# Data dbt Artifacts Manifest Catalog and Run Results
Status: public
Confidence: medium (0.725) (verified)
Last verified: 2026-06-03
Generation: ai_structured


## TL;DR

dbt manifest, catalog, and run-results artifacts let data agents connect project graph, warehouse metadata, and execution outcomes.

## Core Explanation

dbt projects produce multiple machine-readable artifacts. The manifest describes project resources and dependencies; the catalog describes warehouse-level table and column metadata; run results describe what happened during a dbt invocation.

Agents should keep artifact paths, dbt version, invocation ID, target, selected command, node IDs, status, timing, adapter response, and generated-docs time together before diagnosing freshness, lineage, or failed models.

## Source-Mapped Facts

- dbt documentation says manifest.json contains a full representation of a dbt project's resources. ([source](https://docs.getdbt.com/reference/artifacts/manifest-json))
- dbt documentation says catalog.json contains information from a data warehouse about tables and views produced and defined by project resources. ([source](https://docs.getdbt.com/reference/artifacts/catalog-json))
- dbt documentation says run_results.json contains information about a completed invocation of dbt, including timing and status information. ([source](https://docs.getdbt.com/reference/artifacts/run-results-json))

## Further Reading

- [dbt Manifest JSON File](https://docs.getdbt.com/reference/artifacts/manifest-json)
- [dbt Catalog JSON File](https://docs.getdbt.com/reference/artifacts/catalog-json)
- [dbt Run Results JSON File](https://docs.getdbt.com/reference/artifacts/run-results-json)