Remove catalog from RelationConfig protocol and target_relation in Snowflake incremental materialization (#1376)

Author: MichelleArk

dbt-adapters/.changes/unreleased/Under the Hood-20251008-162209.yaml

@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+kind: Under the Hood
+body: Remove `catalog` from `RelationConfig` protocol and update base build_catalog_relation to obtain catalog_name from node config
+time: 2025-10-08T16:22:09.164799-04:00
+custom:
+    Author: michelleark
+    Issue: "1376"

dbt-adapters/src/dbt/adapters/base/impl.py

@@ -79,6 +79,7 @@
     CatalogIntegrationClient,
     CatalogIntegrationConfig,
     CatalogRelation,
+    CATALOG_INTEGRATION_MODEL_CONFIG_NAME,
 )
 from dbt.adapters.contracts.connection import Credentials
 from dbt.adapters.contracts.macros import MacroResolverProtocol
@@ -335,9 +336,18 @@ def get_catalog_integration(self, name: str) -> CatalogIntegration:
         return self._catalog_client.get(name)
 
     @available
-    def build_catalog_relation(self, config: RelationConfig) -> CatalogRelation:
-        catalog = self.get_catalog_integration(config.catalog)
-        return catalog.build_relation(config)
+    def build_catalog_relation(self, config: RelationConfig) -> Optional[CatalogRelation]:
+        if not config.config:
+            return None
+
+        # "catalog" is legacy, but we support it for backward compatibility
+        if catalog_name := config.config.get(
+            CATALOG_INTEGRATION_MODEL_CONFIG_NAME
+        ) or config.config.get("catalog"):
+            catalog = self.get_catalog_integration(catalog_name)
+            return catalog.build_relation(config)
+
+        return None
 
     ###
     # Methods to set / access a macro resolver

dbt-adapters/src/dbt/adapters/contracts/relation.py

@@ -60,7 +60,6 @@ class RelationConfig(Protocol):
     tags: List[str]
     quoting_dict: Dict[str, bool]
     config: Optional[MaterializationConfig]
-    catalog: Optional[str]
 
 
 class ComponentName(StrEnum):

dbt-snowflake/.changes/unreleased/Features-20251008-162321.yaml

@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+kind: Features
+body: Remove catalog from target_relation in incremental macro
+time: 2025-10-08T16:23:21.153185-04:00
+custom:
+    Author: michelleark
+    Issue: "1376"

dbt-snowflake/src/dbt/include/snowflake/macros/materializations/incremental.sql

@@ -82,7 +82,6 @@
 	database=database,
 	type='table',
 	table_format=catalog_relation.table_format,
-  catalog=config.model.catalog,
   ) -%}
 
   {% set existing_relation = load_relation(this) %}