Overview

Prerequisites

New to Snowflake MCP? If you haven't set up a Snowflake MCP Server yet, follow Getting Started with Snowflake MCP Server to create one with Cortex Analyst and Search tools. For guidance on building Cortex Agents, see Best Practices to Building Cortex Agents.

What You'll Learn

What You'll Need

What You'll Build

WRITER playbook
  |
  |-- campaign-planner --> WRITER_CAMPAIGN_PLANNER (Cortex Agent)
  |                          |-- CustomerAnalyst --> CUSTOMER_360_SV (semantic view)
  |                          |                        |-- CUSTOMER_360
  |                          |                        |-- MICRO_SEGMENTS
  |                          |-- CampaignSearch  --> CAMPAIGN_LIBRARY_SEARCH
  |                                                   |-- CAMPAIGN_LIBRARY
  |
  |-- save-brief ---------> SAVE_BRIEF (stored procedure)
                              |-- CAMPAIGN_BRIEFS

Snowflake Setup

In production you would use your own data with the necessary Semantic Views and Cortex Search services. The synthetic data here lets you complete the quickstart without any external dependencies.

SELECT
  (SELECT COUNT(*) FROM WRITER_SF_QUICKSTART.MARKETING.CUSTOMER_360)   AS customers,
  (SELECT COUNT(*) FROM WRITER_SF_QUICKSTART.MARKETING.MICRO_SEGMENTS) AS segments,
  (SELECT COUNT(*) FROM WRITER_SF_QUICKSTART.MARKETING.CAMPAIGN_LIBRARY) AS campaigns;

Cortex AI Setup

The Cortex Search service may take 1-5 minutes to finish indexing. Both indexing_state and serving_state must show ACTIVE before the agent can answer campaign-copy questions.

DESCRIBE MCP SERVER WRITER_SF_QUICKSTART.MARKETING.WRITER_QUICKSTART_MCP_SERVER;
SHOW CORTEX SEARCH SERVICES IN SCHEMA WRITER_SF_QUICKSTART.MARKETING;

OAuth Configuration

USE ROLE ACCOUNTADMIN;

CREATE SECURITY INTEGRATION WRITER_QUICKSTART_OAUTH
  TYPE = OAUTH
  OAUTH_CLIENT = CUSTOM
  ENABLED = TRUE
  OAUTH_CLIENT_TYPE = 'CONFIDENTIAL'
  OAUTH_REDIRECT_URI = 'https://app.writer.com/mcp/oauth/callback'
  OAUTH_USE_SECONDARY_ROLES = NONE
  ALLOWED_ROLES_LIST = ('WRITER_QUICKSTART_ROLE')
  COMMENT = 'OAuth integration for the WRITER quickstart MCP connector';

-- Client ID and secret for WRITER. Treat these as credentials.
SELECT SYSTEM$SHOW_OAUTH_CLIENT_SECRETS('WRITER_QUICKSTART_OAUTH');

-- Your MCP server URL
SELECT 'https://'
  || LOWER(CURRENT_ORGANIZATION_NAME()) || '-' || LOWER(CURRENT_ACCOUNT_NAME())
  || '.snowflakecomputing.com'
  || '/api/v2/databases/WRITER_SF_QUICKSTART/schemas/MARKETING'
  || '/mcp-servers/WRITER_QUICKSTART_MCP_SERVER' AS mcp_server_url;

If your account identifier contains underscores, replace them with hyphens in the hostname. Some MCP clients fail to connect to hostnames with underscores. This applies to the hostname only — database, schema, and server names in the path retain their original underscores.

If your Snowflake account restricts network traffic, add WRITER's static egress IP addresses to your allowlist. See Snowflake's Network policies for MCP clients documenation for more details.

Role Setup

USE ROLE ACCOUNTADMIN;

-- Check your current defaults (note them so you can restore later)
DESCRIBE USER <your_username>;

ALTER USER <your_username>
  SET DEFAULT_ROLE      = 'WRITER_QUICKSTART_ROLE'
      DEFAULT_WAREHOUSE = 'WRITER_QUICKSTART_WH';

Connect WRITER

Build the WRITER Playbook

Test Your Connector

Use snowflake to tell me which 5 micro segments have the highest intent score.

Create the Playbook

- You are planning a marketing campaign for Apex Athletics, a fictitious B2B activewear company.
- The campaign topic is [w-var](Campaign__Topic).
- Treat [w-var](Additional__Context), if provided, as supplementary direction that constrains the
  brief: messaging guardrails, channel restrictions, a specific campaign ID, or stakeholder priorities.

**Step 1 — Find the audience**

- Ask [w-connector](SNOWFLAKE) using campaign-planner: "Which 3 micro-segments are most relevant
  to a campaign about [w-var](Campaign__Topic)? For each, give the segment name, segment ID, customer count, average LTV, intent score, churn risk tier, and dominant RFM segment."
- For each segment, write 1–2 sentences explaining why it fits this campaign, connecting its intent, LTV, and churn risk to the topic.

**Step 2 — Find what has worked**

- Ask [w-connector](SNOWFLAKE) using campaign-planner: "What historical campaigns are most
  relevant to [w-var](Campaign__Topic) and to these segments? Return the campaign name, channel, subject lines, CTAs, tone, and open, click, and conversion rates."
- Pick the 2–3 most relevant campaigns. Prioritize similarity of topic and audience over recency.
  Note what worked, what underperformed, and any messaging patterns.
- If nothing closely relevant comes back, say so explicitly and continue. Do not fabricate campaign history.

**Step 3 — Draft the brief**

- Write a campaign brief grounded only in what came back from Snowflake and in
  [w-var](Additional__Context). Do not introduce segments, metrics, or campaign history that Snowflake did not return.
- The brief must include:
  - Campaign name and a one-line objective
  - The 3 target segments, each with its metrics and fit rationale
  - The 2–3 reference campaigns, with what to carry forward from each
  - Key messages and tone, based on the copy that performed best
  - Three subject line options
  - Success metrics, using the historical conversion rates as the baseline
  - Assumptions and open questions
- Select 3–5 channels. Channels must be text- or image-based only: no video or audio. One of the
  channels must be a blog post. Give each channel a one-sentence rationale that references the segment data or historical performance.

**Step 4 — Save it to Snowflake**

- Call the save-brief tool on [w-connector](SNOWFLAKE) once the brief is complete.
- P_CAMPAIGN_ID: use the campaign ID from [w-var](Additional__Context) if one is given;
  otherwise use a new identifier in the form CMP-2026-NNN.
- P_BRIEF_JSON: the complete brief as a JSON object serialized to a string. Include brief_id,
  status ("draft"), created_by ("WRITER playbook"), title, and one key per section of the brief above.
- If you revise the brief and save it again, reuse the same brief_id so the existing record is updated rather than duplicated.

**Final message**

- Present the brief in full.
- Report the BRIEF_ID returned by save-brief and the table it was written to.
- List any assumptions or open questions that need a decision.

Verify Write-Back

USE ROLE ACCOUNTADMIN;
USE DATABASE WRITER_SF_QUICKSTART;
USE SCHEMA MARKETING;
USE WAREHOUSE WRITER_QUICKSTART_WH;

SELECT
  BRIEF_ID,
  CAMPAIGN_ID,
  STATUS,
  CREATED_BY,
  CREATED_AT,
  BRIEF_CONTENT:title::VARCHAR AS title
FROM CAMPAIGN_BRIEFS;

-- Full brief content
SELECT BRIEF_CONTENT
FROM CAMPAIGN_BRIEFS
ORDER BY CREATED_AT DESC
LIMIT 1;

Conclusion And Resources

What You Learned

Cleanup

USE ROLE ACCOUNTADMIN;

DROP DATABASE IF EXISTS WRITER_SF_QUICKSTART;
DROP WAREHOUSE IF EXISTS WRITER_QUICKSTART_WH;
DROP SECURITY INTEGRATION IF EXISTS WRITER_QUICKSTART_OAUTH;
DROP ROLE IF EXISTS WRITER_QUICKSTART_ROLE;

-- Restore your original default role and warehouse:
-- ALTER USER <your_username>
--   SET DEFAULT_ROLE = '<original_role>' DEFAULT_WAREHOUSE = '<original_warehouse>';

-- Confirm nothing is left
SHOW DATABASES LIKE 'WRITER_SF_QUICKSTART';
SHOW WAREHOUSES LIKE 'WRITER_QUICKSTART_WH';
SHOW ROLES LIKE 'WRITER_QUICKSTART_ROLE';
SHOW INTEGRATIONS LIKE 'WRITER_QUICKSTART_OAUTH';

Troubleshooting

Related Resources

Next Steps