SNOWFLAKE database roles | Snowflake Documentation (original) (raw)

When an account is provisioned, the SNOWFLAKE database is automatically imported. The database is an example of Snowflake using Secure Data Sharing to provide object metadata and other usage metrics for your organization and accounts.

Access to schema objects in the SNOWFLAKE database is controlled by different database roles. The following sections describe each SNOWFLAKE database role, its associated privileges, and the associated schema objects the role is granted access to.

ACCOUNT_USAGE schema¶

ACCOUNT_USAGE schemas have four defined SNOWFLAKE database roles, each granted the SELECT privilege on specific views.

Database role required to access ACCOUNT_USAGE views¶

The OBJECT_VIEWER, USAGE_VIEWER, GOVERNANCE_VIEWER, and SECURITY_VIEWER roles have the SELECT privilege to query Account Usage views in the shared SNOWFLAKE database. Use the following table to determine which database role has access to a view.

READER_ACCOUNT_USAGE schema¶

The READER_USAGE_VIEWER SNOWFLAKE database role is granted SELECT privilege on all READER_ACCOUNT_USAGE views. As reader accounts are created by clients, the READER_USAGE_VIEWER role is expected to be granted to those roles used to monitor reader account use.

ORGANIZATION_USAGE schema¶

The ORGANIZATION_USAGE_VIEWER, ORGANIZATION_BILLING_VIEWER, and ORGANIZATION_ACCOUNTS_VIEWER SNOWFLAKE database roles are granted the SELECT privilege on Organization Usage views in the shared SNOWFLAKE database.

CORE schema¶

The CORE_VIEWER SNOWFLAKE database role is granted to the PUBLIC role in all Snowflake accounts containing a shared SNOWFLAKE database. The USAGE privilege is granted to all Snowflake-defined functions and bundles in the CORE schema.

Budget class¶

The BUDGET_CREATOR Snowflake database role is granted the USAGE privilege on the SNOWFLAKE.CORE schema and the BUDGET class in the schema. This grant allows users with the BUDGET_CREATOR role to create instances of the BUDGET class.

For more information, see Create a custom role to create budgets.

Tag objects¶

The CORE_VIEWER database role is granted the APPLY privilege each Data Classificationsystem tag: SNOWFLAKE.CORE.PRIVACY_CATEGORY and SNOWFLAKE.CORE.SEMANTIC_CATEGORY. These grants allow users with a role that is granted the CORE_VIEWER database role to assign these system tags to columns.

For details, see:

• Classify sensitive data manually
• Data Classification privilege reference

ALERT schema¶

The ALERT_VIEWER SNOWFLAKE database role is granted the USAGE privilege on the functions defined in this schema.

ML schema¶

The ML_USER SNOWFLAKE database role is granted to the PUBLIC role in all Snowflake accounts that contain a shared SNOWFLAKE database and allows customers to access and use ML functions. Users must also have the USAGE privilege on the ML schema to call these functions.

MONITORING schema¶

The MONITORING_VIEWER database role has the SELECT privilege on all views in the MONITORING schema.

The MONITORING_VIEWER database role is granted to the PUBLIC role in all Snowflake accounts containing a shared SNOWFLAKE database.

SNOWFLAKE.CLASSIFICATION_ADMIN database role¶

The SNOWFLAKE.CLASSIFICATION_ADMIN database role allows a data engineer or steward to create an instance of the CLASSIFICATION_PROFILE class. A classification profile is used to implement automatic sensitive data classification.

SNOWFLAKE.CORTEX_AGENT_USER database role¶

You can use the SNOWFLAKE.CORTEX_AGENT_USER database role to grant your users access to Snowflake Cortex Agents API without granting access to other Cortex features. Using the Cortex Agents API requires either the SNOWFLAKE.CORTEX_USER database role or the SNOWFLAKE.CORTEX_AGENT_USER database role.

By default, the SNOWFLAKE.CORTEX_USER database role is granted to the PUBLIC role. For fine-grained access control, revoke access from the PUBLIC role and grant access to the SNOWFLAKE.CORTEX_AGENT_USER database role. For more information, see Set up access to the agent.

SNOWFLAKE.CORTEX_EMBED_USER database role¶

The SNOWFLAKE.CORTEX_EMBED_USER database role is used to grant customers access to Snowflake Cortex embedding functions AI_EMBED, SNOWFLAKE.CORTEX.EMBED_768, and SNOWFLAKE.CORTEX_EMBED_TEXT_1024 without granting access to other Cortex features. Calling these embedding functions requires either the SNOWFLAKE.CORTEX_USER database role or the SNOWFLAKE.CORTEX_EMBED_USER database role. This role is not granted to any roles by default.

By default, this role is not granted to any roles. If you want users to have access to the embedding functions, grant this database role to appropriate roles. For details, see Cortex LLM Functions required privileges

SNOWFLAKE.CORTEX_USER database role¶

This SNOWFLAKE.CORTEX_USER database role is used to grant customers access to Snowflake Cortex features. By default, this role is granted to the PUBLIC role. The PUBLIC role is automatically granted to all users and roles, so this allows all users in your account to use Snowflake Cortex LLM functions.

If you don’t want all users to have this privilege, you can revoke access from the PUBLIC role and grant access to specific roles. For details, see Cortex LLM Functions required privileges.

SNOWFLAKE.COPILOT_USER database role¶

The SNOWFLAKE.COPILOT_USER database role allows customers to access Snowflake Copilot features. Initially, this database role is granted to the PUBLIC role. The PUBLIC role is automatically granted to all users and roles, so this allows all users in your account to use Snowflake Copilot. If you want to limit access to Snowflake Copilot features, you can revoke access from the PUBLIC role and grant access to specific roles. For details, see Access control requirements.

Using SNOWFLAKE database roles¶

Administrators can use the GRANT DATABASE ROLE to assign a SNOWFLAKE database role to another role, which can then be granted to a user. This would allow the user to access a specific subset of views in the SNOWFLAKE database.

In the following example a role is created which can be used to view SNOWFLAKE database object metadata, and does the following:

1. Creates a custom role.
2. Grants the OBJECT_VIEWER role to the custom role.
3. Grants the custom role to a user.

To create and grant the custom role, do the following:

1. Create the CAN_VIEWMD role, using CREATE ROLE that will be used to grant access to object metadata.
   Only users with the USERADMIN system role or higher, or another role with the CREATE ROLE privilege on the account, can create roles.
   CREATE ROLE CAN_VIEWMD COMMENT = 'This role can view metadata per SNOWFLAKE database role definitions';
2. Grant the OBJECT_VIEWER role to the CAN_VIEWMD role.
   Only users with the OWNERSHIP role can grant SNOWFLAKE database roles. For additional information, refer to GRANT DATABASE ROLE.
   GRANT DATABASE ROLE OBJECT_VIEWER TO ROLE CAN_VIEWMD;
3. Assign CAN_VIEWMD role to user smith.
   Only users with the SECURITYADMIN role can grant roles to users. For additional options, refer to GRANT ROLE.
   GRANT ROLE CAN_VIEWMD TO USER smith;