[CT-3041] [Bug] Semantic Model nested element descriptions do not support doc blocks

[siljamardla]

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 semantic model has entities, measures and dimensions. Each of these can have name, description etc.
Writing a manual description works, but re-using a predefined description does not work. Compilation fails with

12:51:01  Running with dbt=1.6.0
12:51:02  Registered adapter: databricks=1.6.1
12:51:02  Encountered an error:
Compilation Error
  Could not render {{ doc('orders_created') }}: 'doc' is undefined

Yes, I am absolutely sure the doc block referenced does exist as it is used in the metric description as well.

Expected Behavior

As everywhere else in dbt, I would expect DRY and I would expect to be able to reuse descriptions.

Steps To Reproduce

Semantic model that compiles:

semantic_models:
  - name: orders
    defaults:
      agg_time_dimension: created_date_local
    description: Some description
    model: ref('orders')
    # Entities. These usually corespond to keys in the table.
    entities:
      - name: order_key
        description: Manual description
        type: primary
      - name: city
        type: foreign
        expr: city_id
    # Measures. These are the aggregations on the columns in the table.
    measures:
      - name: orders_created
        description: Manual description
        expr: 1
        agg: sum
    # Dimensions. Either categorical or time.
    dimensions:
      - name: created_date_local
        description: Manual description
        type: time
        type_params:
          time_granularity: day 
      - name: city_id
        type: categorical

and this does not compile

semantic_models:
  - name: orders
    defaults:
      agg_time_dimension: created_date_local
    description: Some description
    model: ref('orders')
    # Entities. These usually corespond to keys in the table.
    entities:
      - name: order_key
        description: "{{ doc('orders_created') }}"
        type: primary
      - name: city
        type: foreign
        expr: city_id
    # Measures. These are the aggregations on the columns in the table.
    measures:
      - name: orders_created
        description: "{{ doc('orders_created') }}"
        expr: 1
        agg: sum
    # Dimensions. Either categorical or time.
    dimensions:
      - name: created_date_local
        description: "{{ doc('orders_created') }}"
        type: time
        type_params:
          time_granularity: day 
      - name: city_id
        type: categorical

I have tested the descriptions of entities, measures and dimensions separately as well, none of them accept the doc block.

Relevant log output

No response

Environment

- OS: Mac OS
- Python: 3.9.17
- dbt: 1.6.0

Which database adapter are you using with dbt?

spark

Additional Context

No response

[graciegoheen]

Hey thanks for catching this! We definitely want to support docs blocks in semantic model yml files.

[jtcohen6]

This feels very similar to:

• [CT-3067] [Bug] Docs blocks don't work in model versions #8540