How to configure codegen credentials¶

semolina codegen needs warehouse credentials to connect and introspect your semantic views. Credentials are loaded from environment variables, a .env file, or a TOML config file – whichever is found first.

Snowflake environment variables¶

Set these environment variables for the --backend snowflake codegen command:

Variable	Required	Description
`SNOWFLAKE_ACCOUNT`	Yes	Account identifier with region (e.g. `xy12345.us-east-1`)
`SNOWFLAKE_USER`	Yes	Snowflake username
`SNOWFLAKE_PASSWORD`	Yes	Snowflake password
`SNOWFLAKE_WAREHOUSE`	Yes	Compute warehouse name
`SNOWFLAKE_DATABASE`	Yes	Database name
`SNOWFLAKE_ROLE`	No	Role to activate for the session
`SNOWFLAKE_SCHEMA`	No	Default schema

export SNOWFLAKE_ACCOUNT="xy12345.us-east-1"
export SNOWFLAKE_USER="svc_codegen"
export SNOWFLAKE_PASSWORD="..."
export SNOWFLAKE_DATABASE="analytics"
export SNOWFLAKE_WAREHOUSE="compute_wh"

semolina codegen my_schema.sales_view --backend snowflake

Databricks environment variables¶

Set these environment variables for the --backend databricks codegen command:

Variable	Required	Description
`DATABRICKS_SERVER_HOSTNAME`	Yes	Workspace hostname (e.g. `workspace.cloud.databricks.com`)
`DATABRICKS_HTTP_PATH`	Yes	SQL warehouse HTTP path (e.g. `/sql/1.0/warehouses/abc123`)
`DATABRICKS_ACCESS_TOKEN`	Yes	Personal access token (starts with `dapi`)
`DATABRICKS_CATALOG`	No	Unity Catalog name (defaults to `main`)
`DATABRICKS_SCHEMA`	No	Default schema

export DATABRICKS_SERVER_HOSTNAME="workspace.cloud.databricks.com"
export DATABRICKS_HTTP_PATH="/sql/1.0/warehouses/abc123"
export DATABRICKS_ACCESS_TOKEN="dapi..."

semolina codegen main.analytics.orders_view --backend databricks

Use a .env file¶

Place credentials in a .env file in your working directory. The codegen CLI picks it up automatically:

.env¶

SNOWFLAKE_ACCOUNT=xy12345.us-east-1
SNOWFLAKE_USER=svc_codegen
SNOWFLAKE_PASSWORD=...
SNOWFLAKE_DATABASE=analytics
SNOWFLAKE_WAREHOUSE=compute_wh

semolina codegen my_schema.sales_view --backend snowflake

The .env file uses the same variable names as the environment variables above. Values set in the actual environment take precedence over .env file values.

Override the .env file path with SEMOLINA_ENV_FILE¶

Set SEMOLINA_ENV_FILE to point codegen at a .env file in a different location:

export SEMOLINA_ENV_FILE="/path/to/staging.env"
semolina codegen my_schema.sales_view --backend snowflake

The priority chain for .env file resolution is:

SEMOLINA_ENV_FILE environment variable (highest priority)
Default .env in the current working directory

Fall back to config files¶

When environment variables and .env files are not present, codegen falls back to TOML config files. It checks these paths in order:

.semolina.toml in the current working directory
~/.config/semolina/config.toml (user-level config)

The config file uses a [snowflake] or [databricks] section (not [connections.X] – this fallback path is separate from the pool configuration):

Snowflake

.semolina.toml¶

[snowflake]
account = "xy12345.us-east-1"
user = "svc_codegen"
password = "..."
database = "analytics"
warehouse = "compute_wh"

Databricks

.semolina.toml¶

[databricks]
server_hostname = "workspace.cloud.databricks.com"
http_path = "/sql/1.0/warehouses/abc123"
access_token = "dapi..."

Warning

The [snowflake] and [databricks] config file sections are a last-resort fallback for codegen credentials only. For application connection pools, use [connections.default] with pool_from_config() instead. See How to connect to Snowflake or How to connect to Databricks.

Troubleshooting¶

Exit code 4 – connection failure

Codegen could not authenticate with the warehouse. Check that:

All required environment variables are set and correctly spelled
The .env file is in the current working directory (or SEMOLINA_ENV_FILE points to it)
Credentials are valid (try connecting with your warehouse’s CLI tool)
Network access to the warehouse is available (VPN, firewall rules)

Credentials not found from any source

The codegen CLI raises CredentialError when environment variables, .env file, and config files all fail to provide required fields. The error message lists which variables are needed.