Add Sorting Support for dbt Source and Schema YAML Definitions

[Lee2532]

When managing dbt sources and schema YAML files, the lack of built-in sorting often leads to inconsistent ordering of elements like sources, tables, and models. Over time, especially in large projects with many contributors, this inconsistency makes the files harder to read, review, and maintain.

It would be highly beneficial to introduce a built-in or officially supported way to sort YAML definitions by name, particularly for:

• sources under schema.yml
• tables under each source
• models and other dbt resource declarations

This could be implemented as:

• A command-line utility (e.g., dbt sort-yaml)
• A pre-commit plugin maintained under the dbt-labs ecosystem

Adding such a feature would improve YAML consistency, reduce merge conflicts, and make diffs easier to interpret in pull requests.

Let me know if this proposal aligns with the dbt community’s direction or if there’s an existing solution worth contributing to.

If this feature does not currently exist in the dbt ecosystem or roadmap, I’m happy to contribute by developing the functionality myself and submitting a pull request. Please let me know if this would be a welcome contribution or if there are existing guidelines I should follow.

[yochem]

A dbt format command that would format sql, jinja and yaml (also sorting it) would be so neat