Why this pairing? Cortex Code is Snowflake's AI coding CLI - it already authenticates to your warehouse, runs under your Snowflake role, and has native tools for querying live data. Add coalesce-transform-mcp and a single agent session can plan pipelines, create nodes, run DML, and verify results against real rows without leaving the terminal.

One-liner (after installing the Cortex Code CLI):

cortex mcp add coalesce-transform npx coalesce-transform-mcp

Or edit ~/.snowflake/cortex/mcp.json directly:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "coalesce-transform": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["coalesce-transform-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "COALESCE_ACCESS_TOKEN": "<YOUR_TOKEN>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Drop the env block if you're using ~/.coa/config - Cortex Code and Coalesce can both pick the token up from the same profile. Full walkthrough: docs/installation-guides/cortex-code.md.

Click-to-install:

Manual: paste into .cursor/mcp.json in your project root (or ~/.cursor/mcp.json for global):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "coalesce-transform": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["coalesce-transform-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "COALESCE_ACCESS_TOKEN": "<YOUR_TOKEN>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Cursor does not expand ${VAR} - paste the literal token, or drop the env block and use ~/.coa/config (see Credentials).

Click-to-install:

Manual: follow the VS Code MCP install guide and use this config:

{
  "name": "coalesce-transform",
  "command": "npx",
  "args": ["coalesce-transform-mcp"]
}

Add the COALESCE_ACCESS_TOKEN via VS Code's secret input prompt, or drop the token and use ~/.coa/config. Reload the VS Code window after install.

Click-to-install:

Manual: identical to the stable VS Code install - Insiders reads the same MCP config.

One-liner:

claude mcp add coalesce-transform -- npx coalesce-transform-mcp

Pass env vars inline if you need them:

claude mcp add coalesce-transform \
  --env COALESCE_ACCESS_TOKEN=$COALESCE_ACCESS_TOKEN \
  -- npx coalesce-transform-mcp

Manual: paste into .mcp.json in your project root (or ~/.claude.json for global):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "coalesce-transform": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["coalesce-transform-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "COALESCE_ACCESS_TOKEN": "${COALESCE_ACCESS_TOKEN}"
      }
    }
  }
}

Claude Code does expand ${VAR} from your shell env at load time - .mcp.json can stay safely committed to git with variable references. Omit the env block if using ~/.coa/config.

No deeplink yet - paste manually.

File: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (macOS) or %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json (Windows).

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "coalesce-transform": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["coalesce-transform-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "COALESCE_ACCESS_TOKEN": "<YOUR_TOKEN>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Claude Desktop does not expand ${VAR} - paste the literal token, or drop the env block and use ~/.coa/config. Fully quit Claude Desktop (Cmd+Q) and relaunch after editing.

No deeplink yet - paste manually.

File: ~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "coalesce-transform": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["coalesce-transform-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "COALESCE_ACCESS_TOKEN": "<YOUR_TOKEN>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Windsurf does not expand ${VAR} - paste the literal token, or drop the env block and use ~/.coa/config. Restart Windsurf after editing.

Foundations — the shared context every agent starts with

• overview - General Coalesce concepts, response guidelines, and operational constraints
• tool-usage - Best practices for tool batching, parallelization, and SQL conversion
• id-discovery - Resolving project, workspace, environment, job, run, node, and org IDs
• storage-mappings - Storage location concepts, {{ ref() }} syntax, and reference patterns
• ecosystem-boundaries - Scope of this MCP vs adjacent data-engineering MCPs (Snowflake, Fivetran, dbt, Catalog)
• data-engineering-principles - Node type selection, layered architecture, methodology detection, materialization strategies
• sql-platform-selection - Determining the active SQL platform from project metadata
• setup-guide - First-time MCP setup flow driven by diagnose_setup (pairs with the /coalesce-setup prompt)

SQL platform rules — per-warehouse conventions for node SQL

• sql-snowflake - Snowflake-specific SQL conventions for node SQL
• sql-databricks - Databricks-specific SQL conventions for node SQL
• sql-bigquery - BigQuery-specific SQL conventions for node SQL

Node editing & payloads — how the agent reasons about node bodies

• node-creation-decision-tree - Choosing between predecessor-based creation, updates, and full replacements
• node-payloads - Working with workspace node bodies, metadata, config, and array-replacement risks
• hydrated-metadata - Coalesce hydrated metadata structures for advanced node payload editing
• intelligent-node-configuration - How intelligent config completion works, schema resolution, automatic field detection
• node-operations - Editing existing nodes: joins, columns, config fields, and SQL-to-graph conversion
• aggregation-patterns - JOIN ON generation, GROUP BY detection, and join-to-aggregation conversion

Node type selection — picking the right node type for each step

• node-type-selection-guide - When to use each Coalesce node type (Stage/Work vs Dimension/Fact vs specialized)
• node-type-corpus - Node type discovery, corpus search, and metadata patterns

Pipeline workflows — end-to-end pipeline building

• pipeline-workflows - Building pipelines end-to-end: node type selection, multi-node sequences, execution
• intent-pipeline-guide - Using build_pipeline_from_intent to create pipelines from natural language
• pipeline-review-guide - Using review_pipeline for pipeline analysis and optimization
• pipeline-workshop-guide - Using pipeline workshop tools for iterative, conversational pipeline building

Run operations — starting, retrying, diagnosing runs

• run-operations - Starting, retrying, polling, diagnosing, and canceling Coalesce runs
• run-diagnostics-guide - Using diagnose_run_failure to analyze failed runs and determine fixes

Discovery — list, get, and search across workspaces, nodes, jobs, and runs

Environments, workspaces, projects

• list_environments - List all available environments
• get_environment - Get details of a specific environment
• list_workspaces - List all workspaces
• get_workspace - Get details of a specific workspace
• list_projects - List all projects
• get_project - Get project details

Nodes

• list_environment_nodes - List nodes in an environment
• list_workspace_nodes - List nodes in a workspace
• get_environment_node - Get a specific environment node
• get_workspace_node - Get a specific workspace node
• analyze_workspace_patterns - Detect package adoption, pipeline layers, methodology, and generate recommendations
• list_workspace_node_types - List distinct node types observed in current workspace nodes

Jobs, subgraphs, runs

• list_environment_jobs - List all jobs for an environment
• find_jobs_by_name - Fuzzy-match environment jobs by name and return each match with its recent runs
• get_job_run_details_by_name - Fuzzy-match one environment job by name and return its latest run details + results
• get_environment_job - Get details of a specific job
• list_job_nodes - Resolve a workspace job's selectors into concrete nodes, grouped by subgraph
• get_workspace_subgraph - Get details of a specific subgraph by UUID (the public API has no subgraph list endpoint — look up UUIDs via the repo's subgraphs/ folder or the local cache populated on create)
• list_runs - List runs with optional filters
• get_run - Get details of a specific run
• get_run_results - Get results of a completed run
• get_run_details - Run metadata plus results in one call

Search

• search_workspace_content - Search node SQL, column names, descriptions, and config values
• audit_documentation_coverage - Scan all workspace nodes/columns for missing descriptions

Local project & cloud CLI

• 🧰 coa_list_project_nodes - List all nodes defined in a local project (pre-deploy)

Pipeline building — plan, create, and iterate on multi-node pipelines

Plan & build

• plan_pipeline - Plan a pipeline from SQL or a natural-language goal without mutating the workspace; ranks best-fit node types from the local repo
• create_pipeline_from_plan - Execute an approved pipeline plan using predecessor-based creation
• create_pipeline_from_sql - Plan and create a pipeline directly from SQL
• build_pipeline_from_intent - Build a pipeline from a natural language goal with automatic entity resolution and node type selection
• review_pipeline - Analyze an existing pipeline for redundant nodes, missing joins, layer violations, naming issues, and optimization opportunities
• parse_sql_structure - Parse a SQL statement into structural components (CTEs, source tables, projected columns) without touching the workspace
• select_pipeline_node_type - Rank and select the best Coalesce node type for a pipeline step

Workshop (iterative, conversational)

• pipeline_workshop_open - Open an iterative pipeline builder session with workspace context pre-loaded
• pipeline_workshop_instruct - Send a natural language instruction to modify the current workshop plan
• get_pipeline_workshop_status - Get the current state of a workshop session
• pipeline_workshop_close - Close a workshop session and release resources

Local project validation & planning

• 🧰 coa_validate - Validate YAML schemas and scan a local project for configuration problems
• 🧰 coa_plan - Generate a deployment plan JSON by diffing a local project against a cloud environment (non-destructive)

Node editing — create, update, delete, and configure workspace nodes

Create

• create_workspace_node_from_scratch - Create a workspace node with no predecessors
• create_workspace_node_from_predecessor - Create a node from predecessor nodes with column coverage verification
• create_node_from_external_schema - Create a workspace node whose columns match an existing warehouse table or external schema

Update

• set_workspace_node - Replace a workspace node with a full body
• update_workspace_node - Safely update selected fields of a workspace node
• replace_workspace_node_columns - Replace metadata.columns wholesale
• delete_workspace_node - Delete a node from a workspace ⚠️

Configure

• complete_node_configuration - Intelligently complete a node's configuration by analyzing context
• apply_join_condition - Auto-generate and write a FROM/JOIN/ON clause for a multi-predecessor node
• convert_join_to_aggregation - Convert a join-style node into an aggregated fact-style node

Disk ↔ cloud round-trip

• serialize_workspace_node_to_disk_yaml - Convert a cloud workspace node to the on-disk nodes/*.yml shape coa reads (drop into a coa project for dry-run rendering)
• parse_disk_node_to_workspace_body - Convert an on-disk coa node YAML back into a cloud workspace-node body for set_workspace_node / update_workspace_node
• apply_sql_to_workspace_node - Round-trip user edits on rendered DDL/DML SQL (coa_dry_run_create / coa_dry_run_run output) back into a cloud node — column diff, source-mapping inference, GROUP BY / ORDER BY / LIMIT, INSERT-target rename

Subgraphs & jobs

• create_workspace_subgraph - Create a subgraph to group nodes visually
• update_workspace_subgraph - Update a subgraph's name and node membership
• delete_workspace_subgraph - Delete a subgraph (nodes are NOT deleted) ⚠️
• create_workspace_job - Create a job in a workspace with node include/exclude selectors
• update_workspace_job - Update a job's name and node selectors
• delete_workspace_job - Delete a job ⚠️

Runs & execution — start, retry, poll, diagnose, and cancel runs

• start_run - Start a new run; requires Snowflake auth
• run_and_wait - Start a run and poll until completion
• run_status - Check status of a running job
• retry_run - Retry a failed run
• retry_and_wait - Retry a failed run and poll until completion
• cancel_run - Cancel a running job ⚠️
• diagnose_run_failure - Classify errors, surface root cause, suggest actionable fixes
• get_environment_overview - Environment details with full node list
• get_environment_health - Dashboard: node counts, run statuses, failed runs in last 24h, stale nodes, dependency health

Local execution (bundled CLI)

• 🧰 coa_dry_run_create - Preview DDL without executing (does not validate columns/types exist in warehouse)
• 🧰 coa_dry_run_run - Preview DML without executing (same caveat)
• 🧰 coa_create - Run DDL (CREATE/REPLACE) against the warehouse for selected nodes ⚠️
• 🧰 coa_run - Run DML (INSERT/MERGE) to populate selected nodes ⚠️
• 🧰 coa_deploy - Apply a plan JSON to a cloud environment ⚠️
• 🧰 coa_refresh - Run DML for selected nodes in an already-deployed environment (no local project required) ⚠️

Warehouse source discovery (bundled CLI, new in v0.10)

Pair these three to onboard warehouse tables as source nodes without hand-writing YAML. Typical flow: list to see per-location counts, add (scoped by location) to scaffold, optionally remove to drop nodes when a location is retired. Each add populates the source node's database/schema from the workspace config — no placeholder values to fix up afterward.

• 🧰 coa_list_warehouse_sources - List warehouse tables per storage location; summary or per-table detail (with alreadyExists flags)
• 🧰 coa_add_warehouse_sources ⚠️ - Scaffold source-node YAML files from warehouse tables; supports dryRun: true for preview
• 🧰 coa_remove_warehouse_sources ⚠️ - Delete scaffolded source-node YAML; hand-renamed files are skipped

Lineage & impact — trace dependencies, analyze impact, propagate column changes

• get_upstream_nodes - Walk the full upstream dependency graph for a node
• get_downstream_nodes - Walk the full downstream dependency graph for a node
• get_column_lineage - Trace a column through the pipeline upstream and downstream
• analyze_impact - Downstream impact of changing a node or specific column - impacted counts, grouped by depth, and critical path
• propagate_column_change - Update all downstream columns after a column rename or data type change ⚠️

Repo-backed node types — inspect committed node-type definitions, variants, and templates

• list_repo_packages - List package aliases and enabled node-type coverage from a committed Coalesce repo
• list_repo_node_types - List exact resolvable committed node-type identifiers from nodeTypes/
• get_repo_node_type_definition - Resolve one node type and return its outer definition plus parsed nodeMetadataSpec
• generate_set_workspace_node_template - Generate a YAML-friendly set_workspace_node body template
• search_node_type_variants - Search the committed node-type corpus by normalized family, package, primitive, or support status
• get_node_type_variant - Load one exact node-type corpus variant by variant key
• generate_set_workspace_node_template_from_variant - Generate a template from a committed corpus variant

Projects, environments & git accounts — admin CRUD for top-level resources

• create_environment - Create a new environment within a project
• delete_environment - Delete an environment ⚠️
• create_project - Create a new project
• update_project - Update a project
• delete_project - Delete a project ⚠️
• list_git_accounts - List all git accounts
• get_git_account - Get git account details
• create_git_account - Create a new git account
• update_git_account - Update a git account
• delete_git_account - Delete a git account ⚠️

Users & roles — assign and remove org, project, and environment roles

• list_org_users - List all organization users
• get_user_roles - Get roles for a specific user
• list_user_roles - List all user roles
• set_org_role - Set organization role for a user
• set_project_role - Set project role for a user
• delete_project_role - Remove project role from a user ⚠️
• set_env_role - Set environment role for a user
• delete_env_role - Remove environment role from a user ⚠️

Cache, skills & setup — local snapshots, customizable skills, and setup diagnostics

Cache snapshots

• cache_workspace_nodes - Fetch every page of workspace nodes, write a full snapshot, and return cache metadata
• cache_environment_nodes - Fetch every page of environment nodes, write a full snapshot
• cache_runs - Fetch every page of run results, write a full snapshot
• cache_org_users - Fetch every page of organization users, write a full snapshot
• clear_data_cache - Delete all cached snapshots, auto-cached responses, and plan summaries ⚠️

Skills & setup

• personalize_skills - Export bundled skill files to a local directory for customization
• diagnose_setup - Stateless probe reporting configured setup pieces; pairs with the /coalesce-setup MCP prompt
• 🧰 coa_doctor - Check config, credentials, and warehouse connectivity end-to-end for a local project
• 🧰 coa_bootstrap_workspaces ⚠️ - Run coa doctor --fix to write a starter workspaces.yml from locations.yml (placeholder values — user must edit before running warehouse operations)
• 🧰 coa_describe - Fetch a section of COA's self-describing documentation by topic + optional subtopic (also available as coalesce://coa/describe/* resources)

my-project/
├── data.yml                 # Root metadata (fileVersion, platformKind)
├── locations.yml            # Storage location manifest
├── nodes/                   # Pipeline nodes (.yml for V1, .sql for V2)
├── nodeTypes/               # Node type definitions with templates
├── environments/            # Environment configs with storage mappings
├── macros/                  # Reusable SQL macros
├── jobs/                    # Job definitions
└── subgraphs/               # Subgraph definitions

V1 vs V2 - the format is pinned by fileVersion in data.yml. V1 (fileVersion: 1 or 2) stores each node as a single YAML file with columns, transforms, and config inline. V2 (fileVersion: 3) is SQL-first: the node body lives in a .sql file using @id / @nodeType annotations and {{ ref() }} references, with YAML retained for config. New projects default to V2; existing V1 projects keep working unchanged.

COA 7.35 (the version bundled with v0.10) also accepts a workspace.yml (note: singular, not the plural workspaces.yml above). It's just a flat locations: map — no top-level workspace names, no connection: block — and is suitable when you only need local storage mappings and don't need to switch between named workspaces.

# workspace.yml (singular) - per-repo local storage mappings only
locations:
  SRC_INGEST_TASTY_BITES:
    database: JESSE_DEV
    schema: INGEST_TASTY_BITES
  ANALYTICS:
    database: JESSE_DEV
    schema: ANALYTICS

The two files are independent: workspaces.yml (plural) handles multi-workspace cloud profiles, workspace.yml (singular) handles per-repo local mappings. Pick the simpler shape if multi-workspace isn't a need. Fetch the canonical schema via coa_describe (topic: "schema", subtopic: "workspace").

{
  "coalesce-transform": {
    "command": "npx",
    "args": ["coalesce-transform-mcp"],
    "env": {
      "COALESCE_PROFILE": "staging",
      "SNOWFLAKE_ROLE": "TRANSFORMER_ADMIN"
    }
  }
}

Reads: "use the [staging] profile, but override its snowflakeRole."

If you work across several Coalesce environments (dev/staging/prod, or multiple orgs), register the package once per profile under distinct server names:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "coalesce-prod": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["coalesce-transform-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "COALESCE_PROFILE": "prod",
        "COALESCE_MCP_READ_ONLY": "true"
      }
    },
    "coalesce-dev": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["coalesce-transform-mcp"],
      "env": { "COALESCE_PROFILE": "dev" }
    }
  }
}

Why this pattern:

• Namespaced tools. The client surfaces coalesce-prod__* vs coalesce-dev__*, so an agent can't accidentally mutate the wrong environment.
• Per-environment safety. Pair prod with COALESCE_MCP_READ_ONLY=true to hide every write tool on that server while leaving dev fully writable.
• No per-call profile juggling. Each server is pinned at startup.

Skip this pattern if you only use one environment - a single registration is simpler. For 2–3 environments it's worth the extra config; beyond that, each server is a separate Node process, so consider whether you actually need them all loaded at once.