[Bug] Skip cache lookups for external nodes while resolving deferred references

[jtcohen6]

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

Full context in internal slack thread

If I am:

• resolving references to an upstream public model (which dbt-core understands as an "external" node)
• with deferral enabled
• and I don't have metadata permissions on the schema containing that upstream public model (unusual, but it does happen)

Then I'll get a failure like (BigQuery):

403 GET https://bigquery.googleapis.com/bigquery/v2/projects/...: Access Denied: Table ...: Permission bigquery.tables.get denied on table ... (or it may not exist).

Expected Behavior

Because enabling deferral (--defer) won't actually change which reference dbt will use for upstream public models (external nodes), regardless of whether the object exists or not, there's no reason to attempt a cache lookup for it in RuntimeRefResolver.create_relation.

dbt already excludes external nodes from initial cache population here.

Steps To Reproduce

1. Define a model with a reference to an upstream public model in another project, in a schema that you do not have permission to access.
2. dbt compile that model - succeeds. (Note that it will still fail at runtime.)
3. Try compiling again with deferral enabled (dbt compile --defer) - fails, because dbt attempts a cache lookup that isn't strictly necessarily.

Relevant log output

No response

Environment

- dbt: latest

Which database adapter are you using with dbt?

No response

Additional Context

No response

[eivind-stb]

I'm not sure if this is valuable input, but from the way we experience it:

If I am (in dbt-cloud):

• build a dbt-model that references an upstream public model
• and I have metadata permissions on the schema containing that upstream public model
• but the public model itself has upstream references to a database I do not have access to
• and the dbt-job is specified with Generate docs on run turned on.

Then dbt build works, but I'll get a failure if:

• the public model is referenced by a dbt-model that runs in a different database that I do not have access to (which is by design) with the error ['database that the public model is not in' does not exist or not authorized].