New Cortex Agents features in Snowflake including temporary agents

Use cases

Imagine you need to test model configurations or create ephemeral AI workflows without cluttering the database with permanent objects. With the new Cortex Agents enhancements, you can now create session-scoped agents, protect metadata from roles without the owner role active, preserve permissions when replacing agents, and run agents directly in your personal database.

• Create temporary agents that expire with the session
• Protect agent specifications from unauthorized metadata access
• Preserve explicit privileges when replacing an agent
• Run agents in the PUBLIC schema of personal databases

How to use

To create a temporary agent bound only to your current session, use the SQL command with the TEMPORARY or TEMP keyword.

CREATE TEMPORARY AGENT my_temp_agent
  FROM SPECIFICATION
  $$
  models:
    orchestration: claude-sonnet-4-6
  tools:
    - tool_spec:
        type: "cortex_analyst_text_to_sql"
        name: "Analyst1"
  tool_resources:
    Analyst1:
      semantic_view: "my_db.my_schema.my_model"
  $$;

What happens in this code:

1. Snowflake defines an agent associated exclusively with the current session.
2. The object does not require the CREATE AGENT privilege on the schema.
3. The agent directly uses the LIVE version with no versioning support.

To explicitly remove the temporary agent before the session ends, execute the drop command.

DROP AGENT my_temp_agent;

What happens in this code:

1. The temporary agent is deleted immediately.
2. The session namespace is cleaned up.

Limitations and requirements

• These features are generally available (GA).
• Temporary agents exist only during the session and do not support versioning operations like COMMIT or aliases.
• If there is a naming conflict with a permanent agent in the same schema, the temporary agent takes precedence during the session.