[Feature] Allow a plugin to ingest the model description and columns to externalNode/manifest.json

[toukoudo]

Is this your first time submitting a feature request?

• I have read the expectations for open source contributors
• I have searched the existing issues, and I could not find an existing issue for this feature
• I am requesting a straightforward extension of existing dbt functionality, rather than a Big Idea better suited to a discussion

Describe the feature

• As far as I know, currently, plugins cannot ingest document/column information for external nodes, resulting in no descriptions or column details appearing in manifest.json for these nodes
  • Neither ModelNodeArgs nor ModelNode.from_args accepts document/columns parameters from a plugin
• I would like to be able to see description and column information for plugin-ingested nodes in the manifest output

Describe alternatives you've considered

No response

Who will this benefit?

I want the plugin to ingest document/columns to external node for the situation below:

• We're using a dbt plugin (dbt-loom) for multi project deployments
• By dbt-loom and the dbt-plugin mechanism, we can see models of other projects, but cannot see the details such as documents and columns
• I frequently need to see these details in external nodes from other projects, for example:
  • To confirm downstream models correctly reference upstream models
  • When writing new models in a downstream project, having access to the column information from upstream projects would be very helpfulul

Are you interested in contributing this feature?

Yes!

Anything else?

No response

[github-actions]

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