snowflake-semanticview_skill

Overview

This skill creates, alters, and validates Snowflake semantic views using the Snowflake CLI (snow). It guides connection setup, drafts semantic view DDL with synonyms and comments, runs safe validations using a temporary name, and applies the final semantic view once validated. Use it to reliably produce production-ready semantic layer definitions and troubleshoot semantic view issues.

How this skill works

It inspects the target database, schema, role, and warehouse and confirms the model follows a star schema with facts and conformed dimensions. It drafts CREATE or ALTER SEMANTIC VIEW DDL including synonyms and comments, performs SELECT-based data discovery to confirm types and relationships, and sends the DDL to Snowflake via the snow CLI for validation using a temporary name. After successful validation, it applies the final DDL, runs a sample SEMANTIC_VIEW query to confirm behavior, and removes temporary objects.

When to use it

• Building a new semantic view from fact and dimension tables
• Altering or extending an existing semantic view
• Validating semantic-view DDL against Snowflake before deployment
• Troubleshooting semantic view errors or unexpected query results
• Guidance for Snowflake CLI installation and connection configuration

Best practices

• Confirm connection and CLI availability with snow --help before starting
• Require synonyms and comments for each dimension, fact, and metric; prefer existing Snowflake comments
• Use SELECT DISTINCT with LIMIT 1000 for column discovery and relationship checks
• Validate using a temporary __tmp_validate name to avoid clobbering production objects
• Iterate on DDL validation until snow sql returns success, then apply only the name change for final deployment

Example use cases

• Create a new semantic view for sales analytics with documented synonyms and metrics
• Alter a semantic view to add a new metric and validate behavior before production rollout
• Validate a drafted semantic view DDL via snow sql using a configured connection
• Discover column types and relationships using sample SELECTs to improve comments and synonyms
• Walk a teammate through installing snow CLI and configuring a connection for the first validation