[Bug] MissingArgumentsPropertyInGenericTestDeprecation misleading on properties.

[pempey]

Is this a new bug in dbt-core?

• I believe this is a new bug in dbt-core
• I have searched the existing issues, and I could not find an existing issue for this bug

Current Behavior

The following yaml will raise a MissingArgumentsPropertyInGenericTestDeprecation warning:

       data_tests:
          - unique:
              where: "valid_to = NULL"

This leads the developer to resolve the warning by moving the where under the arguments property

       data_tests:
          - unique:
             arguments:
               where: "valid_to = NULL"

Expected Behavior

The warning that should be raised in a property error, PropertyMovedToConfigDeprecation so that the developer is lead to move the where under the config property.

Steps To Reproduce

Define a generic unique data_test to have a where field as a top level property.

Relevant log output

Environment

- OS: macOS-15.6.1-x86_64-i386-64bit
- Python: 3.10.3
- dbt: 1.11.2

Which database adapter are you using with dbt?

No response

Additional Context

No response

[dbeatty10]

Thanks for reporting this @pempey ! 👑

Switching from MissingArgumentsPropertyInGenericTestDeprecation to PropertyMovedToConfigDeprecation makes sense to me.

That way, people know to put where: under config: like in the docs:

models:
  - name: my_model
    columns:
      - name: id
       data_tests:
          - unique:
              config:
                where: "valid_to is null"

[dbeatty10]

Side note

I'm assuming you put valid_to = NULL for quick example purposes (which would never evaluate to true because NULL isn't equal to anything in SQL, not even NULL).

[kalluripradeep]

@dbeatty10 @pempey I've opened a PR for this — #12618

Root cause: In TestBuilder.extract_test_args(), the check for missing arguments property didn't distinguish between actual test arguments and known config properties (CONFIG_ARGS like where, severity, tags, etc.). Any top-level key that wasn't config, column_name, description, or name triggered MissingArgumentsPropertyInGenericTestDeprecation — even for legitimate config keys.

Fix:

1. Excluded CONFIG_ARGS keys from the missing-arguments check so they don't trigger the wrong deprecation
2. Added PropertyMovedToConfigDeprecation emission in extract_test_args() for each config key found at the root level, guiding developers to move it under config: instead of arguments:

A regression test is included that confirms PropertyMovedToConfigDeprecation fires and MissingArgumentsPropertyInGenericTestDeprecation does not, for the exact repro case in this issue.

[pempey]

@dbeatty10 Sadly no that is what is in the code at the moment :( But I will make a not to have it corrected. I am guessing that the where clause can be dropped as it has not been having any effect anywhy.

Side note

I'm assuming you put valid_to = NULL for quick example purposes (which would never evaluate to true because NULL isn't equal to anything in SQL, not even NULL).