snowflake-ci-integration

Snowflake CI Integration

Overview

Set up CI/CD for Snowflake using SchemaChange for migrations, GitHub Actions for automation, and Terraform for infrastructure.

Prerequisites

• GitHub repository with Actions enabled
• Snowflake service account with key pair auth
• SchemaChange or Terraform installed

Instructions

Step 1: SchemaChange for Database Migrations

# Install SchemaChange
pip install schemachange

# Directory structure
migrations/
├── V1.0.0__initial_schema.sql          # Versioned (run once, in order)
├── V1.1.0__add_orders_table.sql
├── V1.2.0__add_customer_segments.sql
├── R__views.sql                         # Repeatable (re-run on every change)
├── R__stored_procedures.sql
└── A__cleanup_temp_tables.sql           # Always run

-- V1.0.0__initial_schema.sql
CREATE DATABASE IF NOT EXISTS {{database}};
CREATE SCHEMA IF NOT EXISTS {{database}}.{{schema}};

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS {{database}}.{{schema}}.users (
    id INTEGER AUTOINCREMENT,
    name VARCHAR(100) NOT NULL,
    email VARCHAR(255) UNIQUE,
    created_at TIMESTAMP_NTZ DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP()
);

-- V1.1.0__add_orders_table.sql
CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS {{database}}.{{schema}}.orders (
    order_id INTEGER AUTOINCREMENT,
    user_id INTEGER REFERENCES {{database}}.{{schema}}.users(id),
    amount DECIMAL(12,2),
    order_date TIMESTAMP_NTZ DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP()
);

# Run migrations locally
schemachange deploy \
  --root-folder migrations \
  --snowflake-account $SNOWFLAKE_ACCOUNT \
  --snowflake-user $SNOWFLAKE_USER \
  --snowflake-private-key-path ./rsa_key.p8 \
  --snowflake-warehouse DEV_WH_XS \
  --snowflake-database DEV_DB \
  --snowflake-schema PUBLIC \
  --change-history-table SCHEMACHANGE.CHANGE_HISTORY \
  --create-change-history-table \
  --vars '{"database": "DEV_DB", "schema": "PUBLIC"}'

Step 2: GitHub Actions Workflow

# .github/workflows/snowflake-deploy.yml
name: Snowflake Deploy

on:
  push:
    branches: [main]
    paths: ['migrations/**']
  pull_request:
    branches: [main]
    paths: ['migrations/**']

env:
  SNOWFLAKE_ACCOUNT: ${{ secrets.SNOWFLAKE_ACCOUNT }}
  SNOWFLAKE_USER: ${{ secrets.SNOWFLAKE_USER }}

jobs:
  validate:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    if: github.event_name == 'pull_request'
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: actions/setup-python@v5
        with:
          python-version: '3.11'
      - run: pip install schemachange
      - name: Dry-run migrations against staging
        env:
          SNOWFLAKE_PRIVATE_KEY: ${{ secrets.SNOWFLAKE_PRIVATE_KEY }}
        run: |
          echo "$SNOWFLAKE_PRIVATE_KEY" > /tmp/rsa_key.p8
          schemachange deploy \
            --root-folder migrations \
            --snowflake-account $SNOWFLAKE_ACCOUNT \
            --snowflake-user $SNOWFLAKE_USER \
            --snowflake-private-key-path /tmp/rsa_key.p8 \
            --snowflake-warehouse CI_WH_XS \
            --snowflake-database STAGING_DB \
            --dry-run \
            --vars '{"database": "STAGING_DB", "schema": "PUBLIC"}'

  deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    if: github.ref == 'refs/heads/main' && github.event_name == 'push'
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: actions/setup-python@v5
        with:
          python-version: '3.11'
      - run: pip install schemachange
      - name: Deploy to production
        env:
          SNOWFLAKE_PRIVATE_KEY: ${{ secrets.SNOWFLAKE_PRIVATE_KEY_PROD }}
        run: |
          echo "$SNOWFLAKE_PRIVATE_KEY" > /tmp/rsa_key.p8
          schemachange deploy \
            --root-folder migrations \
            --snowflake-account $SNOWFLAKE_ACCOUNT \
            --snowflake-user $SNOWFLAKE_USER \
            --snowflake-private-key-path /tmp/rsa_key.p8 \
            --snowflake-warehouse PROD_ETL_WH \
            --snowflake-database PROD_DB \
            --change-history-table SCHEMACHANGE.CHANGE_HISTORY \
            --create-change-history-table \
            --vars '{"database": "PROD_DB", "schema": "PUBLIC"}'

Step 3: Configure GitHub Secrets

# Store credentials
gh secret set SNOWFLAKE_ACCOUNT --body "myorg-myaccount"
gh secret set SNOWFLAKE_USER --body "svc_github_ci"
gh secret set SNOWFLAKE_PRIVATE_KEY < rsa_key.p8
gh secret set SNOWFLAKE_PRIVATE_KEY_PROD < rsa_key_prod.p8

Step 4: Terraform for Infrastructure

# snowflake.tf
terraform {
  required_providers {
    snowflake = {
      source  = "Snowflake-Labs/snowflake"
      version = "~> 0.90"
    }
  }
}

provider "snowflake" {
  account  = var.snowflake_account
  user     = var.snowflake_user
  private_key = file(var.private_key_path)
  role     = "SYSADMIN"
}

resource "snowflake_database" "analytics" {
  name                        = "ANALYTICS_DB"
  data_retention_time_in_days = 14
}

resource "snowflake_warehouse" "etl" {
  name           = "ETL_WH"
  warehouse_size = "LARGE"
  auto_suspend   = 120
  auto_resume    = true
}

resource "snowflake_role" "analyst" {
  name = "ANALYST_ROLE"
}

resource "snowflake_grant_privileges_to_role" "analyst_usage" {
  role_name  = snowflake_role.analyst.name
  privileges = ["USAGE"]
  on_account_object {
    object_type = "WAREHOUSE"
    object_name = snowflake_warehouse.etl.name
  }
}

Step 5: Integration Tests in CI

# Add to GitHub Actions workflow
  test:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: '20'
      - run: npm ci
      - name: Run Snowflake integration tests
        env:
          SNOWFLAKE_ACCOUNT: ${{ secrets.SNOWFLAKE_ACCOUNT }}
          SNOWFLAKE_USER: ${{ secrets.SNOWFLAKE_USER }}
          SNOWFLAKE_PRIVATE_KEY: ${{ secrets.SNOWFLAKE_PRIVATE_KEY }}
        run: |
          echo "$SNOWFLAKE_PRIVATE_KEY" > /tmp/rsa_key.p8
          SNOWFLAKE_PRIVATE_KEY_PATH=/tmp/rsa_key.p8 npm test

Error Handling

Issue	Cause	Solution
Duplicate script	SchemaChange already ran it	Versioned scripts run once; check CHANGE_HISTORY
Permission denied	CI user lacks privileges	Grant required roles to CI service account
Terraform drift	Manual changes in Snowflake	Run terraform plan to detect, terraform import to sync
Secret not found	Missing GitHub secret	gh secret set SNOWFLAKE_*

Resources

• SchemaChange
• Snowflake Terraform Provider
• GitHub Actions

Next Steps

For deployment patterns, see snowflake-deploy-integration.