diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index ac2f6794..396df53e 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@
 - Drop support for Python 3.8 ([713](https://github.com/databricks/dbt-databricks/pull/713))
 - Upgrade databricks-sql-connector dependency to 3.5.0 ([833](https://github.com/databricks/dbt-databricks/pull/833))
 - Prepare for python typing deprecations ([837](https://github.com/databricks/dbt-databricks/pull/837))
+- Fix behavior flag use in init of DatabricksAdapter (thanks @VersusFacit!) ([836](https://github.com/databricks/dbt-databricks/pull/836))
 
 ## dbt-databricks 1.8.7 (October 10, 2024)
 
diff --git a/dbt/adapters/databricks/impl.py b/dbt/adapters/databricks/impl.py
index 130d4521..2f40fb49 100644
--- a/dbt/adapters/databricks/impl.py
+++ b/dbt/adapters/databricks/impl.py
@@ -78,6 +78,7 @@
 from dbt_common.behavior_flags import BehaviorFlag
 from dbt_common.utils import executor
 from dbt_common.utils.dict import AttrDict
+from dbt_common.exceptions import CompilationError
 from dbt_common.exceptions import DbtConfigError
 from dbt_common.exceptions import DbtInternalError
 from dbt_common.contracts.config.base import BaseConfig
@@ -175,10 +176,15 @@ class DatabricksAdapter(SparkAdapter):
 
     def __init__(self, config: Any, mp_context: SpawnContext) -> None:
         super().__init__(config, mp_context)
-        if self.behavior.use_info_schema_for_columns.no_warn:  # type: ignore[attr-defined]
-            self.get_column_behavior = GetColumnsByInformationSchema()
-        else:
-            self.get_column_behavior = GetColumnsByDescribe()
+
+        # dbt doesn't propogate flags for certain workflows like dbt debug so this requires
+        # an additional guard
+        self.get_column_behavior = GetColumnsByDescribe()
+        try:
+            if self.behavior.use_info_schema_for_columns.no_warn:  # type: ignore[attr-defined]
+                self.get_column_behavior = GetColumnsByInformationSchema()
+        except CompilationError:
+            pass
 
     @property
     def _behavior_flags(self) -> list[BehaviorFlag]:
diff --git a/tests/functional/adapter/columns/test_get_columns.py b/tests/functional/adapter/columns/test_get_columns.py
index cf0a9e24..04e73a66 100644
--- a/tests/functional/adapter/columns/test_get_columns.py
+++ b/tests/functional/adapter/columns/test_get_columns.py
@@ -13,6 +13,9 @@ def models(self):
 
     @pytest.fixture(scope="class", autouse=True)
     def setup(self, project):
+        # debug uses different rules for managing project flags than run
+        util.run_dbt(["debug", "--connection"])
+
         util.run_dbt(["run"])
 
     @pytest.fixture(scope="class")