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Import: Add Sources

Rill supports several connectors for importing data: local files, download from an S3 or GCS bucket, download using HTTP(S), connect to databases like MotherDuck or BigQuery. Rill can ingest .csv, .tsv, .json,and .parquet files, which may be compressed (.gz).

Import from multiple files

To import data from multiple files, you can use a glob pattern to specify the files you want to include. To learn more about the syntax and details of glob patterns, please refer to the documentation on glob patterns.

You can also push logic into source definition during important to filter the data for your source (see Using Code below).

Adding a local file​

Using the UI​

To import a file using the UI, click "+" by Sources in the left hand navigation pane, select "Local File", and navigate to the specific file. Alternately, try dragging and dropping the file directly onto the Rill interface.

Using code​

When you add a source using the UI, a code definition will automatically be created as a .yaml file in your Rill project in the sources directory. However, you can also create sources more directly by creating the artifact.

In your Rill project directory, create a source_name.yaml file in the sources directory with the following contents:

type: local_file
path: /path/to/data.csv

Rill will ingest the data next time you run rill start.

Note that if you provide a relative path, the path should be relative to your Rill project root (where your rill.yaml file is located), not relative to the sources directory.

Source Properties

For more details about available configurations and properties, check our Source YAML reference page.

Adding a remote source​

Using the UI​

To add a remote source using the UI, click "+" by Sources in the left hand navigation pane and select the location where your remote files are stored ("Google Cloud Storage", "Amazon S3", or "http(s)"). Enter your file's URI and click "Add Source".

After import, you can reimport your data whenever you want by clicking the "refresh source" button in the Rill UI.

Using code​

When you add a source using the UI or CLI, a code definition will automatically be created as a .yaml file in your Rill project in the sources directory.

To create a remote http(s) source, create a source_name.yaml file in the sources directory with the following contents:

type: https
uri: https://data.example.org/path/to/file.parquet

You can also push filters to your source definition using inline editing. Common use cases for inline editing:

  • Filter data to only use part of source files
  • Push transformations for key fields to source (particularly casting time fields, data types)
  • Resolve ingestion issues by declaring types (examples: STRUCT with different values to VARCHAR, fields mixed with INT and VARCHAR values)
Source Properties

For more details about available configurations and properties, check our Source YAML reference page.

Authenticating remote sources​

Rill requires credentials to connect to remote data sources such as private buckets in S3, GCS or Azure.

When running Rill locally, Rill attempts to find existing credentials configured on your computer. When deploying projects to Rill Cloud, you must explicitly provide service account credentials with correct access permissions.

Configure credentials for GCS​

Rill uses the credentials configured in your local environment using the Google Cloud CLI (gcloud). Follow these steps to configure it:

  1. Open a terminal window and run gcloud auth list to check if you already have the Google Cloud CLI installed and authenticated.

  2. If it did not print information about your user, follow the steps on Install the Google Cloud CLI. Make sure to run gcloud init after installation as described in the tutorial.

Once you have gcloud installed, run this command to set your default credentials:

gcloud auth application-default login

You have now configured Google Cloud access from your local environment. Rill will detect and use your credentials next time you try to ingest a source.

Configure credentials for S3​

Rill uses the credentials configured in your local environment using the AWS CLI.

To check if you already have the AWS CLI installed and authenticated, open a terminal window and run:

aws iam get-user --no-cli-pager

Note: The above command works with AWS CLI version 2 and above

If it prints information about your user, there is nothing more to do. Rill will be able to connect to any data in S3 that you have access to.

If you do not have the AWS CLI installed and authenticated, follow these steps:

  1. Open a terminal window and install the AWS CLI if it is not already installed on your system.

  2. If your organization has SSO configured, reach out to your admin for instructions on how to authenticate using aws sso login.

  3. If your organization does not have SSO configured:

    a. Follow the steps described in How to create an AWS service account using the AWS Management Console in our tutorial for Amazon S3 credentials.

    b. Run the following command and provide the access key, access secret, and default region when prompted (you can leave the "Default output format" blank):

    aws configure

You have now configured AWS access from your local environment. Rill will detect and use your credentials next time you try to ingest a source.

Configure credentials for Azure blob storage​

Rill uses the credentials configured in your local environment using the Azure CLI (az). Follow these steps to configure it:

  1. Open a terminal window and run the following command to check if you already have the Azure CLI installed and authenticated:

    az account show

  2. If it did not display information about your Azure account, you can install the Azure CLI if it is not already installed on your system.

  3. After installing the Azure CLI, run the following command to authenticate with your Azure account:

    az login

    Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the login process.

    If no web browser is available or the web browser fails to open, you may force device code flow with az login --use-device-code.

You have now configured Azure access from your local environment. Rill will detect and use your credentials the next time you interact with Azure services.

Configure credentials for MotherDuck service​

When developing a project locally, you need to set motherduck_token in your enviornment variables. Refer to motherduck docs for more infromation on authenticating with token.