ref() and the DAG

Instead of hard-coding table names like "raw.customers", dbt models reference other models with {{ ref('model_name') }}. dbt parses every ref() to build the DAG — a directed graph of model dependencies — and runs models in the correct order automatically.

In this lesson you will replace a hard-coded table name with ref(), then watch the DAG update in the lineage panel and verify dbt now runs your models in topological order.