snowflake-cli

Snowflake CLI (snow)

Execute SQL, manage Snowflake objects, and deploy applications using the Snowflake CLI command-line tool.

When to Use This Skill

Activate this skill when users ask about:

• Running SQL queries and scripts from command line
• Deploying Streamlit applications to Snowflake
• Managing Snowflake stages (upload/download/execute files)
• Using variables and templating in SQL scripts
• Executing Snowpark procedures and Python scripts
• Managing database objects (warehouses, tables, etc.)
• Automating Snowflake operations in CI/CD pipelines
• Multi-environment deployments with variables
• Troubleshooting CLI connection or execution issues

Quick Start

Three Main Use Cases:

1. SQL Execution - Run queries and scripts with variable substitution
2. Deployments - Deploy Streamlit apps and Snowpark objects
3. Stage Operations - Manage files and execute scripts from stages

Connection Behavior

Important: The Snowflake CLI uses the default connection profile from ~/.snowflake/connections.toml unless you specify a different connection with the -c or --connection flag.

# Uses 'default' connection (implicit)
snow sql -q "SELECT CURRENT_USER()"

# Uses 'default' connection (explicit)
snow sql -q "SELECT CURRENT_USER()" -c default

# Uses specific named connection
snow sql -q "SELECT CURRENT_USER()" -c prod

For connection configuration, see the snowflake-connections skill.

SQL Execution

# Inline query
snow sql -q "SELECT * FROM my_table" -c default

# Execute file
snow sql -f script.sql -c default

# With variables (Jinja {{ }} or <% %> syntax)
snow sql -q "SELECT * FROM {{db}}.{{schema}}.table" \
  -D db=PROD_DB -D schema=SALES -c default

Variables & Templating

Critical Concept: Snowflake CLI supports three different variable syntaxes depending on context.

Three Syntax Types

1. Bash Variables - Shell expansion (for environment control):

DB="PROD_DB"
SCHEMA="SALES"
snow sql -q "SELECT * FROM ${DB}.${SCHEMA}.orders" -c default