Snowflake

You can query and manage a Snowflake cloud warehouse using the snowsql CLI. Use this when the user asks about cloud-hosted data, Snowflake tables, or needs to run SQL on Snowflake.

For local DuckDB queries, use the duckdb skill. For dbt transformations, use the dbt skill.

Commands

All commands use snowsql. The connection is configured via ~/.snowsql/config or environment variables.

Task	Command
Run a query	`snowsql -q "SELECT …"`
Run from file	`snowsql -f query.sql`
List databases	`snowsql -q "SHOW DATABASES"`
List schemas	`snowsql -q "SHOW SCHEMAS IN DATABASE <db>"`
List tables	`snowsql -q "SHOW TABLES IN SCHEMA <db>.<schema>"`
Describe table	`snowsql -q "DESCRIBE TABLE <db>.<schema>.<table>"`
List warehouses	`snowsql -q "SHOW WAREHOUSES"`
Resume warehouse	`snowsql -q "ALTER WAREHOUSE <wh> RESUME"`
Suspend warehouse	`snowsql -q "ALTER WAREHOUSE <wh> SUSPEND"`
Load from stage	`snowsql -q "COPY INTO <table> FROM @<stage>"`
Upload to stage	`snowsql -q "PUT file://<path> @<stage>"`

Output options

Flag	Effect
`-o output_format=json`	JSON output
`-o output_format=csv`	CSV output
`-o header=false`	Suppress column headers
`-o friendly=false`	Machine-readable output

When to use

•User asks about Snowflake data → snowsql -q "SHOW TABLES IN …"
•User wants to query Snowflake → snowsql -q "SELECT …"
•User asks about warehouse costs → snowsql -q "SHOW WAREHOUSES" + check credits
•User wants to load data into Snowflake → PUT to stage, then COPY INTO
•User wants to check schema → snowsql -q "DESCRIBE TABLE …"

Connection

SnowSQL reads credentials from ~/.snowsql/config or these environment variables:

Env var	Purpose
`SNOWSQL_ACCOUNT`	Account identifier (e.g. `xy12345.us-east-1`)
`SNOWSQL_USER`	Username
`SNOWSQL_PWD`	Password
`SNOWSQL_DATABASE`	Default database
`SNOWSQL_SCHEMA`	Default schema
`SNOWSQL_WAREHOUSE`	Default warehouse
`SNOWSQL_ROLE`	Default role

You can also pass connection params inline:

bash

snowsql -a <account> -u <user> -d <database> -s <schema> -w <warehouse> -q "SELECT 1"

Examples

bash

# Check connection
snowsql -q "SELECT CURRENT_USER(), CURRENT_ROLE(), CURRENT_WAREHOUSE()"

# Explore tables
snowsql -q "SHOW TABLES IN SCHEMA analytics.public"
snowsql -q "DESCRIBE TABLE analytics.public.orders"

# Query with JSON output
snowsql -q "SELECT * FROM orders LIMIT 5" -o output_format=json

# Load a local CSV
snowsql -q "PUT file://./data/sales.csv @my_stage"
snowsql -q "COPY INTO sales FROM @my_stage FILE_FORMAT=(TYPE=CSV SKIP_HEADER=1)"

Error recovery

Problem	Fix
`snowsql: command not found`	Install: `brew install --cask snowflake-snowsql` or download
Auth failure	Check `~/.snowsql/config` or `SNOWSQL_*` env vars
Warehouse suspended	`snowsql -q "ALTER WAREHOUSE <wh> RESUME"`
Database not found	`snowsql -q "SHOW DATABASES"` to see available databases

Notes

•SnowSQL exits with code 1 on failure
•Use -o friendly=false -o header=false for cleanest machine-parseable output
•For large queries, write SQL to a file and use snowsql -f file.sql
•Snowflake charges per-second for active warehouses — suspend when done