Cortex Knowledge Extensions¶

How CKE works¶

Here’s how it works:

1. A Provider uploads their text data into a table in their account and creates a Cortex Search Service on the table. This Cortex Search Service is then shared on the on the Snowflake Marketplace. A Cortex Search Service that is shared on the Snowflake Marketplace is known as a Cortex Knowledge Extension (CKE).

2. A Consumer builds an application leveraging Cortex AI, such as a chatbot, using Cortex LLM functions or the Cortex Agent API with the CKE.

3. When a prompt is given to the Cortex AI application that is integrated with a CKE, the prompt is passed on to the CKE to get relevant knowledge by performing a semantic search. The relevant knowledge is given back to the Cortex AI applications’s LLM and reasoned over before returning an answer back to the user with citations and attribution.

CKE features¶

Some of the key features of Cortex Knowledge Extensions include:

• Content protection

• Management

• Trial support

• Monetization

Each of these features is described in more detail below.

-- Use CREATE to create a new CKE listing with content protection.
-- Use ALTER to update an existing listing with content protection.

-- This example creates a CKE listing targeting to two accounts.
create external listing CKE_LISTING
share CKE_SHARE as
$$
title: "CKE Listing Title"
description: "Cortex Knowledge Extension Listing Description"
listing_terms:
  type: "STANDARD"
auto_fulfillment:
  refresh_type: "SUB_DATABASE"
  refresh_schedule: "1440 MINUTE"
targets:
  accounts:
    - "ORG1.ACCOUNT1"
    - "ORG2.ACCOUNT2"
cke_content_protection:
  enable: true,
  threshold: 0.2
$$

-- describe listing CKE_LISTING
-- See the manifest_yaml column for the cke_content_protection setting

You have reached the content protection threshold. Please try again later.

Region availability¶

Cortex Knowledge Extensions are available in any region where Cortex Search is available.

Key considerations¶

Keep in mind that when you have customers using your Cortex Knowledge Extension, be careful when disabling serving of the Cortex Search Service, as that will break customers’ applications.

For advanced tuning of a Cortex Knowledge Extension, refer to the Cortex Search documentation.

Citations¶

To ensure that the CKE is providing citations, when you configure the Cortex Search Services, make sure that you include a SOURCE_URL column that points to the source of the document in the indexed columns. This can be used by LLMs or Snowflake Intelligence to provide clear attribution and hyperlinks back to the source material.

Publishing the CKE to the Snowflake Marketplace¶

After you create a Cortex Search Service that you want to publish to the Marketplace, create a listing. Make sure that you point to the Cortex Search Service object that you created as an object that you want to publish.

Talking with the CKE¶

You can use the following methods to ask the CKE questions.

• Use the Cortex Search Playground:

  1. In Snowsight, navigate to AI & ML » Cortex Search.

  2. Select the CKE from the Database/Schema drop down menu.

  3. Click on Playground in the upper-right corner.

  4. Type in a search query and see the results

• Use Snowflake Intelligence:

  • Follow the steps outlined in Tutorial 3: Add a CKE to Snowflake Intelligence.

• Use Cortex Agent API:

  • Use the Cortex Agent API, and specify the shared CKE in the CREATE CORTEX SEARCH parameter. Refer to the Cortex Agent API documentation for more information.

Updating your CKE¶

Keeping a CKE up-to-date is a common use case for providers that regularly introduce new or updated content. To ensure your Cortex Knowledge Extension is up-to-date do the following:

1. Ensure that the underlying table with content has been updated via some separate process of inserting new / updated documents into your Snowflake account.

2. Review the Cortex Search Service target lag. The Cortex Search Service is configured to refresh and to keep the data fresh up to a certain target_lag. Refer to the Cortex Search Use SQL topic for more information about target_lag.

3. Run the following commands to ensure that the Cortex Search Service is indexing.

-- get the status of the search service
describe cortex search service cke_simple_cortex_search_service;

-- if the indexing status is suspended, you can resume it with the following command
alter cortex search service cke_simple_cortex_search_service resume indexing;

CKE and auto-fulfillment¶

Consumers can only access a Cortex Knowledge Extension made available in their region. Providers can automatically replicate their Cortex Search Service to remote consumer regions by enabling auto-fulfillment on their Cortex Knowledge Extension listing in Provider Studio.

Limitations¶

• Usage-based billing with CKEs isn’t supported.