# Snowflake Pipeline Guardian > Analyze Snowflake pipelines spanning tasks, streams, dynamic tables, and Snowpipe from bounded read-only evidence. Use when a pipeline is stale, skipped, suspended, lagging, duplicating rows, or missing notifications; trigger with "stream stale", "task suspended", "dynamic table lag", or "Snowpipe not loading". The skill returns evidence gaps, bounded hypotheses, and an ordered recovery plan; it never mutates Snowflake. - Skill: `gabrielmoreira/snowflake-pipeline-guardian` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 19 files) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add gabrielmoreira/snowflake-pipeline-guardian` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/gabrielmoreira/snowflake-pipeline-guardian/raw - Safety review: pending (external: skill-scanner PASS, skillspector PASS) - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: DevOps & Infra - License: MIT - Author: gabrielmoreira (https://skillmd.com/u/gabrielmoreira) - Updated: 2026-09-09 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/gabrielmoreira/snowflake-pipeline-guardian --- # Snowflake Pipeline Guardian ## Overview Pipeline symptoms cross object boundaries, but dependency order does not prove causality. This skill classifies a bounded evidence bundle, walks supplied dependency paths, and keeps observed facts, derived findings, hypotheses, and unknowns separate. Use [`scripts/analyze_pipeline_state.py`](scripts/analyze_pipeline_state.py) for deterministic classification. Read [`references/current-state.md`](references/current-state.md) before collecting live evidence and [`references/recovery-matrix.md`](references/recovery-matrix.md) before writing a recovery plan. ## Hard boundaries - Read-only diagnosis only. Never execute or emit runnable DDL, DML, task execution, refresh, resume, stream replacement, pipe refresh, or replay SQL. - Never call an empty, privilege-hidden, stale, capped, context-mismatched, or untrusted result healthy or complete. - Never treat current control-plane state as historical run proof, or lagged Account Usage history as current state. - Never infer causality from graph order or a current/history disagreement. - Never request or retain raw SQL text, object names, query IDs, file or stage paths, notification endpoints, integration names, free-text errors, or raw `SYSTEM$PIPE_STATUS` JSON. Use the reviewed hashed projections only. - Never use `SYSTEM$STREAM_HAS_DATA` for diagnosis; calling it can affect a stream's staleness behavior. - Treat hashes as pseudonymous operational data, not anonymization. ## Trusted evidence contract The live collector has six reviewed schema-2 surface types: 1. `pipeline`: explicit half-open UTC history for task runs, dynamic-table refreshes, and copy loads. 2. `pipeline-task-current`: current role-visible task inventory. 3. `pipeline-stream-current`: current role-visible stream inventory. 4. `pipeline-dynamic-table-current`: current role-visible dynamic-table inventory. 5. `pipeline-pipe-current`: current role-visible pipe inventory. 6. `pipeline-pipe-status`: one selector-bound, privacy-projected status receipt for each pipe in the current pipe inventory; zero status receipts are correct only when that inventory is empty. Each receipt must be live CLI output with exactly one same-statement `execution_context`, the reviewed SQL/template/result hashes, exact datasets, finite documented state/status domains, the exact fixed `non_claims`, the declared cap, no collector error, and a valid self-hash. Invalid receipts never reach finding classification. All receipts must agree on organization/account, collector user, primary role and role type, secondary roles, and UTC timezone. Their observations may span at most 15 minutes and may be at most 15 minutes old. Receipt self-hashes are integrity checks, not trust anchors. Put the complete receipts in one `collector_receipts` array, calculate the canonical bundle digest at a separate trusted local boundary, record it separately, and then supply it to the analyzer: ```bash python3 "${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/scripts/analyze_pipeline_state.py" \ --input ./pipeline-evidence-bundle.json --print-input-sha256 python3 "${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/scripts/analyze_pipeline_state.py" \ --input ./pipeline-evidence-bundle.json \ --trusted-input-sha256 "sha256:" \ --evaluated-at "" ``` A matching digest proves only byte identity with the operator-recorded bundle. It is not a signature, collector identity, or proof of Snowflake origin. Offline-normalized pipeline receipts are diagnostic-only and cannot support positive completeness claims. ## Prerequisites Choose an explicit UTC history window no longer than seven days. Both bounds are required and the end is exclusive: ```bash python3 "${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/scripts/collect_snowflake_evidence.py" \ --surface pipeline --connection \ --window-start \ --window-end \ --output ./pipeline-history.json ``` Collect each current inventory surface once under the same authorization context: ```bash python3 "${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/scripts/collect_snowflake_evidence.py" \ --surface pipeline-task-current --connection \ --output ./pipeline-task-current.json ``` Repeat with `pipeline-stream-current`, `pipeline-dynamic-table-current`, and `pipeline-pipe-current`. For every hash in `current_pipes`, collect exactly one status receipt using its corresponding validated three-part unquoted identifier inside the trusted operator environment: ```bash python3 "${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/scripts/collect_snowflake_evidence.py" \ --surface pipeline-pipe-status --connection \ --pipe DATABASE.SCHEMA.PIPE --output ./pipeline-pipe-status.json ``` The raw pipe selector is not receipt evidence. A successful receipt binds its fingerprint to the account-scoped object hash and hashes a receipt-only SQL rendering where that scoped hash replaces the selector. The analyzer recomputes both bindings. An error receipt retains only the reviewed template digest and a null selector fingerprint, so it cannot expose a dictionary-testable pipe name. Do not place the raw identifier in the bundle. History-window timestamps are safe selector values and are retained so the analyzer can recompute the rendered history-query digest. History is capped independently at 5,000 task, refresh, and copy rows. Current inventories are capped at 10,000 objects each; reaching a cap is incomplete. Task completions are considered settled only through observation minus 45 minutes, completed dynamic-table refreshes through observation minus 3 hours, and completed copy loads through observation minus 48 hours. Executing refreshes are excluded. The receipt records each exact `settled_through_utc`. Evidence after a settlement cutoff is unknown, not absent. See [`references/observability-queries.md`](references/observability-queries.md) for the exact field and nonclaim map, and [`references/privilege-and-boundaries.md`](references/privilege-and-boundaries.md) before requesting access. ## Instructions 1. Establish the UTC incident window, affected pseudonymous object key, symptom, and existing privilege limits. Preserve the trusted bundle before any change. 2. Supply and report one explicit `evaluated_at`, then check `evidence_trust`, `collector_ingestion`, `evidence_coverage`, `evidence_gaps`, and `graph_complete` before reading findings. A validated six-surface bundle is still only role-visible evidence; it does not prove account-wide inventory. 3. Walk every supplied dependency branch upstream. Label graph order `dependency_order_not_proven_causality`; list missing nodes and edges instead of guessing. 4. Separate current state from settled history. A current task state cannot fill a history latency gap, and absence from settled history cannot establish that a current object never ran. 5. Produce read-only disambiguation checks and a recovery plan with approval, data-loss, duplicate, cost, rollback, and stop boundaries. Do not emit the mutation commands. 6. After an operator-approved change, recollect all required surfaces and create a new independently digested bundle. A single green run is not recovery proof. Key finding families include streams that may be stale, confirmed stale streams, suspended or failed tasks, dynamic-refresh failures and lag breaches, pipe notification/load gaps, partial/failed/skipped copy loads, skipped or overlapping task runs, duplicate delivery, and unproven replay idempotence. Missing settled evidence produces an unknown, never a healthy finding. ## Output Return a compact incident receipt containing: - trusted-input status, receipt surfaces, UTC window, settlement cutoffs, caps, and privilege limitations; - pseudonymous dependency paths with an explicit not-proven-causality label; - observed facts, derived findings, hypotheses, and unknowns; - ordered read-only checks and a separately approval-gated recovery plan; - post-change evidence requirements, duplicate/data-loss risk, and stop criteria. Do not echo receipt rows, selectors, raw identifiers, or collector error text. ## Error Handling If the input is malformed, untrusted, stale, incomplete, capped, or inconsistent, report the exact evidence class that failed and suppress positive claims. If no finding matches, say “no matching signal in supplied evidence,” not “pipeline healthy.” If collection fails, preserve the sanitized error code locally and report that the affected surface is unavailable; never paste free-text CLI or Snowflake errors into the incident receipt. ## Examples - A current task is suspended while its matching task-history interval is still inside the 45-minute latency tail: report the current state as observed and the historical cause as unknown. - One pipe lacks its selector-bound status receipt: report pipe coverage incomplete even when every other surface and the bundle digest validate. ## References - [`references/current-state.md`](references/current-state.md) — schema-2 bundle, freshness, settlement, caps, and current/history nonclaims. - [`references/observability-queries.md`](references/observability-queries.md) — six reviewed read-only surfaces. - [`references/recovery-matrix.md`](references/recovery-matrix.md) — recovery tradeoffs and invariants. - [`references/replay-and-overlap.md`](references/replay-and-overlap.md) — replay, overlap, and idempotency holds. - [`references/privilege-and-boundaries.md`](references/privilege-and-boundaries.md) — least privilege, privacy, and mutation boundaries. - [`references/source-notes.md`](references/source-notes.md) — official Snowflake sources and review date.