Timothy Spann

Posted on May 3

All Data and AI Weekly #240-04 May 2026

#llm #mcp #ai #agenticai

( AI, Data, Agentic AI, Cortex Code, NiFi, Iceberg, Polaris, Streamlit, Python, Java, SQL, MCP, LLM, RAG, Cortex AI, AISQL, Search, Unstructured Data )

Tim's Corner: May the Fourth Be With You

Welcome to issue 240 - and May the Fourth Be With You! Like the Rebel Alliance, we're building an open, interconnected data galaxy where information flows freely across systems.

This week the Force is strong with Snowflake: AI_PARSE_DOCUMENT leveled up with GA image extraction and 2,000-page support (that's a lot of Jedi archives),

Interactive Tables with CDC and streaming ingestion entered limited access (real-time data at lightspeed),

Data Security in Trust Center went GA (protecting the galaxy from the dark side of data breaches), and

SCIM authentication expanded with PATs and External OAuth.

The engineering team published a stellar blog on mining query history to build better semantic models for AI - turning your query logs into a knowledge base that makes AI assistants actually useful. On the community front, Prompt Forge landed for multi-model evaluation,

the Cortex Code Agent SDK got a managed services application showcase, and IBM released Granite 4.1 on Ollama.

I'm counting down to Snowflake Summit 2026 in San Francisco June 2-5 where I'll be speaking on NiFi and Agents. The countdown to Summit has begun - don't let this be a trap, register now! Let's dig in.

Tim's Content

Snowflake Summit 2026 - Tim is Speaking!

I'll be speaking at Snowflake Summit 2026 on NiFi and Agents. The Summit is less than a month away - this is your chance to join 10,000+ data professionals in San Francisco for the biggest data and AI event of the year. Check the session catalog:

New SNACK-AI Repositories

Repository	Description
SNACKAI-CoCo-PremiumViews	Premium views and analytics built with Cortex Code
SLACKAI-CoCo-JetsonEdge	Edge AI on NVIDIA Jetson with Cortex Code and SNACK-AI
SNACKAI-CoCo-SnowflakeSummit2026Agenda	Summit 2026 session agenda explorer built with Cortex Code
SNACKAI-CoCo-CortexAITraining	Cortex AI training materials and examples built with SNACK-AI
SNACKAI-CoCo-AIGovernance	AI governance patterns built with Cortex Code and SNACK-AI
SNACKAI-CoCo-FindDataNearby	Location-aware data discovery built with Cortex Code
SNACKAI-CoCo-SpringSnowGhost	Spring ghost detection with Cortex Code and SNACK-AI
SNACKAI-CoCo-AIQueries	AI query builder with Cortex Code
SNACKAI-CoCo-PolyMarket	Prediction market analytics with Cortex Code
SNACKAI-CoCo-VPSCalculator	VPS cost calculator with Cortex Code

Upcoming Events: Catch Tim Live!

May 6: Philly Hands-On Lab: Automate Data Workflows with Cortex Code and Evolv - Philadelphia, PA
May 13: Snowflake NoCode Live (SNL) - Virtual Hands-On Lab
May 14: From Raw Data to a Conversational AI Agent with Snowflake in 90 Minutes - Virtual
May 20: Budapest Data and AI - Budapest, Hungary - Tim Virtual speaking
May 21: Data for Breakfast Encore - Virtual
May 27: From Raw to Reliable: Build AI-Powered Data Quality Pipelines with Cortex Code - Virtual Hands-On Lab
May 28: Build Your First Agentic ML Pipeline with Natural Language - Virtual Hands-On Lab
June 2-5: Snowflake Summit 2026 - San Francisco, CA - Join me, I will be speaking on NiFi and Agents.

Snowflake Dev Day (In-Person): https://www.snowflake.com/en/dev-day/in-person/

All Snowflake Events: https://www.snowflake.com/about/events/

Past Events (Catch the Replays):

Snowflake Summit 2026 - San Francisco, June 2-5

The biggest event of the year is almost here! Snowflake Summit 2026 returns to San Francisco June 2-5. Snowflake announced that Anthropic's Co-Founder and President Daniela Amodei will join the keynote, along with 500+ sessions, 200+ on-site partners, and new AI-powered experiences. The Force will definitely be with you at Summit.

Press Release: Snowflake Makes AI Real at Summit 26

Agentic Enterprise Announcement: Snowflake Expands Intelligence and Cortex Code

Register now: https://www.snowflake.com/summit/

Cortex Code CLI Developer Trial: https://signup.snowflake.com/

Featured: Mining Query History to Build Better Semantic Models for AI

Giving an AI analyst raw database schemas and sample queries works great for demos but falls apart in production. Snowflake's engineering team published a deep dive on mining query history to build better semantic models - turning your existing query logs into a governed knowledge base that makes AI data assistants actually useful. The approach automatically extracts join patterns, filter logic, calculated metrics, and business terminology from how your team actually queries data.

Featured: Interactive Tables - Real-Time Data at Lightspeed

Two new Limited Access features bring real-time interactive workloads to Snowflake:

Interactive CDC (Change Data Capture)

Use change data capture with interactive tables for real-time updates with much less ingestion cost compared to standard MERGE INTO patterns. Ideal for lower-volume, mutable data streams.

Documentation: https://docs.snowflake.com/en/LIMITEDACCESS/interactive-cdc

Interactive Streaming Ingestion

Stream data into interactive tables for real-time analytics. For mutable, deduplicated data (inserts, updates, deletes from source systems), combine with CDC for a complete real-time pipeline.

Documentation: https://docs.snowflake.com/en/LIMITEDACCESS/interactive-streaming

Cortex AI & Agents

AI_PARSE_DOCUMENT Image Extraction (GA - Apr 30)

AI_PARSE_DOCUMENT image extraction using LAYOUT mode is now GA. Extract images alongside text and layout to build multimodal document processing workflows. Unlock visual data from documents for richer AI applications.

AI_PARSE_DOCUMENT 2,000 Page Support (Apr 30)

AI_PARSE_DOCUMENT now processes documents up to 2,000 pages in both LAYOUT and OCR modes. Handle large healthcare records, insurance claims, regulatory filings, and technical manuals in a single request.

Cortex Code: One Governed Agent for Your Entire Data Stack

Cortex Code expands into a governed agent across your entire data stack - warehouse, transformation, and orchestration. Available as Desktop, CLI, and in Snowsight.

Prompt Forge: Multi-Model Prompt Evaluation with Snowflake Cortex

Prompt Forge enables multi-model prompt evaluation directly in Snowflake Cortex - test prompts across different models, compare outputs, and optimize for quality and cost.

Resources:

Agentic Managed Services with Cortex Code Agent SDK

Build agentic managed services applications using the Cortex Code Agent SDK - demonstrates how to rebuild managed services workflows with AI agents.

Resources:

Awesome Pipeline Auditor with Cortex Agents SDK

A comprehensive pipeline auditor built with the Cortex Agents SDK for monitoring and validating data pipeline health.

GitHub: https://github.com/iamontheinet/awesome-pipeline-auditor-with-cortex-agents-sdk

Snowflake AI Kit: Cortex Code Plugin for Claude Code

Snowflake AI Kit now includes a Cortex Code plugin for Claude Code, bridging Snowflake's data context into Anthropic's coding assistant.

GitHub: https://github.com/Snowflake-Labs/snowflake-ai-kit#cortex-code-plugin-for-claude-code

TruLens 2.8.0 Released

TruLens 2.8.0 - the open source framework for evaluating, tracking, and optimizing AI (powers Snowflake's Agent GPA framework).

Release: https://github.com/truera/trulens/releases/tag/trulens-2.8.0

Cortex Code CLI & Agent SDK

Snowflake Platform Updates

Data Security in Trust Center (GA - Apr 24)

Data Security in the Trust Center is now GA. Automatic sensitive data classification across databases identifies PII, PCI, and regulated data categories - protecting the galaxy from the dark side of data breaches.

SCIM Authentication: PATs and External OAuth (GA - May 1)

New authentication methods for SCIM requests are GA. Authenticate with Programmatic Access Tokens (PATs) and External OAuth tokens in addition to existing SCIM access tokens.

Outbound PrivateLink Endpoints Organization Usage View (May 1)

New OUTBOUND_PRIVATELINK_ENDPOINTS view in ORGANIZATION_USAGE schema for monitoring outbound private connectivity endpoints across all accounts in your organization.

Tags & Policies in Snowsight (Preview - Apr 30)

Create tags directly in Snowsight and view expanded tagging coverage across supported object types in the Tags & Policies Dashboard.

Data Clean Rooms Updates (Apr 30)

Data Clean Rooms API Version 14.7 with creation timestamps for registry objects and Data Clean Rooms UI improvements.

Datometry for Snowflake: Accelerate Teradata Migration

Datometry for Snowflake removes the difficult tradeoff for enterprises on Teradata - no more choosing between expensive renewals or high-risk multi-year rewrites. Accelerate your exit to the AI Data Cloud.

Read more: Announcing Datometry for Snowflake

Snowpark Connect for Apache Spark

Snowpark Connect for Apache Spark enables Spark workloads to run directly on Snowflake compute, eliminating data movement.

Product Page: https://www.snowflake.com/en/product/features/snowpark-connect-apache-spark/

Booking.com Customer Story

See how Booking.com leverages Snowflake for data and AI at scale.

Video: https://www.snowflake.com/en/customers/all-customers/video/booking-com/?clear-cache=59tbik

OpenFlow

OpenFlow Connector for Confluence Data Center

Openflow Connector for Confluence Data Center ingests wiki and knowledge base content into Snowflake for search and analytics.

Documentation: https://docs.snowflake.com/en/LIMITEDACCESS/openflow/connectors/confluence-data-center/about

EvanFlow

Community-built OpenFlow connector patterns and utilities.

GitHub: https://github.com/evanklem/evanflow

Dynamic Tables & dbt

Migrating a dbt Core Project to Snowflake

Guide on migrating a dbt Core project to Snowflake - from setup through deployment patterns.

Dynamic Tables + dbt: A Powerful Combination

How Dynamic Tables and dbt work together for a powerful data transformation pipeline.

AI Models & Research

IBM Granite 4.1

IBM Granite 4.1 is now available on Ollama - an open, enterprise-focused model family with strong tool-use and reasoning capabilities.

Resources:

Moondream v2

Moondream v2 - a lightweight vision-language model for edge and embedded use cases, available on Ollama.

Ollama: https://ollama.com/library/moondream:v2

Frontier Model Lower Costs

Analysis of how frontier model costs continue to decline, making AI more accessible.

Microsoft Agent Framework

Microsoft's Agent Framework - an open source framework for building, managing, and orchestrating AI agents.

GitHub: https://github.com/microsoft/agent-framework

Generative AI for Science

Research repository on applying Generative AI to scientific research and discovery.

GitHub: https://github.com/jpliu168/Generative_AI_For_Science/

From the Community: Medium & Blogs

Article	Description
Snowflake Intelligence: The Fifth Person	How Snowflake Intelligence solves the business user data access problem
Production-Grade AI Agent Inside Snowflake	Every line of building a production AI agent in Snowflake
Enterprise-Grade skill.md for Cortex Code (Part 3)	Scaling and polishing enterprise skill definitions
Enterprise-Grade skill.md for Cortex Code (Part 2)	Building the workflow for enterprise skills
Enterprise-Grade skill.md for Cortex Code (Part 1)	Foundation patterns for production skill definitions
Prompt Forge: Multi-Model Evaluation	Test prompts across models with Snowflake Cortex
The End of the Billable Hour: Cortex Code Agent SDK	Rebuilding managed services with AI agents
Dynamic Tables + dbt: A Powerful Combination	How Dynamic Tables and dbt work together
Snowflake Trust Center Detections	Real-time threat monitoring with Trust Center
Snowflake Database Roles Demystified	Understanding who sees what and why it matters
From All-or-Nothing to Graceful Degradation: DML Error Logging	Graceful degradation patterns for DML error handling
Hybrid Data Mesh with Snowflake and Databricks	Building a hybrid data mesh across platforms

GitHub: Snowflake Labs & Community

Repository	Description
snowflake-ai-kit	Snowflake AI Kit with Cortex Code plugin for Claude Code
prompt_forge	Multi-model prompt evaluation with Snowflake Cortex
Agentic-Managed-Services	Managed services application with Cortex Code Agent SDK
awesome-pipeline-auditor	Pipeline auditor with Cortex Agents SDK
Snow-Insurance-Demo	Snowflake insurance industry demo application
VibeCodingExamples	Snowflake vs Databricks Spark TPC-H SF100 ETL comparison
trulens v2.8.0	TruLens 2.8.0 - AI evaluation framework powering Agent GPA
evanflow	Community OpenFlow connector patterns
SNACKAI-CoCo-PremiumViews	Premium views with Cortex Code
SLACKAI-CoCo-JetsonEdge	Edge AI on NVIDIA Jetson

Developer Tools & Open Source

Tool	Description
datacenter.fm	Interactive map and data on global data center infrastructure
datacenter.fm (GitHub)	Open source data center mapping project
cua	Computer-use agent framework for automating desktop tasks
ministack	Minimal infrastructure stack for local development
named-pipes	Named pipes utilities for inter-process communication
open-pdf-studio	Open source PDF editing and processing studio
winpodx	Windows container pod management
utilyze	System utilization monitoring and analytics
Systalyze Utilyze	Cloud resource utilization platform
powermonitor	Power consumption monitoring tool
maxheadbox	Max Headroom-inspired digital art project
l123	Lightweight data processing utility
Meshtastic Apple	Meshtastic mesh networking app for Apple devices
warmburnout.com	Platform comparison and burnout prevention resources
Doom in ChatGPT and Claude	Running Doom inside AI chat interfaces
Terminal GPU Battery (Ghostty/iTerm2)	GPU and battery optimization for Mac terminal emulators

Video Content

Video	Description
Cortex Code Agent SDK Demo	Demo of Cortex Code Agent SDK capabilities
Snowflake AI & ML Playlist	Snowflake AI and ML video series

SNACK-AI: The 2026 Pattern

As we look forward in 2026, SNACK-AI is the architectural pattern for powering AI applications at any scale - from mobile phones and robots to massive enterprise clusters.

SNACK-AI integrates: