dbt retry: no runs to retry in target directory

TL;DR

dbt retry replays the previous run from the artifacts in target/, and there is no previous run there. Run dbt build (or run/test) once first in the same directory, then dbt retry will pick up the failed nodes. Do not clean target/ between the two commands.

Error

dbt retry: no runs to retry in target directory

Steps

1. Check target/ for runresults.json. If it is missing or from a different invocation, that is the problem. Expected: runresults.json absent, or its timestamps do not match your last run.

2. Run your full command first: dbt build --select ... (whatever you intended), and let it fail on the nodes you want to retry. Expected: target/run_results.json now records the failed nodes.

3. Without cleaning or changing directories, run dbt retry. Expected: dbt retry lists the failed nodes from run_results.json and re-runs them.

4. If you must retry in CI across jobs, persist target/ as a CI artifact between the run job and the retry job. Expected: The retry job finds run_results.json and resumes correctly.

When to use

• dbt retry says no runs to retry
• you ran dbt clean before dbt retry (clean deletes the artifacts retry needs)
• CI runs retry as a separate step without passing target/ along

When not to use

• you want to retry only some nodes (use --select on the original command instead)
• nothing has run yet (there is nothing to retry, run first)
• the previous run succeeded (retry only re-runs failures; success means nothing to do)

Tool compatibility

• dbt-core 1.0+; dbt retry reads target/run_results.json
• dbt clean wipes target/, never run it between run and retry
• dbt Cloud: retries are handled by the job's own retry settings, not this command

Variant phrasings

no runs to retry after changing directories

target/ is relative to the project dir. Retry from the same directory where the run wrote its artifacts.

retry runs everything instead of just failures

Your runresults.json may be from an older run. Check its generatedat timestamp; stale artifacts retry stale failures.

Why it happens

dbt retry is stateful: it does not remember your last command, it reads the last run_results.json. Anything that removes or replaces target/ (clean, fresh checkout, separate CI job) breaks the chain. The fix is keeping the artifacts, not a flag.

Edge cases

• dbt retry re-runs failed nodes and their downstream dependents; it is not a single-node rerun.
• If the failure was a warehouse outage, confirm the warehouse is back before retrying or you will just fail again.

Provenance

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_HLaWoFVAf2AvVR7aqTzreA

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_HLaWoFVAf2AvVR7aqTzreA

Thread query: dbt retry: no runs to retry in target directory

TL;DR: dbt retry replays the previous run from the artifacts in target/, and there is no previous run there. Run dbt build (or run/test) once first in the same directory, then dbt retry will pick up the failed nodes. Do not clean target/ between the two commands.