Yes, you can add a task in Databricks Asset Bundles (DAB) that exists only in the development environment and not in staging or production. This is handled by defining environment-specific resources using the "targets" mapping in your bundle configuration. For example, in your bundle.yml or equivalent configuration file, you specify tasks or jobs under each target (such as dev, staging, prod). Only tasks or jobs defined within the dev target will be deployed to that environment, and will not appear in other targets like staging or prod.​

To do this:

• Define your dev-only task under the resources section inside the dev target in your bundle configuration.

• Do not include that task under the staging or prod targets.

This modular structure makes it easy to have environment-specific jobs or tasks, such as dev-only test or experiment tasks, without affecting staging or production deployments.​

You can define specific resources by target in DAB as shown here. This is valid for jobs and/or tasks:

For instance, in my case:

I think, best option (but not available as far as I know) would be to be able to define "include" sections by target, instead of having to put all resources code @mark_ott 

I know it's a bit old, but if someone is looking into a solution, then I was able to resolve the issue where I need to deploy some jobs only into the DEV target:

# Define anchor with job configuration
job-config: &job-config
  my_test_job:
    name: "Test Job"
    tasks:
      - task_key: test_task
        notebook_task:
          notebook_path: tests/my_test.py

# Reference anchor only in dev target
targets:
  dev:
    resources:
      jobs:
        <<: *job-config  # Merge anchor here
  uat:
    # Empty - no test jobs in uat
  prd:
    # Empty - no test jobs in prd

File: databricks.yml

bundle:
  name: my_bundle

include:
  - ./resources/test_*.yml  # Include test jobs file

targets:
  dev:
    # test_jobs.yml adds resources here
  uat:
    # No test jobs
  prd:
    # No test jobs

Result:

• dev target gets my_test_job
• uat and prd targets have no test jobs