About profiles.yml

If you're using dbt Core, you'll need a profiles.yml file that contains the connection details for your data platform. When you run dbt Core from the command line, it reads your dbt_project.yml file to find the profile name, and then looks for a profile with the same name in your profiles.yml file. This profile contains all the information dbt needs to connect to your data platform.

For detailed info, you can refer to the Connection profiles.

No profiles.yml file needed for dbt Cloud

If you're using dbt Cloud, you can connect to your data platform directly in the dbt Cloud interface and don't need a profiles.yml file.

This section identifies the parts of your profiles.yml that aren't specific to a particular data platform. For specific connection details, refer to the relevant page for your data platform.

User config

You can set default values of global configs for all projects that you run using your local machine. Refer to About global configs for details.