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Version: 0.15.50

Setup Icon How to initialize a new Data Context with the CLI

Prerequisites: This how-to guide assumes you have:

Steps​

1. Initialize your Data Context with the CLI​

The simplest way to create a new Data ContextThe primary entry point for a Great Expectations deployment, with configurations and methods for all supporting components. is by using Great Expectations' CLI.

From the directory where you want to deploy Great Expectations run the following command:

Terminal command
great_expectations init

You should be presented with this output and prompt:

Terminal output
Using v3 (Batch Request) API

  ___              _     ___                  _        _   _
 / __|_ _ ___ __ _| |_  | __|_ ___ __  ___ __| |_ __ _| |_(_)___ _ _  ___
| (_ | '_/ -_) _` |  _| | _|\ \ / '_ \/ -_) _|  _/ _` |  _| / _ \ ' \(_-<
 \___|_| \___\__,_|\__| |___/_\_\ .__/\___\__|\__\__,_|\__|_\___/_||_/__/
                                |_|
             ~ Always know what to expect from your data ~

Let's create a new Data Context to hold your project configuration.

Great Expectations will create a new directory with the following structure:

    great_expectations
    |-- great_expectations.yml
    |-- expectations
    |-- checkpoints
    |-- plugins
    |-- .gitignore
    |-- uncommitted
        |-- config_variables.yml
        |-- data_docs
        |-- validations

OK to proceed? [Y/n]:

When you see the prompt to proceed, enter Y or simply press the enter key to continue. Great Expectations will then build out the directory structure and configuration files it needs for you to proceed.

2. Verify that your Data Context was initialized​

Once Great Expectations finishes executing your great_expectations init command, verifying that your Data Context was created is as simple as checking the contents of the folder that you ran the init command from.

After running the init command, your great_expectations directory will contain all of the important components of a local Great Expectations deployment. This is what the directory structure looks like:

  • great_expectations.yml contains the main configuration of your deployment.
  • The expectations directory stores all your
    as JSON files. If you want to store them somewhere else, you can change that later.
  • The plugins/ directory holds code for any custom plugins you develop as part of your deployment.
  • The uncommitted/ directory contains files that shouldn’t live in version control. It has a .gitignore configured to exclude all its contents from version control. The main contents of the directory are:
    • uncommitted/config_variables.yml, which holds sensitive information, such as database credentials and other secrets.
    • uncommitted/data_docs, which contains Data Docs generated from Expectations, Validation Results, and other metadata.
    • uncommitted/validations, which holds Validation Results generated by Great Expectations.

🚀🚀 Congratulations! 🚀🚀

You have initialized a new Data Context!

3. Next steps​

Now that you have initialized a Data Context, you are ready to configure it to suit your needs.

For guidance on configuring database credentials, see:

For guidance on configuring Data Docs, see:

For guidance on configuring Expectation Stores, see:

For guidance on configuring Validation Stores, see:

For guidance on configuring Metric Stores, see: