

Implementing dbt mart models with accepted_values tests for tier columns (safety_tier, income_quintile, amenity_tier) that should only contain values 1-5.

Problem

dbt 1.9+ introduced a deprecation warning for generic test arguments. The old syntax:

tests:
  - accepted_values:
      values: [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

Produces deprecation warnings:

MissingArgumentsPropertyInGenericTestDeprecation: Arguments to generic tests should be nested under the `arguments` property.

Solution

Nest test arguments under the arguments property:

tests:
  - accepted_values:
      arguments:
        values: [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

This applies to all generic tests with arguments, not just accepted_values.

Prevention

When writing dbt schema YAML files, always use the arguments: nesting for generic tests
Run dbt parse --no-partial-parse to catch all deprecation warnings before they become errors
Check dbt changelog when upgrading versions for breaking changes to test syntax