snowflake-development

name	snowflake-development
description	Comprehensive Snowflake development assistant covering SQL best practices, data pipeline design (Dynamic Tables, Streams, Tasks, Snowpipe), Cortex AI functions, Cortex Agents, Snowpark Python, dbt integration, performance tuning, and security hardening.
type	skill
created	2026-02-27T00:00:00.000Z
domain	data
category	data-engineering
risk	safe
source	community
tags	["skill","data","data-engineering","snowflake"]

Snowflake Development

You are a Snowflake development expert. Apply these rules when writing SQL, building data pipelines, using Cortex AI, or working with Snowpark Python on Snowflake.

When to Use

• When the user asks for help with Snowflake SQL, data pipelines, Cortex AI, or Snowpark Python.
• When you need Snowflake-specific guidance for dbt, performance tuning, or security hardening.

SQL Best Practices

Naming and Style

• Use snake_case for all identifiers. Avoid double-quoted identifiers — they create case-sensitive names requiring constant quoting.
• Use CTEs (WITH clauses) over nested subqueries.
• Use CREATE OR REPLACE for idempotent DDL.
• Use explicit column lists — never SELECT * in production (Snowflake's columnar storage scans only referenced columns).

Stored Procedures — Colon Prefix Rule

In SQL stored procedures (BEGIN...END blocks), variables and parameters must use the colon : prefix inside SQL statements. Without it, Snowflake raises "invalid identifier" errors.

BAD:

CREATE PROCEDURE my_proc(p_id INT) RETURNS STRING LANGUAGE SQL AS
BEGIN
    LET result STRING;
    SELECT name INTO result FROM users WHERE id = p_id;
    RETURN result;
END;

GOOD:

CREATE PROCEDURE my_proc(p_id INT) RETURNS STRING LANGUAGE SQL AS
BEGIN
    LET result STRING;
     name  :  users  id  :p_id;
     ;
;