For Researchers & Analysts
Query the warehouse through Snowsight, the Snowflake web UI. Most analysts never need a CLI or dbt — sign in with Okta SSO, pick a read-only role, and run SQL in the browser.
What you need
- A Natera email address (
your_name@natera.com) - The Snowflake Okta tile provisioned in your Okta dashboard (an admin sets this up — see Step 1)
Step 1: Request access
Ask in #ndp-rwd-connect-core to start provisioning. An RWD Snowflake admin adds your email to the ndp-account-request repo via a merge request. When the MR merges, CI/CD provisions your Snowflake user and the Okta SSO tile automatically.
Step 2: Pick the right role
Snowflake controls what you can see through your role. The three read roles below inherit downward: a researcher sees everything a viewer sees, and an analyst sees everything a researcher sees.
| Role | Who it is for | What you get |
|---|---|---|
RWD_VIEWER_PHI_ROLE | BI consumers (QuickSight, dashboards) | Read-only access to LIMS_COHORTS and DASHBOARD only |
RWD_RESEARCHER_PHI_ROLE | Researchers and scientists | Read access to all curated data (foundation, cohorts, dashboards, VARIANTS, seeds) plus the interactive warehouse |
RWD_ANALYST_PHI_ROLE | Power users and CDO analysts | Everything researchers get, plus staging schemas, Cortex AI features, the analytics warehouse, and write access to the RWD_ANALYTICS scratch space |
Step 3: Connect via Snowsight
The RWD Snowflake accounts are separate from the main Natera account. If you have only ever used the main account, you will not see them in your account switcher until you sign in at least once.
| Environment | Sign-in URL |
|---|---|
| Development | https://WA16250-NATERA_RWD_DEVELOPMENT.snowflakecomputing.com |
| Pre-production | https://WA16250-NATERA_RWD_PREPRODUCTION.snowflakecomputing.com |
| Production | https://WA16250-NATERA_RWD_PRODUCTION.snowflakecomputing.com |
Click the sign-in URL for the environment you need (Production for most analysts), sign in with Okta SSO, and Snowsight caches the account for future visits.
Step 4: Set your warehouse
A warehouse is the compute Snowflake uses to run your queries. Without one set, queries fail with No active warehouse selected. Run this at the start of each session:
USE WAREHOUSE RWD_PRODUCTION_QUERY_INTERACTIVE_WH;Viewers using the BI role should use the BI warehouse instead:
USE WAREHOUSE RWD_PRODUCTION_BI_WH;Your first query
Run this against LIMS_PUB.BASE_RENASIGHT, the Renasight (Organ Health) product base table:
USE ROLE RWD_RESEARCHER_PHI_ROLE;USE WAREHOUSE RWD_PRODUCTION_QUERY_INTERACTIVE_WH;
SELECT COUNT(DISTINCT casefile_id) AS casefilesFROM CLINICOGENOMICS.LIMS_PUB.BASE_RENASIGHT;If the query returns a casefile count, you are connected and authorized. To explore partner cohorts, list what is available:
SHOW TABLES IN SCHEMA CLINICOGENOMICS.LIMS_COHORTS;Next steps
- Best Practices & Performance — warehouse selection, clustering, Search Optimization, anti-patterns
- Architecture Overview — the schemas and what is in them
- Schema Reference — per-table listings and key join columns
- For Data Engineers — programmatic access via SnowSQL, dbt, and MCP