creating branch off previous commit

[schoolsofthough]

End goal: A process to check if a query string has changed over time using Looker Python SDK

Our Looker setup: We have hub and spoke setup where teams get their own Looker project and we important them into a central core Looker project. 

Current Approach: Compare a query from what's current in production to a previous baseline commit.

Steps:

1. Use SDK to save SQL string for a query slug into variable "current_query" in Production Mode
2. Use SDK to change to "dev" mode and create a new branch off of previous baseline commit ref
3. Save SQL string for same query slug while in new branch into variable "baseline_query"
4. Compare query strings current_query and baseline_query and detect diffs

I got this process up and running a while ago and it was working just fine. I hadn't run it for a bit until today and now I'm getting some Model Errors. 

When I go to the checkout the branch I created off of previous commit in the Looker UI, I get an error when trying to view Explore query slug that it couldn't load the Model. I'm also getting a bunch of LookML validation errors in this branch that it can't find views and such that are imported from other projects but i can clearly see them in the imported projects. I'm wondering if there is some limitation with creating branch off of previous commit and the dependency management isn't really using the manifest_lock file correctly.

I also get an error just trying to view commit history of the branch I created off of previous commit ref