Oct 19, 2026: Schema variables (General availability)¶

With this release, we’re pleased to announce the general availability of schema variables.

Schema variables are named, typed, persistent scalar values scoped to a schema. Unlike session variables, schema variables outlive sessions and are visible to all users who have the appropriate privileges.

You can use schema variables to store shared configuration (such as a tax rate or API version), environment tags, ETL pipeline state, parameterized view filters, and immutable constants, all without single-row tables or UDFs.

Key capabilities include:

• Full DDL lifecycle: CREATE VARIABLE, ALTER VARIABLE, DROP VARIABLE, and UNDROP VARIABLE (with Time Travel support)
• Typed values with optional defaults
• Standard privilege model with separate READ and WRITE grants
• Resolution with the $name and $schema.name syntax; session variables shadow schema variables of the same name and can be used as per-session overrides
• Discovery via SHOW SCHEMA VARIABLES IN SCHEMA and INFORMATION_SCHEMA.VARIABLES

For more information, see the following topics:

• Schema variables
• CREATE VARIABLE
• ALTER VARIABLE
• DROP VARIABLE
• UNDROP VARIABLE
• SHOW SCHEMA VARIABLES IN SCHEMA
• DESCRIBE VARIABLE
• VARIABLES view