Shadow Mode

Shadow mode writes pipeline output to shadow tables instead of (or alongside) production tables. This lets you validate changes (new logic, schema migrations, adapter upgrades) without affecting production data.

How it works

1. Rocky rewrites target table names by appending a suffix (default: _rocky_shadow) or routing to a dedicated schema
2. The pipeline runs normally, writing to shadow targets
3. A comparison engine checks row counts, schemas, and optionally sample data between shadow and production
4. Results show pass/warn/fail with detailed diffs

Shadow target rewriting

Suffix mode (default)

production: analytics.marts.fct_revenue
shadow:     analytics.marts.fct_revenue_rocky_shadow

Schema override mode

production: analytics.marts.fct_revenue
shadow:     analytics.rocky_shadow.fct_revenue

Schema override keeps the table name clean and groups all shadow tables together.

Comparison engine

The comparison evaluates three dimensions:

Row count

Compares the number of rows between shadow and production:

shadow:     148,203 rows
production: 148,205 rows
diff:       -2 rows (-0.001%)
verdict:    PASS (within 1% warn threshold)

Schema diff

Compares column names, types, and order:

Diff type	Description
ColumnAdded	Column in shadow but not production
ColumnRemoved	Column in production but not shadow
ColumnTypeDiff	Same column, different type
ColumnOrderDiff	Same columns, different order

Sample comparison

Hash-based comparison of sample rows to detect value differences even when row counts match.

Thresholds

Configure pass/warn/fail thresholds:

Threshold	Default	Description
row_count_diff_pct_warn	0.01 (1%)	Warn if row count differs by more than this
row_count_diff_pct_fail	0.05 (5%)	Fail if row count differs by more than this
allow_column_order_diff	true	Whether column reordering is acceptable

Verdicts

Verdict	Meaning
Pass	All comparisons within thresholds
Warn	Minor differences detected (e.g., row count within warn threshold, column order change)
Fail	Significant differences (e.g., row count beyond fail threshold, missing columns, type changes)

Use cases

• Schema migrations: Verify a column rename doesn’t change output
• Logic changes: Compare old vs new calculation results
• Adapter testing: Validate a new warehouse adapter against the production adapter
• dbt migration: Compare Rocky output against dbt output (via rocky validate-migration)