Debug Snapshot target is not a snapshot table errors

If you see the following error when you try executing the snapshot command:

Snapshot target is not a snapshot table (missing dbt_scd_id, dbt_valid_from, dbt_valid_to)

Double check that you haven't inadvertently caused your snapshot to behave like table materializations by setting its materialized config to be table. Prior to dbt version 1.4, it was possible to have a snapshot like this:

{% snapshot snappy %}
  {{ config(materialized = 'table', ...) }}
  ...
{% endsnapshot %}

dbt is treating snapshots like tables (issuing create or replace table ... statements) silently instead of actually snapshotting data (SCD2 via insert / merge statements). When upgrading to dbt versions 1.4 and higher, dbt now raises a Parsing Error (instead of silently treating snapshots like tables) that reads:

A snapshot must have a materialized value of 'snapshot'

This tells you to change your materialized config to snapshot. But when you make that change, you might encounter an error message saying that certain fields like dbt_scd_id are missing. This error happens because, previously, when dbt treated snapshots as tables, it didn't include the necessary snapshot meta-fields in your target table. Since those meta-fields don't exist, dbt correctly identifies that you're trying to create a snapshot in a table that isn't actually a snapshot.

When this happens, you have to start from scratch — re-snapshotting your source data as if it was the first time by dropping your "snapshot" which isn't a real snapshot table. Then dbt snapshot will create a new snapshot and insert the snapshot meta-fields as expected.