Snowflake Expands Cortex Code to Support Any Data, Anywhere

Cortex Code CLI now integrates with dbt and Apache Airflow, delivering AI assistance across data engineering workflows.

Published on Feb. 24, 2026

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Snowflake announced that its Cortex Code CLI, an AI coding agent for local development environments, is expanding beyond Snowflake-native workflows to support popular data systems like dbt and Apache Airflow. This allows developers to unlock secure, context-aware AI assistance within their preferred data engineering tools, empowering them to work with data wherever it lives and build, manage, and optimize production-ready workflows more efficiently.

Why it matters

Modern data stacks span multiple systems, making data engineering workflows increasingly complex. Cortex Code CLI's expanded support aims to simplify and accelerate development directly within the tools developers already use, while maintaining enterprise-grade controls and oversight. This helps teams build on their data faster, reduce manual work, and improve code quality to deliver business value from data and AI more quickly.

The details

Cortex Code CLI is now assisting with model development, debugging, and optimization across data transformation and workflow tools like dbt and Apache Airflow. Snowflake is also enabling customers to select leading AI models, including Claude Opus 4.6 and OpenAI GPT-5.2, to balance quality, latency, and cost based on workload requirements. Additionally, new administrative controls and governance features are being introduced to manage access, usage, and policy enforcement across teams.

  • Cortex Code CLI was launched in November 2025.
  • Snowflake has already seen over 4,400 new users since the initial launch.

The players

Snowflake

The AI Data Cloud company that provides Cortex Code CLI, an AI coding agent for local development environments.

Christian Kleinerman

EVP of Product at Snowflake.

Spencer Burke

SVP of Growth at Braze, a customer using Cortex Code.

Trent Foley

Chief Technology Officer at evolv Consulting, a customer using Cortex Code.

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What they’re saying

“Developers don't operate in a single system, and AI coding assistants shouldn't either. Modern data work spans multiple systems, teams, and workflows — and the tools we build have to reflect that reality.”

— Christian Kleinerman, EVP of Product (itwire.com)

“Cortex Code is transforming how we approach agentic analytics at Braze. Its native understanding of our datasets, schemas, and columns means our engineers spend less time wrestling with context and more time getting precise, actionable outputs.”

— Spencer Burke, SVP of Growth (itwire.com)

“Cortex Code has transformed solution development at evolv Consulting by providing a direct, context-aware connection to the Snowflake ecosystem, allowing our team to interact seamlessly with databases, objects, and git repositories.”

— Trent Foley, Chief Technology Officer (itwire.com)

What’s next

Snowflake is introducing a new subscription plan for Cortex Code CLI that operates independently of Snowflake compute and consumption, lowering the barrier to entry for any developer team to start using the AI-powered development tool.

The takeaway

By expanding Cortex Code CLI's support beyond Snowflake-native workflows to include popular data engineering tools like dbt and Apache Airflow, Snowflake is empowering developers to leverage AI-powered assistance across their entire data ecosystem, streamlining workflows and accelerating the delivery of business value from data and AI.