Overview

What You'll Learn

What You'll Build

What You'll Need

Setup

Create Objects

NOTE: If Cortex Analyst models aren't available in your region, uncomment the ALTER ACCOUNT SET CORTEX_ENABLED_CROSS_REGION statement near the top of the script to enable cross-region inference.

Cortex Search Service

NOTE: Enter the name in uppercase. Snowsight double-quotes service names, so a mixed-case name such as Support_Tickets becomes case-sensitive and won't match the DASH_MCP_DB.DATA.SUPPORT_TICKETS identifier used in the MCP server specification.

Cortex Analyst Semantic View

Grant Access to the Tools

USE ROLE ACCOUNTADMIN;

GRANT USAGE ON CORTEX SEARCH SERVICE DASH_MCP_DB.DATA.SUPPORT_TICKETS TO ROLE DASH_MCP_ROLE;
GRANT SELECT ON SEMANTIC VIEW DASH_MCP_DB.DATA.FINANCIAL_SERVICES_ANALYTICS TO ROLE DASH_MCP_ROLE;

NOTE: Access to an MCP server doesn't grant access to its tools. The role an MCP client uses needs a privilege on each underlying object: USAGE on Cortex Search services, agents, functions, and procedures, and SELECT on semantic views.

Snowflake MCP Server

PREREQUISITE: Successful completion of steps outlined under Setup.

Create the MCP Server

USE ROLE ACCOUNTADMIN;
USE SCHEMA DASH_MCP_DB.DATA;

CREATE OR REPLACE MCP SERVER DASH_MCP_SERVER FROM SPECIFICATION
$$
tools:
  - name: "Finance_and_Risk_Assessment_Semantic_View"
    identifier: "DASH_MCP_DB.DATA.FINANCIAL_SERVICES_ANALYTICS"
    type: "CORTEX_ANALYST_MESSAGE"
    description: "Comprehensive semantic model for financial services analytics, providing unified business definitions and relationships across customer data, transactions, marketing campaigns, support interactions, and risk assessments."
    title: "Financial And Risk Assessment"
  - name: "Support_Tickets_Cortex_Search"
    identifier: "DASH_MCP_DB.DATA.SUPPORT_TICKETS"
    type: "CORTEX_SEARCH_SERVICE_QUERY"
    description: "A tool that performs keyword and vector search over unstructured support tickets data."
    title: "Support Tickets Cortex Search"
  - name: "SQL_Execution_Tool"
    type: "SYSTEM_EXECUTE_SQL"
    description: "A tool to execute read-only SQL queries against the connected Snowflake database."
    title: "SQL Execution Tool"
    config:
      read_only: true
      warehouse: "DASH_WH_S"
  - name: "Send_Email"
    identifier: "DASH_MCP_DB.DATA.SEND_EMAIL"
    type: "GENERIC"
    description: "A custom tool to send emails to the user's verified email address."
    title: "Send_Email"
    config:
      type: "procedure"
      warehouse: "DASH_WH_S"
      input_schema:
        type: "object"
        properties:
          body:
            description: "Use HTML-Syntax for this. If the content you get is in markdown, translate it to HTML. If body is not provided, summarize the last question and use that as content for the email."
            type: "string"
          recipient_email:
            description: "If the email is not provided, send it to the current user's email address."
            type: "string"
          subject:
            description: "If subject is not provided, use Snowflake MCP Server."
            type: "string"
$$;

GRANT USAGE ON MCP SERVER DASH_MCP_DB.DATA.DASH_MCP_SERVER TO ROLE DASH_MCP_ROLE;

Create a Programmatic Access Token

NOTE: A PAT for a person user only works if the user is subject to a network policy. If your account or user has no network policy, select Bypass requirement for network policy in the dialog for a temporary bypass, or ask your administrator to add one.

ALTER USER ADD PROGRAMMATIC ACCESS TOKEN MCP_GUIDE_TOKEN
  ROLE_RESTRICTION = 'DASH_MCP_ROLE'
  DAYS_TO_EXPIRY = 7;

NOTE: For production, Snowflake recommends OAuth instead of hardcoded tokens. Most hosted clients, such as Claude and ChatGPT, connect with OAuth.

Find Your MCP Server URL

https://<YOUR-ACCOUNT-URL>/api/v2/databases/DASH_MCP_DB/schemas/DATA/mcp-servers/DASH_MCP_SERVER

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

NOTE: Use hyphens (-), not underscores (_), in the hostname. MCP clients fail to connect, often with a TLS certificate error, when the hostname contains underscores.

Verify with curl

curl -X POST "https://<YOUR-ACCOUNT-URL>/api/v2/databases/DASH_MCP_DB/schemas/DATA/mcp-servers/DASH_MCP_SERVER" \
  --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --header 'Accept: application/json, text/event-stream' \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR-PAT>" \
  --data '{
    "jsonrpc": "2.0",
    "id": 1,
    "method": "tools/list",
    "params": {}
  }'

curl -X POST "https://<YOUR-ACCOUNT-URL>/api/v2/databases/DASH_MCP_DB/schemas/DATA/mcp-servers/DASH_MCP_SERVER" \
  --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --header 'Accept: application/json, text/event-stream' \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR-PAT>" \
  --data '{
    "jsonrpc": "2.0",
    "id": 2,
    "method": "tools/call",
    "params": {
      "name": "SQL_Execution_Tool",
      "arguments": { "sql": "SELECT COUNT(*) FROM DASH_MCP_DB.DATA.DIM_CUSTOMERS" }
    }
  }'

Connect an MCP Client

Example: Cursor

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "snowflake": {
      "url": "https://<YOUR-ACCOUNT-URL>/api/v2/databases/DASH_MCP_DB/schemas/DATA/mcp-servers/DASH_MCP_SERVER",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer <YOUR-PAT>"
      }
    }
  }
}

NOTE: Don't commit a file that contains your PAT to source control. Keep the token in a local or global configuration file, or use OAuth instead.

Ask Questions

Q1. What is the average customer lifetime value by region for customers with Low risk profile?

Q2. Show me the risk profile distribution across customer segments with transaction volumes. Include the number of customers, transaction counts, and average transactions per customer for each segment and risk profile combination.

Q3. Can you summarize the overall sentiment based on the support tickets?

Q4. Which support categories would benefit most from automated responses based on ticket analysis?

Custom Tools

Send me an email with a summary of the analysis to YOUR-EMAIL-ADDRESS.

Optional: Expose a Cortex Agent

USE ROLE ACCOUNTADMIN;
USE SCHEMA DASH_MCP_DB.DATA;

CREATE OR REPLACE AGENT DASH_MCP_DB.DATA.FINANCIAL_ANALYST_AGENT
  COMMENT = 'Answers financial services questions using the semantic view and support tickets'
  FROM SPECIFICATION
$$
models:
  orchestration: auto
instructions:
  response: "Answer concisely and cite the data you used."
tools:
  - tool_spec:
      type: cortex_analyst_text_to_sql
      name: Finance_and_Risk_Assessment
      description: "Customers, transactions, marketing campaigns, support interactions, and risk assessments."
  - tool_spec:
      type: cortex_search
      name: Support_Tickets
      description: "Unstructured support ticket descriptions."
tool_resources:
  Finance_and_Risk_Assessment:
    semantic_view: DASH_MCP_DB.DATA.FINANCIAL_SERVICES_ANALYTICS
    execution_environment:
      type: warehouse
      warehouse: DASH_WH_S
  Support_Tickets:
    name: DASH_MCP_DB.DATA.SUPPORT_TICKETS
    id_column: TICKET_ID
    title_column: SUBJECT
    max_results: 5
$$;

GRANT USAGE ON AGENT DASH_MCP_DB.DATA.FINANCIAL_ANALYST_AGENT TO ROLE DASH_MCP_ROLE;
GRANT DATABASE ROLE SNOWFLAKE.CORTEX_AGENT_USER TO ROLE DASH_MCP_ROLE;

CREATE OR REPLACE MCP SERVER DASH_MCP_SERVER FROM SPECIFICATION
$$
tools:
  - name: "Financial_Analyst_Agent"
    identifier: "DASH_MCP_DB.DATA.FINANCIAL_ANALYST_AGENT"
    type: "CORTEX_AGENT_RUN"
    description: "Agent that answers financial services questions by combining the semantic view and support tickets."
    title: "Financial Analyst Agent"
  - name: "Finance_and_Risk_Assessment_Semantic_View"
    identifier: "DASH_MCP_DB.DATA.FINANCIAL_SERVICES_ANALYTICS"
    type: "CORTEX_ANALYST_MESSAGE"
    description: "Comprehensive semantic model for financial services analytics, providing unified business definitions and relationships across customer data, transactions, marketing campaigns, support interactions, and risk assessments."
    title: "Financial And Risk Assessment"
  - name: "Support_Tickets_Cortex_Search"
    identifier: "DASH_MCP_DB.DATA.SUPPORT_TICKETS"
    type: "CORTEX_SEARCH_SERVICE_QUERY"
    description: "A tool that performs keyword and vector search over unstructured support tickets data."
    title: "Support Tickets Cortex Search"
  - name: "SQL_Execution_Tool"
    type: "SYSTEM_EXECUTE_SQL"
    description: "A tool to execute read-only SQL queries against the connected Snowflake database."
    title: "SQL Execution Tool"
    config:
      read_only: true
      warehouse: "DASH_WH_S"
  - name: "Send_Email"
    identifier: "DASH_MCP_DB.DATA.SEND_EMAIL"
    type: "GENERIC"
    description: "A custom tool to send emails to the user's verified email address."
    title: "Send_Email"
    config:
      type: "procedure"
      warehouse: "DASH_WH_S"
      input_schema:
        type: "object"
        properties:
          body:
            description: "Use HTML-Syntax for this. If the content you get is in markdown, translate it to HTML. If body is not provided, summarize the last question and use that as content for the email."
            type: "string"
          recipient_email:
            description: "If the email is not provided, send it to the current user's email address."
            type: "string"
          subject:
            description: "If subject is not provided, use Snowflake MCP Server."
            type: "string"
$$;

GRANT USAGE ON MCP SERVER DASH_MCP_DB.DATA.DASH_MCP_SERVER TO ROLE DASH_MCP_ROLE;

NOTE: CREATE OR REPLACE MCP SERVER drops the previous grants on the server, so run the GRANT USAGE ON MCP SERVER statement again after you recreate it.

Which support categories would benefit most from automated responses, and how do Low risk customers compare on lifetime value by region?

Clean Up

USE ROLE ACCOUNTADMIN;

ALTER USER REMOVE PROGRAMMATIC ACCESS TOKEN MCP_GUIDE_TOKEN;

DROP DATABASE IF EXISTS DASH_MCP_DB;
DROP WAREHOUSE IF EXISTS DASH_WH_S;
DROP NOTIFICATION INTEGRATION IF EXISTS EMAIL_INTEGRATION;
DROP ROLE IF EXISTS DASH_MCP_ROLE;

NOTE: Dropping DASH_MCP_ROLE invalidates any PAT restricted to it. If setup.sql uncommented the cross-region inference statement, you can reset it with ALTER ACCOUNT UNSET CORTEX_ENABLED_CROSS_REGION;.

Conclusion And Resources

What You Learned

Related Resources