Snowflake previews Cortex Agents
Snowflake put Cortex Agents into public preview. An agent plans a task, then uses Cortex Analyst for structured data and Cortex Search for documents.
On February 12, 2025, Snowflake released Cortex Agents in public preview.
What was announced
- Cortex Agents, public preview. An agent takes a request, plans the steps and calls tools to answer it.
- Two built-in tools. Cortex Analyst turns questions into SQL over structured data, guided by a semantic model. Cortex Search retrieves from documents and other unstructured text.
- Runs inside Snowflake, so data access follows the account's existing governance.
Why it matters
Most business questions need both kinds of data. "Why did returns spike in March?" needs the returns table and the support tickets that explain them. An agent that can reach both in one plan is more useful than two separate tools.
It also shows where the hard part sits. Cortex Analyst leans on a semantic model, a file that tells it what tables and columns mean. That file is written by someone, and the agent is only as accurate as the decisions recorded in it.