Free Checklist

Airflow Best Practices Checklist

30+ essential best practices for building production-ready Apache Airflow DAGs. Use this checklist to ensure your pipelines are reliable, maintainable, and scalable.

What's Included

A comprehensive checklist covering all aspects of Airflow DAG development

DAG Structure

  • Use descriptive DAG IDs
  • Set appropriate start_date
  • Disable catchup for backfill control
  • Use tags for organization
  • Set max_active_runs limit

Task Design

  • Keep tasks idempotent
  • Use appropriate operators
  • Set task timeouts
  • Implement retry logic
  • Use task pools for resource management

Error Handling

  • Implement comprehensive error handling
  • Use on_failure_callback
  • Log errors with context
  • Set up alerting
  • Handle partial failures gracefully

Performance

  • Optimize task dependencies
  • Use XCom efficiently
  • Avoid unnecessary task dependencies
  • Use sensors appropriately
  • Monitor resource usage

Security

  • Use Airflow connections securely
  • Implement proper access controls
  • Encrypt sensitive data
  • Audit DAG changes
  • Follow least privilege principle

Testing

  • Write unit tests for tasks
  • Test DAG structure
  • Validate data quality
  • Test error scenarios
  • Use staging environment

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