Snowflake Data Share: Getting Started Guide
BuildOps supports exporting your operational data directly into your own Snowflake instance via Snowflake Secure Data Sharing. You can query BuildOps data as if it lives natively in your Snowflake environment.
How It Works
BuildOps uses Snowflake's native Secure Data Share feature. Once provisioned, a shared database will appear in your Snowflake account. You can query it directly using SQL, connect it to BI tools, or load it into your own data lake — including pipelines built on top of Snowflake.
Note: The data share is read-only. To perform write operations or build pipelines, create a new database in your Snowflake instance that references the shared data.
Prerequisites
Before BuildOps can provision your data share, you will need:
An active Snowflake account
Any Snowflake edition is supported. If you don't have an account, visit snowflake.com to sign up.
Information to Provide to BuildOps
Once your Snowflake instance is ready, gather and send the following to your Support or your Customer Success Manager:
Snowflake Organization Name
Snowflake Account Name
Snowflake Data Sharing Account Identifier
Cloud Provider (e.g., AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud)
Cloud Region Name / ID (e.g., us-east-1, us-central-1) — optional but recommended
Tenant ID(s) to include in the data share
How to find these: Log into your Snowflake UI and follow Snowflake's guide: Admin > Accounts. Your Organization Name, Account Name, and Account Identifier are displayed there.
Setup Process
Once BuildOps receives your information, here's what to expect:
Kickoff call (15 min) — A brief walkthrough with your BuildOps Customer Success Manager and the Analytics team to ensure a smooth setup.
Data catalog access (Secoda) — You'll receive access to Secoda, BuildOps' data catalog, which documents every table and field in the data share.
Provisioning — The data share will go live in your Snowflake account.
Timeline: Typically one week after your information is submitted and the kickoff call is completed.
Data Refresh Schedule
Window | Refresh Frequency |
Business hours (7 AM–8 PM EST) | Hourly, at 55 minutes past the hour |
Outside business hours | Every 3 hours |
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I incrementally process BuildOps data?
Every table in the data share includes an _updated_at field indicating when each record was last modified. Use this field to build incremental pipelines — query only rows where _updated_at is greater than your last sync timestamp.
Can I write data back to the share or add Snowflake objects?
No — the data share is read-only per Snowflake's platform constraints. However, you can create your own Snowflake database that references the shared data and apply any transformations, stored procedures, or tasks you need there.
The data in the share looks different from what I see in BuildOps or Sigma. Why?
The most common reason is that the raw data share includes soft-deleted records (is_deleted = true), while the BuildOps UI and Sigma automatically filter them out. Add a WHERE is_deleted = false clause to your queries. If discrepancies remain after that, reach out to your Customer Success Manager.