Snowflake announces expanded governance controls for its CoCo AI coding agent. Per-user AI credit quotas are now generally available across CoCo Snowsight, CLI, and Desktop, letting admins set daily and monthly spending limits enforced automatically. Coming soon are three additional controls: managed settings for org-wide policy on MCP servers and models, agent profiles for team/role-based defaults, and restricted session scope to limit what SQL an agent can execute. A new Cortex AI Gateway, built on Snowflake's Natoma acquisition, governs MCP tool access with server allowlisting, tool-level policy, rate limits, and audit trails.
Questions this post answers
Are per-user AI credit quotas generally available in Snowflake CoCo?
Yes, per-user quotas for AI cost management are generally available across every CoCo surface, including CoCo in Snowsight, CoCo CLI, and CoCo Desktop. Administrators set daily and monthly AI credit limits per user, and Snowflake automatically blocks access once a limit is reached, with no custom code or manual intervention required. Access resets at the next cycle boundary. daily.dev helps teams tracking AI cost governance features stay current as platforms like Snowflake CoCo evolve.
How does Snowflake's Cortex AI Gateway govern MCP server access for AI agents?
Cortex AI Gateway, built on technology from Snowflake's Natoma acquisition, enforces MCP governance policies defined in the Horizon Catalog at the tool-call level. It provides server-level allowlisting so disabled servers are invisible to users, tool-level policy so individual tools can be disabled without disabling a whole server, per-server rate limits, and a comprehensive audit trail of every tool call. Developers securing agentic tool access can follow MCP governance updates like this one on daily.dev.
What is restricted session scope in Snowflake CoCo?
Restricted session scope (RSS) is a control, generally available soon, that constrains what SQL an AI agent can run until an appropriate role is active in the session. It directly limits an agent's blast radius so the agent is no longer implicitly trusted with everything the user's credentials would otherwise permit. Teams evaluating agent blast-radius controls can track Snowflake CoCo's rollout on daily.dev.