Templates

General

Data Contract Template

Boilerplate data contract to ensure data is fresh, complete, and reliable before it’s used downstream.

Data contract description

This data contract enforces schema stability, it prevents missing or duplicate IDs, blocks missing timestamps, and applies basic validity guardrails such as minimum/maximum lengths for key text fields. Together, these checks catch broken loads, malformed records, and structural changes early.

Dataset

Defines the dataset this contract applies to, including its source and scope. This is the single point of reference for what data is being validated and protected.

Dataset checks

Validations that apply to the dataset as a whole, including schema stability, data freshness, and overall structural enforcement. This contract includes a schema check to detect unexpected changes such as added/removed columns or column reordering. Ensures the dataset contains rows before it is consumed downstream.

Column checks

Column-level rules to ensure completeness, correctness, and consistency for individual fields. This contract enforces that the identifier column is not missing and remains unique, and that the date column is always present. It applies basic string validity constraints to other required fields to prevent empty or excessively long values.

general_data_contract.yml

dataset

checks:
  - schema:
      allow_extra_columns: false
      allow_other_column_order: false
  - row_count:
      threshold:
        must_be_greater_than: 0

columns:
  - name: id
    data_type: varchar
    checks:
      - missing:
      - duplicate:
  - name: date
    data_type: timestamp
    checks:
      - missing:
  - name: column_1
    data_type: varchar
    checks:
      - missing:
      - invalid:
          valid_min_length: 1
          valid_max_length: 255
  - name: column_2
    data_type: varchar
    checks:
      - invalid:
          valid_values: ["C", "A", "D"]
  - name: column_3
    data_type: integer
    checks:
      - aggregate:
          function: avg
          threshold:
            must_be_between:
              greater_than: 20
              less_than: 50

Data contract description

Dataset

Defines the dataset this contract applies to, including its source and scope. This is the single point of reference for what data is being validated and protected.

Dataset checks

Column checks

general_data_contract.yml

dataset

checks:
  - schema:
      allow_extra_columns: false
      allow_other_column_order: false
  - row_count:
      threshold:
        must_be_greater_than: 0

columns:
  - name: id
    data_type: varchar
    checks:
      - missing:
      - duplicate:
  - name: date
    data_type: timestamp
    checks:
      - missing:
  - name: column_1
    data_type: varchar
    checks:
      - missing:
      - invalid:
          valid_min_length: 1
          valid_max_length: 255
  - name: column_2
    data_type: varchar
    checks:
      - invalid:
          valid_values: ["C", "A", "D"]
  - name: column_3
    data_type: integer
    checks:
      - aggregate:
          function: avg
          threshold:
            must_be_between:
              greater_than: 20
              less_than: 50

Data contract description

general_data_contract.yml

dataset

checks:
  - schema:
      allow_extra_columns: false
      allow_other_column_order: false
  - row_count:
      threshold:
        must_be_greater_than: 0

columns:
  - name: id
    data_type: varchar
    checks:
      - missing:
      - duplicate:
  - name: date
    data_type: timestamp
    checks:
      - missing:
  - name: column_1
    data_type: varchar
    checks:
      - missing:
      - invalid:
          valid_min_length: 1
          valid_max_length: 255
  - name: column_2
    data_type: varchar
    checks:
      - invalid:
          valid_values: ["C", "A", "D"]
  - name: column_3
    data_type: integer
    checks:
      - aggregate:
          function: avg
          threshold:
            must_be_between:
              greater_than: 20
              less_than: 50

How to Enforce Data Contracts with Soda

Embed data quality through data contracts at any point in your pipeline.

# pip install soda-{data source} for other data sources

pip install soda-postgress

# verify the contract locally against a data source

soda contract verify -c contract.yml -ds ds_config.yml

# publish and schedule the contract with Soda Cloud

soda contract publish -c contract.yml -sc sc_config.yml

Check out the CLI documentation to learn more.

How to Automatically Create Data Contracts.
In one Click.

Automatically write and publish data contracts using Soda's AI-powered data contract copilot.

Make data contracts work in production

Business knows what good data looks like. Engineering knows how to deliver it at scale. Soda unites both, turning governance expectations into executable contracts.

Make data contracts work in production

Business knows what good data looks like. Engineering knows how to deliver it at scale. Soda unites both, turning governance expectations into executable contracts.

Make data contracts work in production

Business knows what good data looks like. Engineering knows how to deliver it at scale. Soda unites both, turning governance expectations into executable contracts.

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