Can't dbt bigquery label be applied to query job label?

[jungmonster]

Hi,
I want to apply labels and view them for analysis or to measure slot usage of dbt queries in bigquery.
So I make a bq_label macro,

{% macro bq_labels(node, var) %}
  {
    "model": "{{ node.name | replace(' ', '_') | lower }}",
    "project": "{{ target.project | lower }}",
    "dataset": "{{ target.dataset | lower }}",
    "invocation_id": "{{ invocation_id }}",
  }
{% endmacro %}

apply dbt_project.yml like this.

query-comment:
  comment: "{{ bq_labels(node, var) }}"
  job-label: True

But it doesn't appear in the job explorer. It is reflected as a comment at the top of each query.

Is it possible to make the labels appear in the queries used in dbt?

I am using dbt version 1.9.0.

[mateuscarestiato]

Hi @jungmonster! The issue is likely in how the macro output is being parsed as a BigQuery job label. A few things to check:

1. The macro must return a valid Python dict string, not just JSON-like text. With job-label: true, dbt parses the query-comment output as a dict for BigQuery labels. Try this format:

jinja
{% macro bq_labels(node, var) %}
{{ {
"model": node.name | replace(' ', '') | lower,
"invocation_id": invocation_id | replace('-', '')
} }}
{% endmacro %}
2. BigQuery label restrictions (this is often the silent failure):

Keys and values must be lowercase
Max 63 characters per key/value
Only letters, numbers, hyphens, and underscores allowed
invocation_id contains hyphens → replace with underscores ✅
3. Verify job-label: true is at the right level in dbt_project.yml:

yaml
query-comment:
comment: "{{ bq_labels(node, var) }}"
job-label: true # must be here, not indented further
4. Test with a minimal macro first:

jinja
{% macro bq_labels(node, var) %}
{{ {"dbt_model": node.name | lower} }}
{% endmacro %}
If this single label appears in Job Explorer, the issue was in the original macro format.

5. Check BigQuery Job Explorer filter — labels appear under "Labels" in the job details, not in the query text. Make sure you're looking at the right column in the explorer.

Let me know which dbt-bigquery adapter version you're using, as the job-label behavior had fixes in 1.8+.