To use different connection profiles for dev and prod with Elementary, you should define multiple targets under the same profile (usually named elementary) in your

profiles.yml

file. For example:

yaml elementary:   target: dev   outputs:     dev:       type: snowflake       account: <dev_account>       user: <dev_user>       password: <dev_password>       role: <dev_role>       warehouse: <dev_warehouse>       database: <dev_db>       schema: <dev_schema>       threads: 8     prod:       type: snowflake       account: <prod_account>       user: <prod_user>       password: <prod_password>       role: <prod_role>       warehouse: <prod_warehouse>       database: <prod_db>       schema: <prod_schema>       threads: 8

You can then specify which target to use when running Elementary CLI commands by using the

--profile-target

(or

-t

) flag. For example, to use the prod connection:

edr report --profile-target prod

The

--env

flag is only cosmetic—it sets the environment name in the report and alerts, but does not control which connection is used. Always use

--profile-target

(or

-t

) to select the correct connection for dev or prod environments. If you omit the flag, the default target specified in your profile will be used [see example](https://slack.com/archives/C02CTC89LAX/p1699363455840319), [another example](https://slack.com/archives/C02CTC89LAX/p1700490053029329), [setup guidance](https://slack.com/archives/C02CTC89LAX/p1678354399287839). If you want to use different profile names (not just targets), you must ensure the profile is named

elementary

in your

profiles.yml

, as the CLI expects this by default. If you need to use a different profile name, you can use the

--profiles-dir

flag to point to a different

profiles.yml

file, but the profile section should still be named

elementary

 [see discussion](https://slack.com/archives/C02CTC89LAX/p1696334751498889). Summary: - Define multiple targets (e.g., dev, prod) under the

elementary

profile in

profiles.yml

. - Use

--profile-target dev

or

--profile-target prod

with your

edr

commands to select the environment. - The

--env

flag is only for display in reports/alerts, not for connection selection.

To deactivate Elementary by default in your dev environment—but still allow for quick activation during development—you can use a variable in your

dbt_project.yml

to control whether Elementary models are enabled. Here’s a recommended approach: 1. Set a variable with a default value of

false

(deactivated) for dev:

yaml vars:   enable_elementary: false  models:   elementary:     +schema: "elementary"     +enabled: "{{ var('enable_elementary', false) }}"

2. Activate Elementary when needed by passing the variable as

true

in your dbt CLI command:

sh dbt run --vars '{"enable_elementary": true}'

This way, Elementary is disabled by default in dev, but you or any developer can quickly enable it for a specific run by setting the variable to

true

on the command line. This pattern is recommended by the Elementary team and community for flexible environment control [see example and discussion](https://slack.com/archives/C02CTC89LAX/p1669625539486519). You can also make the default depend on the environment, for example:

yaml +enabled: "{{ var('enable_elementary', target.name in ['prod', 'acc']) }}"

This enables Elementary only for specific targets by default, but still allows override via the CLI var [see example](https://slack.com/archives/C02CTC89LAX/p1669625539486519). Summary: - Use a variable to control enablement. - Default to

false

in dev. - Override with

--vars

when you want to activate Elementary for development.