Snowflake

Learn how to set up and use a Snowflake connection in Prophecy. With a Snowflake connection, you can read from and write to your Snowflake data warehouse using Source and Target gems, browse data in the Environment browser, and run pipelines that process Snowflake data.

Feature support

The table below outlines whether the connection supports certain Prophecy features.

Feature	Supported
Read data with a Source gem	Yes
Write data with a Target gem	Yes
Browse data in the Environment browser	Yes

Limitations

There are a few limitations on the data types you can read from Snowflake:

• Prophecy reads Object, Array, and Variant types as String type.
• Prophecy does not support writing Binary type columns.

Parameters

To create a connection with Snowflake, enter the following parameters:

Parameter	Description
Connection Name	Name to to identify your connection
Account	URL of your Snowflake account, typically in the format https://<orgname>-<account_name>.snowflakecomputing.com
Database	Default database for reading and writing data
Schema	Default schema for reading and writing data
Warehouse	Name of the SQL warehouse to use for the connection
Role	Snowflake role of the user to connect
Authentication method	Enter your Snowflake username and use a secret to enter your password.

Snowflake permissions

When you create a Snowflake connection in Prophecy, all access is governed by the Snowflake credentials you provide. This is because Prophecy uses your credentials to execute all data operations, such as reading or writing files.

To successfully use a Snowflake connection in Prophecy, make sure your Snowflake user has the following permissions:

• Read and write access to target tables
  Your user must be able to SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE on the specific tables used in your Prophecy pipelines.

• Ownership of target tables
  Prophecy may require full control of the table (including altering or replacing it). This means the role should have OWNERSHIP on the table.

• Create and use file formats
  Prophecy writes data to Snowflake by first uploading Parquet files to a stage. You need:

  • Permission to CREATE FILE FORMAT in the target schema

  • USAGE on any existing file formats used for reading/writing Parquet

• Write access to a stage
  Typically, Prophecy uses your user stage for uploading Parquet files, so your user needs permission to write to that stage.

Sharing connections within teams

Connections in Prophecy are stored within fabrics, which are assigned to specific teams. Once a Snowflake connection is added to a fabric, all team members that have access to the fabric can use the connection in their projects. No additional authentication is required—team members automatically inherit the access and permissions of the original connection.

caution

Be mindful of the access level granted by the stored credentials. Anyone on the team will have the same permissions—including access to sensitive data if allowed.

To manage this securely, consider creating a dedicated fabric and team for high-sensitivity connections. This way, only approved users have access to those credentials.

Fetching data

Prophecy fetches data from Snowflake connections in the following ways:

• When you browse a Snowflake connection in the Environment browser, Prophecy fetches data on demand as you expand folders. You can manually refresh the Environment browser to see updated files.

• When a pipeline runs, Source gems will read the latest available version of the data. If the schema of your data in Snowflake changes, Prophecy will automatically use the new schema.