fix(vertica): make edr_current_timestamp_in_utc return UTC

[joostboon]

Problem

The Vertica CI job fails 12 tests whenever it runs between roughly 00:00 and 07:00 UTC, all with 'pass' == 'fail':

• test_data_freshness_sla.py: test_no_data_fails, test_stale_data_fails, test_with_where_expression
• test_metric_stability.py: detects_restated_settled_value, detects_restatement_in_any_column, first_check_catches_gradual_drift, quoted_column_details[first_check|last_check], reports_disappearing_bucket[dimensions0|1], reports_disappearing_dimension, tolerates_change_within_threshold

Root cause

There was no vertica__edr_current_timestamp_in_utc, so the default implementation used dbt's default__current_timestamp_in_utc_backcompat, which is simply current_timestamp::timestamp in the session's local time zone. The CI container runs with TZ=America/Los_Angeles, so the "UTC" timestamp lagged real UTC by 7 hours. During early UTC hours that meant:

• freshness SLA: current_timestamp_in_utc > sla_deadline_utc was still false, so stale or missing data was not flagged;
• metric stability: metrics were stamped with an updated_at earlier than the bucket's settle time, so they were never used as a baseline and restatements went undetected.

Fix

Add vertica__edr_current_timestamp_in_utc returning cast(current_timestamp at time zone 'UTC' as timestamp). This also fixes the same skew for real Vertica deployments whose server is not set to UTC.

The container TZ is left as is and now has a comment explaining it is intentionally non-UTC, since that is what surfaced this bug.

Verification

Ran locally against ghcr.io/ratiopbc/vertica-ce with the container clock skewed:

Container TZ	Tests	Before	After
Etc/GMT+12 (UTC-12, local date one day behind)	freshness SLA + metric stability	12 failed, 13 passed (the exact CI failures)	25 passed
Etc/GMT+12	full suite		271 passed, 30 skipped
Etc/GMT-14 (UTC+14)	freshness SLA + metric stability		25 passed

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

Summary by CodeRabbit

• Bug Fixes
  • Vertica now returns current timestamps in UTC, keeping timestamp-based behavior consistent when the database session uses a non-UTC timezone.

[github-actions]

👋 @joostboon
Thank you for raising your pull request.
Please make sure to add tests and document all user-facing changes.
You can do this by editing the docs files in the elementary repository.

[coderabbitai]

No actionable comments were generated in the recent review. 🎉

ℹ️ Recent review info

⚙️ Run configuration

• Configuration used: defaults
• Review profile: CHILL
• Plan: Advanced
• Run ID: c39f758c-5b66-472f-8503-436a349f0831

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📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between 837e006 and 7290b0c.

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📒 Files selected for processing (2)

• integration_tests/docker-compose-vertica.yml
• macros/utils/cross_db_utils/current_timestamp.sql

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Included review availability: This review used your included allowance. Your plan provides up to 4 included reviews per hour; 2 remain after this review.

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📝 Walkthrough

Walkthrough

Adds a Vertica-specific macro that converts the current timestamp at time zone UTC to a timestamp. Documents that the Vertica integration container uses a non-UTC timezone to test macros that must use UTC.

Changes

Vertica UTC timestamps

Layer / File(s)	Summary
Vertica UTC timestamp implementation macros/utils/cross_db_utils/current_timestamp.sql, integration_tests/docker-compose-vertica.yml	Adds the Vertica-specific UTC timestamp macro. Documents the container’s non-UTC timezone; the TZ value remains America/Los_Angeles.

Priority: ➖ Normal

Estimated code review effort: 2 (Simple) | ~5 minutes

Change: Bug fix

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Merge Risk: ⚪ Minimal · up to 7290b

The Vertica timestamp implementation returns UTC values compatible with its consumers. No actionable merge-blocking risk remains in the reviewed changes.

Architecture Summary

Architecture risk: 🔵 Low · up to 7290b

The change affects 2 systems.

Changed systems: integration_tests, macros

Architecture concerns
No architecture-level concerns identified.

Review details

Systems and components

• observed — integration_tests (service) was modified; 1 changed file maps to changed impact.
• observed — macros (service) was modified; 1 changed file maps to changed impact.

Before / after behavior

• observed — Modified behavior in integration_tests/docker-compose-vertica.yml: Added comments documenting the non-UTC timezone’s role in testing macros that must use UTC; the TZ value is unchanged.
• observed — Modified behavior in macros/utils/cross_db_utils/current_timestamp.sql: Added the Vertica-specific UTC timestamp implementation; it converts current_timestamp at time zone UTC to timestamp.

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Pre-merge checks | 5

✅ Passed checks (5 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Description Check		Check skipped - CodeRabbit’s high-level summary is enabled.
Title check		The title clearly identifies the Vertica-specific fix and states that edr_current_timestamp_in_utc now returns UTC. It is concise and directly matches the main change.
Docstring Coverage		No functions found in the changed files to evaluate docstring coverage. Skipping docstring coverage check. Docstring coverage is scoped to functions touched by this diff. Analyzed 0 functions across 0…
Linked Issues check		Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.
Out of Scope Changes check		Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.

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✨ Finishing Touches

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• Commit to this branch
• Create a new PR

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