Skip to main content

Run a contract in five minutes.

This quick start shows the ContractForge shape: install the core, add the adapter for your target runtime, validate the contract, then render or execute through the adapter.

1. Install packages​

Install the platform-neutral core and the adapter package for your target runtime:

pip install contractforge-core contractforge-databricks

Use the matching adapter package for other runtimes:

pip install contractforge-core contractforge-aws
pip install contractforge-core contractforge-snowflake
pip install contractforge-core contractforge-fabric
pip install contractforge-core contractforge-gcp

Runtime delivery is platform-specific. Databricks and Fabric can usually install from PyPI in the notebook/job environment; AWS Glue should normally receive S3-hosted wheels; Snowflake hosted procedures use staged ZIP imports; GCP BigQuery/Workflows execute native artifacts while the adapter runs in the CLI/CI runner.

See Installation for the full package and runtime delivery matrix.

2. Create a minimal ingestion contract​

source:
  type: table
  table: main.raw.orders
  system: crm

target:
  catalog: main
  schema: bronze
  table: b_orders

layer: bronze
mode: append
schema_policy: additive_only

quality_rules:
  not_null: [order_id]
  expressions:
    - name: positive_amount
      expression: amount >= 0
      severity: abort

The canonical target is always nested under target. Source ownership metadata belongs under source.system, not as a top-level field.

3. Validate with the core CLI​

contractforge validate contracts/bronze/b_orders.ingestion.yaml

The core validation step checks contract shape, portable semantics and fields that must not leak platform implementation details into the semantic model.

4. Plan or render with an adapter​

Use the Databricks adapter when the execution target is Databricks:

from contractforge_databricks import render_databricks_contract

artifacts = render_databricks_contract("contracts/bronze/b_orders.ingestion.yaml")
print(artifacts.status)
print(sorted(artifacts.artifacts))

Rendering produces native Databricks artifacts such as SQL, Python, Asset Bundle fragments and review reports where applicable.

For AWS:

contractforge-aws render contracts/bronze/b_orders.ingestion.yaml --environment environments/prod.aws.yaml

Rendering produces Glue Spark scripts, Glue job definitions, review artifacts, evidence DDL and infrastructure scaffolds.

5. Execute a split-contract bundle on Databricks​

from contractforge_databricks import ingest_databricks_bundle

result = ingest_databricks_bundle(
    "/Workspace/Shared/contracts/bronze/b_orders",
    options={
        "catalog": "main",
        "schema": "ops",
    },
)

display(result)

The bundle path can resolve:

b_orders.ingestion.yaml
b_orders.annotations.yaml
b_orders.operations.yaml
b_orders.access.yaml
b_orders.environment.yaml

Only ingestion is required to move data. The other contracts make catalog metadata, operations, access and environment choices explicit.

6. Inspect evidence​

On Databricks, the adapter persists the core evidence model in Delta control tables:

SELECT
  status,
  target_table,
  mode,
  source_system,
  source_connector,
  rows_read,
  rows_written,
  rows_quarantined,
  quality_status,
  framework_version,
  error_message
FROM main.ops.ctrl_ingestion_runs
ORDER BY started_at_utc DESC
LIMIT 20;

Other adapters must preserve the same evidence concepts, even when their persistence implementation is not Delta.

7. Deploy to AWS Glue​

AWS uses an environment contract to select S3 artifact publication, Glue job settings and the Iceberg warehouse:

adapter: aws
artifacts:
  uri: s3://contractforge-artifacts/prod/orders/
  include_contract_bundle: true
  include_normalized_contract: true
parameters:
  aws:
    iceberg:
      warehouse: s3://contractforge-warehouse/prod/
    glue_job:
      role_arn: arn:aws:iam::123456789012:role/ContractForgeGlueRole

environment.name defaults to dev. Glue version, worker type, worker count, timeout, retries and bookmark behavior also use documented AWS adapter defaults unless overridden.

contractforge-aws deploy contracts/bronze/b_orders.ingestion.yaml --environment environments/prod.aws.yaml

The adapter renders artifacts, publishes them to S3 and creates or updates the Glue job. Glue executes native Spark/Iceberg code; it does not parse contract YAML at runtime.

8. Use logical table refs​

When a downstream contract reads a table produced by another ContractForge contract, use a neutral ref:

source:
  type: table
  ref: bronze.b_products_jdbc

Inline SQL can use:

FROM {{ table_ref:silver.s_product_tags }}

Each adapter resolves those refs into its own native table naming model, but the contract intent stays the same.

Next steps​

Install by runtimeUnderstand adaptersDeploy on AWSModel split contractsChoose a source typeBuild dashboards from evidence