Partner support for Snowflake authentication methods¶

Use this topic to determine which Snowflake authentication methods you can use to connect to Snowflake from a partner application.

Supported authentication for TYPE = PERSON users¶

When the Snowflake user is a human user, the TYPE property of the user object is set to PERSON. This section details which Snowflake authentication methods are available to human users when connecting from a partner application. For a description of these authentication methods, see Overview of authentication methods for applications.

Snowflake recommends configuring your partner application to authenticate with OAuth because it is stronger than other authentication methods. For help choosing between External OAuth and Snowflake OAuth, see Choosing authentication for interactive applications. A person authenticates with the OAuth authorization code flow because the user can interact with the authorization server during authentication.

Alternatively, you can use a programmatic access token (PAT) as a replacement for a password when authenticating to Snowflake as long as the password field accepts 256 characters. However, be aware that PATs aren’t as strong as OAuth.

Supported authentication for TYPE = SERVICE users¶

When a service — for example, an application or workflow — is authenticating to Snowflake, the TYPE property of the user object is set to SERVICE. This section details which Snowflake authentication methods are available when connecting from a partner application as a service. For a description of these authentication methods, see Overview of authentication methods for applications.

Snowflake recommends configuring your partner application to authenticate with OAuth, because it is stronger than other available authentication methods. A service authenticates using the OAuth client credentials flow, because there isn’t a person to interact with the authorization server.

Alternatively, you can use a programmatic access token (PAT) as a replacement for a password when authenticating to Snowflake as long as the password field accepts 256 characters. However, be aware that PATs aren’t as strong as OAuth.