> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.elementary-data.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Elementary in production

**Running Elementary OSS in production means to include the dbt package in your production dbt project,
and setting up an automated manner to run the Elementary CLI.**

<Card horizontal="true" title="Try Elementary cloud with a free 30 day trial" icon="cloud" href="https://app.elementary-data.com/" />

You can choose any system that allows you to orchestrate a CLI execution, as long as it can meet the following requirements:

* Full installation of Elementary Python package and dependencies.
* Network access to the data warehouse.
* Access to a `profiles.yml` file with `elementary` profile name.
* Read and write permissions to the Elementary schema.

## Elementary `--env` flag

When you run Elementary in production use the `--env prod` flag (By default, it is set to `dev`).
This will show the environment as `prod` in the report and alerts.

## Elementary production deployment and jobs

Your deployment of Elementary has two parts:

**Part 1 - Elementary package in your production dbt project**

In your dbt jobs, after you deploy the Elementary dbt package:

1. **Run and test results** - Collected by default as part of your runs.
2. **Elementary tests** - Make sure your dbt test runs include elementary tests.
3. **Update dbt artifacts** - Elementary uses the dbt artifacts models to enrich the report, alerts and lineage. To update the artifacts data, run the elementary dbt artifacts models.

**Part 2 - Elementary CLI**

On an orchestration system of your choice, run the CLI to:

1. **Send Slack alerts** - Use the `edr monitor --env prod` command and Slack integration.
2. **Generate a report** - Use the `edr report --env prod` or `edr send-report --env prod` that has built in support for sending the report to Slack / GCS / S3.

## What permissions does Elementary require?

The CLI needs to have permissions to access the `profiles.yml` file with the relevant profile,
and network access to the data warehouse.

Also, in the `elementary` profile, the credentials should have permissions to:

* Read all project schemas
* Write to the elementary schema

On your dbt project, make sure that Elementary dbt package can:

* Read all project schemas
* Write to the elementary schema
* Create a schema (alternatively, you can create the elementary schema in advance)

<Accordion title="What is the Elementary schema?">
  The Elementary package creates various models to store information about collected dbt artifacts and test results.

  To avoid mixing with your existing models, we recommend configuring a dedicated schema for the Elementary models using
  the [dbt custom schema](https://docs.getdbt.com/docs/building-a-dbt-project/building-models/using-custom-schemas)
  option.
  Here is an example configuration, that creates a schema with the suffix '\_elementary' for elementary models:

  ```yml dbt_project.yml theme={null}
  models:
    elementary:
      +schema: elementary
  ```
</Accordion>

## When to run Elementary?

For sending alerts or generating a report, there are two options:

1. **Run Elementary CLI after each relevant dbt job** (`dbt test` / `dbt build` / `dbt run`).
2. **Run Elementary CLI periodically** in a frequency that fits your dbt job executions.

## Ways to run Elementary in production

If your organization is using dbt-core, it would probably be a good choice to orchestrate Elementary using the same system that orchestrates dbt.

Any automation server / orchestration tool supports running a CLI tool like Elementary.

Some options include:

1. [Elementary cloud](/cloud/introduction)
2. GitHub Actions - Checkout the [Elementary GitHub Action](https://github.com/elementary-data/run-elementary-action) we created.
3. [Docker](/oss/deployment-and-configuration/docker)
4. [GitLab CI](/oss/deployment-and-configuration/gitlab-ci)
5. Airflow
6. Prefect
7. Meltano - Checkout the [custom Elementary integration](https://hub.meltano.com/utilities/elementary) developed by [Stéphane Burwash](https://github.com/SBurwash) - [Potloc](https://www.potloc.com/).
8. Using cron

## Need help?

If you want to consult on production deployment, we would love to help!\
Please reach out to us on [Slack](https://elementary-data.com/community), we could talk there or schedule a deployment video call.