Learn how to set up and use a Snowflake connection in Prophecy. With a Snowflake connection, you can read from and write to tables in your Snowflake account using Source and Target gems, browse data in the Environment browser, and process Snowflake data within Prophecy pipelines.
Snowflake can also be configured as a fßabric SQL warehouse, where it executes pipeline transformations. This page describes how to configure a Snowflake connection for accessing data. To learn about using Snowflake as a compute engine, see Create a Snowflake fabric.
Prerequisites
When you create a Snowflake connection in Prophecy, all data operations—such as reading or writing—are executed using the Snowflake credentials you provide. Ensure that your Snowflake user has the following permissions:
SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE on the tables used in your Prophecy pipelines.OWNERSHIP on the table, if Prophecy needs to alter or replace it.
When writing data through a Snowflake connection, Prophecy uploads Parquet files to a stage before loading them into Snowflake tables. This requires:
CREATE FILE FORMAT in the target schema.USAGE on any file formats used for reading/writing Parquet files.- Write access to your user stage
Connection type
Connection type
Snowflake can be used in two ways within Prophecy.
Feature support
The table below outlines whether the connection supports certain Prophecy features.
Connection parameters
To create a connection with Snowflake, enter the following parameters:
Data type mapping
When Snowflake data is processed in pipelines running on other SQL warehouses (such as Databricks or BigQuery), Prophecy converts Snowflake-specific data types to compatible types. This table shows how Snowflake data types are transformed for Databricks and BigQuery.
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.
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 who 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 stored connection credentials.
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.
