Snowflake

Connect Snowflake’s managed MCP server for governed access to Cortex AI tools and SQL execution.

Snowflake’s own managed MCP server gives your agents governed access to data and AI capabilities that already live in your Snowflake account, without you having to stand up or maintain any separate infrastructure. It’s built and maintained by Snowflake, so it stays current as new Cortex AI capabilities ship.

Snowflake is a catalogue server marked Available, so it shows up automatically for organizations in Default Mode. In Custom Mode, an admin needs to approve it on the Server Management page before it can be added to a Gateway or Deployment.

Of all the MCP servers Airia supports, Snowflake’s is consistently the hardest to get running. That’s not because of anything on Airia’s end. Creating the MCP server object in Snowflake itself has a lot of moving parts.

The steps below are not the only way to create one, and following them will not produce a server tailored to your organization’s data. They walk through a configuration known to work end to end, so if you’re stuck setting up your own server, try these steps exactly to confirm you can connect to the demo server first.

If even that fails, it’s almost always one of two things:

• Your account type or role doesn’t have the entitlements described in Prerequisites
• Your account has a network policy whose allowlist doesn’t include Airia’s egress IPs (see Troubleshooting)

Your Snowflake account team can help confirm and resolve either one.

What It Provides

An admin configures which of the following tool types are exposed when they create the MCP server object in Snowflake (up to 50 tools per server):

Tool Type	What It Does
Cortex Search	Runs unstructured search queries against a Cortex Search Service.
Cortex Analyst	Turns natural language questions into SQL using a Cortex Analyst semantic view.
SQL Execution	Runs SQL directly against Snowflake. Read-only by default.
Cortex Agent	Invokes a Cortex Agent and returns its full run, including intermediate steps.
Custom Tools	Wraps an existing user-defined function or stored procedure as a callable tool.

Prerequisites

• A paid Snowflake account. Free and trial accounts don’t have the entitlements needed to create or connect to MCP server objects.
• A Snowflake user with enough privileges to create a warehouse, database, schema, role, and the MCP server object itself (typically ACCOUNTADMIN, or a role explicitly granted those privileges).

Setting Up the MCP Server in Snowflake

If your organization already has an MCP server object configured in Snowflake, skip to Connecting to Airia. Otherwise, a Snowflake admin needs to create one first.

1. Create a warehouse, database, and schema

   CREATE WAREHOUSE IF NOT EXISTS MCP_WH
     WAREHOUSE_SIZE = XSMALL AUTO_SUSPEND = 60
     AUTO_RESUME = TRUE INITIALLY_SUSPENDED = TRUE;
   CREATE DATABASE IF NOT EXISTS MCP_DB;
   USE DATABASE MCP_DB;
   CREATE SCHEMA IF NOT EXISTS PUBLIC;
   
2. Create a role and grant it access

   CREATE ROLE IF NOT EXISTS MCP_ROLE;
   GRANT USAGE ON WAREHOUSE MCP_WH        TO ROLE MCP_ROLE;
   GRANT USAGE ON DATABASE  MCP_DB        TO ROLE MCP_ROLE;
   GRANT USAGE ON SCHEMA    MCP_DB.PUBLIC TO ROLE MCP_ROLE;
   

   Also grant this role whatever else your tools need to reach, for example USAGE on a Cortex Search Service or SELECT on the tables a SQL tool should query.

3. Assign the role to the connecting user

   GRANT ROLE MCP_ROLE TO USER <your_user>;
   ALTER USER <your_user>
     SET DEFAULT_ROLE = 'MCP_ROLE'
         DEFAULT_WAREHOUSE = 'MCP_WH';
   

   DEFAULT_ROLE and DEFAULT_WAREHOUSE must both be set on the connecting user. Sessions fail to initialize without them, and this is required even if the user has other roles or warehouses available. Secondary roles aren’t supported.

4. Create the MCP server object

   USE WAREHOUSE MCP_WH; USE DATABASE MCP_DB; USE SCHEMA PUBLIC;
   
   CREATE OR REPLACE MCP SERVER MCP_DEMO_SERVER
     FROM SPECIFICATION $$
       tools:
         - title: "SQL Execution Tool"
           name: "sql_exec_tool"
           type: "SYSTEM_EXECUTE_SQL"
           description: "Run read-only SQL queries against Snowflake."
           config:
             read_only: true
             query_timeout: 120
     $$;
   
   GRANT USAGE ON MCP SERVER MCP_DB.PUBLIC.MCP_DEMO_SERVER TO ROLE MCP_ROLE;
   

   This example adds a single SQL tool. Add more entries under tools for any of the tool types above, then grant USAGE on the finished server to every role that should be able to use it.

Connecting to Airia

Snowflake supports two authentication options. Both give an agent the same Snowflake access, so pick whichever fits how your organization wants to manage credentials.

	Programmatic Access Token	OAuth Integration
Setup	One-time, per connecting user	One-time, per organization
Who signs in	Whoever generated the token	Each person, with their own Snowflake user
Best for	A single connection or a quick test	Teams who want everyone using their own credentials

See Tenant vs. Personal Level App Credentials if you’re not sure which one you need.

Option A: Programmatic Access Token

1. Generate a token

   Run the following as, or on behalf of, the user that should connect:

   ALTER USER <your_user>
     ADD PROGRAMMATIC ACCESS TOKEN MCP_PAT
     ROLE_RESTRICTION = 'MCP_ROLE'
     DAYS_TO_EXPIRY = 90;
   
2. Copy the token

   Copy the token value from the result. Snowflake only shows it once.

3. Add it to Airia

   Paste the token in as your API key credential when connecting Snowflake to a Gateway or Deployment.

Option B: OAuth Integration

Creating an OAuth integration requires ACCOUNTADMIN (or an equivalent role).

1. Create a security integration

   CREATE OR REPLACE SECURITY INTEGRATION MCP_AIRIA_OAUTH
     TYPE = OAUTH OAUTH_CLIENT = CUSTOM ENABLED = TRUE
     OAUTH_CLIENT_TYPE = 'CONFIDENTIAL'
     OAUTH_REDIRECT_URI = 'https://auth.airia.ai/OAuth/callback'
     OAUTH_ISSUE_REFRESH_TOKENS = TRUE
     OAUTH_REFRESH_TOKEN_VALIDITY = 7776000
     PRE_AUTHORIZED_ROLES_LIST = ('MCP_ROLE');
   

   Don’t skip PRE_AUTHORIZED_ROLES_LIST. Leaving it out can cause the consent screen to fail, or a session to silently pick up the wrong role. Every role listed here also needs USAGE on the MCP server object.

2. Retrieve the client credentials

   SELECT SYSTEM$SHOW_OAUTH_CLIENT_SECRETS('MCP_AIRIA_OAUTH');
   

   Copy the Client ID and Client Secret from the result.

3. Add them to Airia

   Enter the Client ID and Client Secret when registering the Snowflake OAuth app in Airia. After that, each person clicks Connect and signs in with their own Snowflake user.

Connection Details

Whichever option you use, adding Snowflake to a Gateway or Deployment asks for four fields:

Field	What To Enter
Account URL	Your Snowflake account URL, in the form myorg-myaccount.snowflakecomputing.com.
Database	The database where the MCP server object was created, for example MCP_DB.
Schema	The schema where the MCP server object was created, for example PUBLIC.
MCP Server Name	The name of the MCP server object itself, for example MCP_DEMO_SERVER.

If you don’t already know your account URL, run:

SELECT REPLACE(LOWER(CURRENT_ORGANIZATION_NAME()), '_', '-') || '-' ||
       REPLACE(LOWER(CURRENT_ACCOUNT_NAME()), '_', '-') ||
       '.snowflakecomputing.com' AS account_url;

The account URL must use hyphens, not underscores, even if your organization or account name contains one. The query above handles this conversion for you; entering underscores directly causes the connection to fail.

Limitations

• DEFAULT_ROLE and DEFAULT_WAREHOUSE must be set on the connecting user. This applies to both authentication options, but OAuth sessions fail outright without them.
• No support for MCP resources, prompts, roots, notifications, or sampling.
• Responses aren’t streamed.
• A single server can expose at most 50 tools.
• SQL and custom tool responses are capped at 250 KB. Cortex Agent responses include every intermediate step and can be considerably larger.

Troubleshooting

The connection is rejected no matter what you enter

Confirm the Snowflake account is on a paid plan. Free and trial accounts can’t create or connect to MCP server objects, and this produces the same rejection as a misconfigured connection.

OAuth succeeds but the connection still fails

If your Snowflake account has a network policy in place (check with SHOW NETWORK POLICIES IN ACCOUNT), Airia’s egress IPs need to be added to the allowed list. Contact Airia support for the current IP range. This applies to both authentication options, but is easy to miss when OAuth sign-in itself appears to succeed.

OAuth fails with an invalid_client error

This almost always means the Client ID or Client Secret saved in Airia no longer matches your security integration, for example after it was recreated or the secret was rotated. Re-run SELECT SYSTEM$SHOW_OAUTH_CLIENT_SECRETS('<integration_name>') in Snowflake and update the credentials in Airia.

The connection works, but tools fail or return no data

Snowflake enforces access control at both the server and tool level, so a successful connection doesn’t automatically grant access to everything a tool touches. Check that the connected role has been separately granted whatever each tool needs, such as USAGE on a Cortex Search Service or SELECT on the underlying tables.

Learn More

• Snowflake Managed MCP Server
• OAuth Custom Client Security Integration
• Programmatic Access Tokens
• Network Policies

Related Resources

Tenant vs. Personal Level App Credentials

Decide whether your Snowflake credential is shared or personal

Supported Credential Types

See how each authentication method works across servers

Server Management

Approve which MCP servers your organization can use

Gateway/Deployment Creation

Add Snowflake to the Gateway or Deployment you’re building