In this blog post, we will guide you through setting up an end-to-end Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) pipeline using Airbyte Cloud, Amazon S3, and Snowflake Cortex. Setting up a pipeline with Snowflake Cortex is quick, allowing you to load data from over 300 sources into your Snowflake-backed vector store in just a few minutes.
We will guide you through loading vector data into Snowflake using Snowflake Cortex and then leveraging Snowflake’s Cortex functions to perform Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG). Snowflake Cortex provides general-purpose ML functions, LLM-specific functions, and vector functions for semantic search, all backed by multiple models, without the need to manage or host the underlying infrastructure.
Prerequisites Airbyte Cloud Account : Sign up for an Airbyte Cloud account if you don't already have one. Sign up here .AWS S3 Bucket : Create an S3 bucket and upload your data files that you want to load into Snowflake Cortex. Ensure you have the necessary AWS credentials to access this bucket.Snowflake Account : Ensure you have access to a Snowflake account with appropriate permissions to create databases, schemas, and use Cortex functions. Sign up for Snowflake.OpenAI API Key :some textCreate an OpenAI Account : Sign up for an account on OpenAI .Generate an API Key : Go to the API section and generate a new API key. For detailed instructions, refer to the OpenAI documentation .Setup the AWS S3 Source To select source s3 in airbyte cloud,
click on sources on left tab -> select new source -> search "S3" -> select "S3"
Follow the instructions in the AWS S3 Source Connector Documentation to set up your S3 bucket and obtain the necessary access keys.
Enter Bucket Name : Provide the name of the bucket containing files to replicate.Add a Stream :some textFile Format : Select from CSV, Parquet, Avro, or JSONL. Toggle Optional fields for more configurations.Stream Name : Give a name to the stream.Globs (Optional) : Use a pattern (e.g., **) to match files. For specific patterns, refer to the Globs section.Days To Sync (Optional) : Set the lookback window for file sync.Input Schema (Optional) : Define a custom schema or use default ({}).Validation Policy (Optional) : Choose how to handle records not matching the schema (emit, skip, or wait for discovery).Schemaless Option (Optional) : Skip schema validation.To authenticate your private bucket :
If using an IAM role, enter the AWS Role ARN . If using IAM user credentials, fill the AWS Access Key ID and AWS Secret Access Key fields with the appropriate credentials. More details about each field for S3 source setup are here .
All other fields are optional and can be left empty.
After this click on setup the source, once setup is successful we are ready to use S3 as a source.
Set up Snowflake Cortex destination To select Sonwflake Cortex as destination in airbyte cloud,
click on destination on left tab -> select new destination -> search "snowflake cortex" -> select "snowflake cortex"
Start Configuring the Snowflake Cortex destination in Airbyte:
Destination name : Provide a friendly name.Processing: Set chunk size to 1000 (the size refers to the number of tokens, not characters, so this is roughly 4KB of text. The best chunking is dependent on the data you are dealing with). You can leave other options as empty. You would usually set the metadata and text fields to limit reading of records to specific columns in a given stream.Embedding : Select OpenAI from the dropdown and provide your OpenAI api key for powering the embedding service. You can use any other available models also. Just remember to embed the questions you ask the product assistant with the same model.Indexing : Provide credentials for connecting to your Snowflake instance.To find the host click on the left down corner ( account name) and then on account and copy url. If the url is https://abc.snowflakecomputing.com then abc is your host.To get the detail overview of snowflake cortex destination, checkout this
Set up connection Now click on connection on left tab->click on new connection -> Select S3 Source->
Select snowflake cortex -> Now you will be able to see all stream you have created in S3 source, Activate the stream and click next on bottom right conner -> Now select schedule of jobs and click setup the connection.
Now we can sync data from S3 to Snowflake Cortex
Explore data in Snowflake You should be able to see data in Snowflake. Each table corresponds to the stream we set up in S3.
All tables have the following columns
DOCUMENT_ID - unique based on primary key CHUNK_ID - randomly generated uuid DOCUMENT_CONTENT - text context from source METADATA - metadata from source EMBEDDING - Vector representation of the document_content One of the result from table is
Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) with Snowflake Cortex RAG enhances the capabilities of language models by retrieving relevant information from a database, thereby generating more accurate and contextually relevant responses. In this section, we'll walk you through setting up RAG using Snowflake Cortex.
For convenience, we have integrated everything into a Google Collab notebook. Explore the fully functional RAG code in Google Colab. You can copy this notebook and perform RAG .
# Putting it all together
def get_response(query, table_names, model_name="llama2-70b-chat"):
# Step 1: embed the query
embeddings = get_embedding_from_openai(query)
# Step 2: get similar chunks from sources/tables in Snowflake
chunks = get_similar_chunks_from_snowflake(embeddings.embed_query(query), table_names)
if (len(chunks) == 0):
return "I am sorry, I do not have the context to answer your question."
else:
# Step 3: send chunks to LLM for completion
return get_completion_from_snowflake(query, chunks, model_name)
When using the get_response method, you can pass either a single table name or a list of multiple table names. The function will retrieve relevant chunks from all specified tables and use them to generate a response. This approach allows the AI to provide a more comprehensive answer based on data from multiple sources.
# Ask a question
query = 'Which are the best comedy shows to watch?'
response = get_response(query, ["ITEM_COLLECTION"], "snowflake-arctic")
Console().print(f"\n\nResponse from LLM:\n\n[blue]{response}[/blue]")
Conclusion In this tutorial, we demonstrated how to utilize Airbyte's Snowflake Cortex destination for Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), showcasing how to seamlessly integrate data from S3 and leverage Snowflake's Cortex functions and OpenAI's language models. This powerful combination allows for building intelligent AI-driven applications, such as chatbots and knowledge management systems, that can answer complex questions based on comprehensive data analysis. Airbyte simplifies the process of connecting and loading data from over 300 sources into Snowflake, making it an invaluable tool for efficient and scalable data integration, ultimately enhancing the capabilities of your AI solutions.
