snowflake-cortex

Snowflake Cortex AI

Use Snowflake's Cortex AI services when they are available on the MCP server.

When to use

• User asks a data question and semantic views are configured (Cortex Analyst)
• User wants to search unstructured data like support tickets or documents (Cortex Search)
• User wants to interact with a Cortex Agent for multi-step tasks

Discover available Cortex services

-- Semantic views (data models for Cortex Analyst)
SHOW SEMANTIC VIEWS IN ACCOUNT;

-- Cortex Search services
SHOW CORTEX SEARCH SERVICES IN ACCOUNT;

-- Cortex Agents
SHOW AGENTS IN ACCOUNT;

Cortex Analyst

Cortex Analyst converts natural language questions into SQL using semantic views. If the MCP server exposes a CORTEX_ANALYST_MESSAGE tool, pass the user's question as the message.

When to prefer Analyst over raw SQL:

• The question maps to metrics/dimensions defined in a semantic view
• The user is asking business questions ("what was revenue last quarter?")
• Governance and auditability matter

When to use raw SQL instead:

• Admin tasks (SHOW, DESCRIBE, GRANT)
• DDL/DML operations
• No semantic view covers the domain

Cortex Search

Cortex Search provides semantic search over unstructured text columns. If the MCP server exposes a CORTEX_SEARCH_SERVICE_QUERY tool:

{
  "query": "billing dispute resolution",
  "columns": ["TICKET_ID", "CUSTOMER_NAME", "REQUEST"],
  "limit": 10
}

Filter syntax (optional):

{
  "query": "network outage",
  "filter": { "@eq": { "SERVICE_TYPE": "Cloud" } },
  "limit": 5
}

Supported filter operators: @eq, @contains (arrays), @gte, @lte, composed with @and, @or, @not.

Cortex Agents

If the MCP server wraps a Cortex Agent (CORTEX_AGENT_RUN), send a text message. The agent decides which internal tools to use (SQL, Analyst, Search, code execution).

For multi-turn conversations, include thread_id from the previous response.

Examples

• "What was total revenue by region last quarter?" → Route to Cortex Analyst
• "Search support tickets about billing errors" → Route to Cortex Search
• "Analyze our customer churn data and create a visualization" → Route to Cortex Agent