# Share a Lightdash Dashboard Outside the dbt Team

Canonical: https://commareports.com/share-lightdash-dashboard
Published: 2026-09-08

> Lightdash dashboards need a seat and a warehouse connection. Publish a snapshot to Comma so stakeholders get the metrics at a URL, with the dbt definitions attached.

# Share a Lightdash dashboard outside the dbt team

Lightdash's premise is good: metrics are defined in dbt, in version control,
reviewed like code, and the BI layer reads those definitions instead of
inventing its own. The number in the dashboard and the number in the warehouse
cannot drift, because there is only one definition.

Then somebody in finance asks for the number, and the whole apparatus stops at
a login.

The options are the usual bad three: give them a seat and warehouse access for
one figure, expose a share link, or paste a screenshot into an email — losing,
in the process, exactly the property that made Lightdash worth adopting, since
a screenshot carries no definition at all.

## Publish a snapshot with its definition

Pull the results through the API:

```bash
curl -fsS -X POST "https://lightdash.internal/api/v1/projects/$PROJECT_UUID/explores/orders/runQuery" \
  -H "Authorization: ApiKey $LIGHTDASH_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"dimensions":["orders_month"],
       "metrics":["orders_net_revenue","orders_count"],
       "filters":{},"sorts":[{"fieldId":"orders_month","descending":true}],
       "limit":24}' > results.json
```

Render the rows into a table or a chart, then publish — and attach the dbt
model's `schema.yml` fragment as an asset on the same report:

```bash
curl -fsS -X POST "https://commareports.com/api/v1/reports" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $COMMA_API_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d "$(jq -n --rawfile html report.html \
        --arg t "Net revenue by month — as of $(date +%F)" \
        '{title: $t, html: $html}')"
```

That pairing is the whole point. The reader gets:

- the number,
- the definition it came from, in the form the analytics team maintains it,
- and a date.

Which is a materially better artifact than the dashboard screenshot, because it
answers the follow-up question before it is asked.

## Refresh it where the models refresh

```bash
dbt build --select +orders
lightdash deploy

# then export and PATCH the snapshot
curl -fsS -X POST ".../runQuery" … > results.json
# …render report.html…

curl -fsS -X PATCH "https://commareports.com/api/v1/reports/$REPORT_ID" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $COMMA_API_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d "$(jq -n --rawfile html report.html \
        --arg t "Net revenue by month — $(date +%F)" '{title: $t, html: $html}')"
```

Putting the snapshot in the dbt job is the correct cadence: the published number
changes exactly when the model that produces it changes, and never in between.
A dashboard refreshed on a timer can show a partially-rebuilt model; this
cannot.

See [scheduled HTML reports](/features/routines/scheduled-html-reports) for the
hosted version of the same loop.

## Access

Reports are private by default:

- **Domain-gated** — anyone at `company.com` or a partner's domain. No seats to
  provision, revoked automatically when someone leaves.
- **Named reviewers** — for a board pack or anything narrower.
- **Team** — for internal readers who are not in the analytics group.

See the [sharing model](/docs/sharing). None of these grant warehouse access,
which is the property that makes this safe to do casually.

## What review adds

- **Anchored threads** on a metric — "net of refunds?" answered once, on the
  record, next to the number. See [commenting on HTML](/comment-on-html).
- **Revisions**, so a restated figure has a visible history and a reason.
- **The dbt definition attached**, so the metric is auditable by the person
  reading it.

## Limits

- **Entry HTML: 5 MB.** Assets: 25 MB per file, 250 MB and 500 files total.
- **60 requests/minute per token.**

## Try it

Comma is free — unlimited reports, unlimited commenters, unlimited revision
history.

**[Publish a snapshot →](https://commareports.com/)**

### Related

- [Share dbt docs](/share-dbt-docs) · [Share a Redash dashboard](/share-redash-dashboard)
- [Share a Metabase dashboard](/share-metabase-dashboard) · [Share a Superset dashboard](/share-superset-dashboard)
- [Weekly analytics digest](/features/routines/weekly-analytics-digest) · [Comma vs Hex](/vs/hex)