06-core-01-projects.md

5.6 - Core Concepts: Projects

🎥 Bruin Core Concepts | Projects (3:03)

What is a Project?

A Project is the root directory where you create your entire Bruin data pipeline. It serves as the foundation for organizing all your data assets, configurations, and connections.

Project Initialization

The project must be initialized with bruin init so the CLI tool can understand the directory structure and navigate files correctly.

bruin init zoomcamp my-pipeline
cd my-pipeline

The .bruin.yml File

Located at the root of your project, this file defines environments, connections, and secrets.

Important: This file is always added to .gitignore to protect secrets. It stays local only and should never be pushed to your repo.

Environments

Define different environments for various stages:

default_environment: default

environments:
  default:
    connections:
      duckdb:
        - name: duckdb-default
          path: duckdb.db
      motherduck:
        - name: motherduck
          token: <your-token>

  production:
    connections:
      bigquery:
        - name: bq-prod
          project: my-project
          dataset: production

Benefits:

• Run pipelines locally or on servers without exposing production credentials
• Different teams can have different connection access
• Default to dev environment to prevent accidental production runs

Connection Types

Built-in connections include:

• DuckDB, MotherDuck
• PostgreSQL, MySQL
• BigQuery, Redshift, Snowflake
• Custom connections (for API keys, secrets, etc.)

Default Environment

Set which environment is used by default:

default_environment: dev

This ensures pipelines run on development unless explicitly told to use production.

Quick Reference

# Initialize a new project
bruin init zoomcamp my-pipeline

# Navigate to your project
cd my-pipeline

# Check project is valid
bruin validate .

Further Reading

• Bruin Documentation - Projects
• Bruin GitHub - Templates