What is Snowflake?

Snowflake is a cloud-based data warehousing platform that enables businesses to store, process, and analyze large volumes of data efficiently. It provides scalable computing power, built-in security, and seamless integration with various data sources. Snowflake is widely used for business intelligence, analytics, and real-time data processing across industries.

How to use Parabola’s Snowflake integration

Parabola’s Snowflake integration helps businesses automate data workflows and optimize data management.

Import and export structured data between Snowflake and other platforms
Transform raw data into actionable insights without manual processing
Sync Snowflake data with other business tools for enhanced reporting and automation

Learn more about Parabola’s Snowflake integration below.

Pull from Snowflake

Use the Pull from Snowflake step to pull in your data from your Snowflake database.

Before you start

Check whether your team has already created a Snowflake OAuth security integration for Parabola (client ID and client secret). If it exists, you can skip to the Set up the step in Parabola section.

Create a Snowflake OAuth security integration

In order to perform these steps, you must have Snowflake permissions to create a security integration.

Sign into Snowflake. Click on “Worksheets” tab in the sidebar and click ”+ Worksheet” button in the upper right hand corner

In the worksheet, paste the query below into the worksheets query box. This will instantiate a custom client OAuth server on your Snowflake instance that Parabola will use to connect to.

create security integration oauth_parabola_prod
type = oauth
enabled = true
oauth_client = custom
oauth_client_type = ‘CONFIDENTIAL’
oauth_redirect_uri = ‘https://parabola.io/api/auth/snowflake/callback’
oauth_issue_refresh_tokens = true
oauth_refresh_token_validity = 7776000

The configuration above is the basic default settings for OAuth server up, but can be customized further for your needs. Additional information located on Snowflake documents here. Click the Run/Play button. If successful, you should see a notification on the lower portion of the screen confirming integration creation was successful.

Retrieving the Client ID and Client Secret

Run the following query:

select system$show_oauth_client_secrets(‘OAUTH_PARABOLA_PROD’);

Note: The name of your integration passed into this statement should be all capitalized. Ex “oauth_parabola_prod” should be entered as ‘OAUTH_PARABOLA_PROD’

Click on the result in the lower half of the page and copy the oauth_client_id and oauth_client_secret values in the resulting json

Set up the step in Parabola

In your builder, bring in the Snowflake step and Click on “Authorize Snowflake”. You will see a form asking for client_id, client_secret, and account_identifier. For client_id and client_secret, paste the values you received above. For account_identifier, paste your Snowflake account id. Your account ID will be the located in your URL:

<account_identifier>.snowflakecomputing.com

If your Snowflake URL has a region included in it, along with an account identifier, you may need to include that region as well in this step. After you hit Submit, a module will pop up which will ask to authenticate. Login to your Snowflake account as you always would. After logging in, you should be taken back to Parabola. You will now be able to query data from Snowflake!

Step Permissions

When a user authorizes our “Pull from Snowflake” step, their access to data within the Parabola step will be the same as their access to data within the Snowflake platform. If a user has granular permissions configured in Snowflake, their access will be gated in the same fashion within Parabola. While credentials like Client ID and Client Secret are at the organization level, when a user actually authenticates the step through their Snowflake login, we ensure that the actual user account permissions are enforced within the step itself. Parabola now supports shared authentication for Snowflake, making it easier for teams to authorize Snowflake once and reuse that connection across flows and users—without needing to repeatedly input credentials or reauthorize each step.

Admins can authorize a Snowflake connection once via any Pull from Snowflake or Send to Snowflake step.
Any team member can select the shared Snowflake connection in their Pull from Snowflake or Send to Snowflake step by choosing the appropriate shared auth profile.
Permissions and access levels will still reflect the Snowflake role tied to that authenticated connection.

Learn more about managing integration accounts here.

Helpful Tips

On pulling data from Snowflake

There is currently no way to add dynamic filters to your query, so you’ll want to filter your data as much as possible in the query itself to limit the amount of data you’re pulling in.

Get help from AI

When working in the ‘Query (optional)’ field, you’ll see two buttons that open AI chat:

“Help write query”: Describe the data you want in plain language (for example, “Show the last 30 days of shipped orders”), and AI will draft the SQL.
“Optimize query”: Paste your existing SQL and ask AI to fix errors, improve performance, or add logic. This is especially helpful for resolving SQL syntax issues.

You can iterate in the AI chat until the query is ready to run.

Snowflake’s maximum token validity

The maximum token validity is 90 days, as enforced by Snowflake. This limit cannot be extended. You can set a shorter validity period by updating the oauth_refresh_token_validity parameter for your custom client. If a token expires after reaching its maximum validity, you will be prompted to reauthorize your Snowflake connection the next time the flow runs.

Snowflake permissions

By default Parabola will mimic the permissions you have within your Snowflake instance. The request will check the user’s default role, warehouse, and database/schema. If these values are not set, or the users default values are not sufficient to make a certain request, you will see an error message like below:

Settings Error: Error occurred with Snowflake API (status_code: 422, message: “SQL compilation error: Object ‘CUSTOMER’ does not exist or not authorized.”)

If this occurs, open up the settings on the left-hand side labeled Connection Options and manually enter the values you would like to use to make a query:

You can play around with these values in the Snowflake worksheets section to find a configuration that works for you. In the upper left hand corner of the page select for role or warehouse, and the sidebar for database or schema respectively:

Send to Snowflake

Use the Send to Snowflake step to insert, update, or merge data into your Snowflake database. This step is currently offered to users on our Advanced Plan. Check out the Pricing Page for additional information. Before you get started, check to see if your team has already set up their Client ID and Client Secret for Parabola. If you or someone else on your team has already set this up on the Snowflake side, you will not need to go through this process again and can jump straight to the Parabola Step Set Up section.

Connect your Snowflake account

In order to perform these steps, you must have the right permission level in Snowflake to create a security integration. Login to your Snowflake account. Once you’re logged in, click on “Worksheets” tab in the sidebar and click + Worksheet button in the upper right hand corner

In the worksheet, paste the query below into the worksheets query box. This will instantiate a custom client OAuth server on your Snowflake instance that Parabola will use to connect to. create security integration oauth_parabola_prod The configuration above is the basic default settings for OAuth server up, but can be customized further for your needs. Additional information located on Snowflake documents here. Click the Run/Play button. If successful, you should see a notification on the lower portion of the screen confirming integration creation was successful.

Retrieving the Client ID and Client Secret

Run the following query: select system$show_oauth_client_secrets(‘OAUTH_PARABOLA_PROD’);

Note: The name of your integration passed into this statement should be all capitalized. Ex “oauth_parabola_prod” should be entered as ‘OAUTH_PARABOLA_PROD’

Click on the result in the lower half of the page and copy the oauth_client_id and oauth_client_secret values in the resulting json

Parabola Step Set Up

In your flow builder, add the Send to Snowflake step and click on “Authorize Snowflake”. You will see a form asking for client_id, client_secret, and account_identifier. For client_id and client_secret, paste the values you received above. For account_identifier, paste your Snowflake account id. Your account ID will be the located in your URL: <account_identifier>.snowflakecomputing.com

If your Snowflake URL has a region included in it, along with an account identifier, you may need to include that region as well in this step. After you hit “Submit”, a window will pop up which will ask to authenticate. Login to your Snowflake account as you always would. After logging in, you should be taken back to Parabola. You will now be able to send data to Snowflake!