Snowflake

Overview

Model Context Protocol is an open protocol that standardizes how applications provide context to LLMs. Check out this page on how to connect to Toolbox via MCP.

Before you begin

This guide assumes you have already done the following:

1. Create a Snowflake account.
2. Connect to the instance using SnowSQL, or any other Snowflake client.

Step 1: Set up your environment

Copy the environment template and update it with your Snowflake credentials:

cp examples/snowflake-env.sh my-snowflake-env.sh

Edit my-snowflake-env.sh with your actual Snowflake connection details:

export SNOWFLAKE_ACCOUNT="your-account-identifier"
export SNOWFLAKE_USER="your-username"
export SNOWFLAKE_PASSWORD="your-password"
export SNOWFLAKE_DATABASE="your-database"
export SNOWFLAKE_SCHEMA="your-schema"
export SNOWFLAKE_WAREHOUSE="COMPUTE_WH"
export SNOWFLAKE_ROLE="ACCOUNTADMIN"

Step 2: Install Toolbox

In this section, we will download and install the Toolbox binary.

1. Download the latest version of Toolbox as a binary:

   Tip

   Select the correct binary corresponding to your OS and CPU architecture.

   export OS="linux/amd64" # one of linux/amd64, darwin/arm64, darwin/amd64, or windows/amd64
   export VERSION="0.10.0"
   curl -O https://storage.googleapis.com/genai-toolbox/v$VERSION/$OS/toolbox
   

2. Make the binary executable:

   chmod +x toolbox
   

Step 3: Configure the tools

You have two options:

Option A: Use the prebuilt configuration

./toolbox --prebuilt snowflake

Option B: Use the custom configuration

Create a tools.yaml file and add the following content. You must replace the placeholders with your actual Snowflake configuration.

sources:
  snowflake-source:
    kind: snowflake
    account: ${SNOWFLAKE_ACCOUNT}
    user: ${SNOWFLAKE_USER}
    password: ${SNOWFLAKE_PASSWORD}
    database: ${SNOWFLAKE_DATABASE}
    schema: ${SNOWFLAKE_SCHEMA}
    warehouse: ${SNOWFLAKE_WAREHOUSE}
    role: ${SNOWFLAKE_ROLE}

tools:
    execute_sql:
        kind: snowflake-execute-sql
        source: snowflake-source
        description: Use this tool to execute SQL.

    list_tables:
        kind: snowflake-sql
        source: snowflake-source
        description: "Lists detailed schema information for user-created tables."
        statement: |
           SELECT table_name, table_type 
           FROM information_schema.tables 
           WHERE table_schema = current_schema()
           ORDER BY table_name;

For more info on tools, check out the Tools section.

Step 4: Run the Toolbox server

Run the Toolbox server, pointing to the tools.yaml file created earlier:

./toolbox --tools-file "tools.yaml"

Step 5: Connect to MCP Inspector

1. Run the MCP Inspector:

   npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector
   

2. Type y when it asks to install the inspector package.

3. It should show the following when the MCP Inspector is up and running (please take note of <YOUR_SESSION_TOKEN>):

   Starting MCP inspector...
   ⚙️ Proxy server listening on localhost:6277
   🔑 Session token: <YOUR_SESSION_TOKEN>
      Use this token to authenticate requests or set DANGEROUSLY_OMIT_AUTH=true to disable auth
   
   🚀 MCP Inspector is up and running at:
      http://localhost:6274/?MCP_PROXY_AUTH_TOKEN=<YOUR_SESSION_TOKEN>
   

4. Open the above link in your browser.

5. For Transport Type, select Streamable HTTP.

6. For URL, type in http://127.0.0.1:5000/mcp.

7. For Configuration -> Proxy Session Token, make sure <YOUR_SESSION_TOKEN> is present.

8. Click Connect.

9. Select List Tools, you will see a list of tools configured in tools.yaml.

10. Test out your tools here!

What’s next

• Learn more about MCP Inspector.
• Learn more about Toolbox Resources.
• Learn more about Toolbox How-to guides.