November 4, 2026: Background runs and additional supplementary tools for agents in the Snowflake-managed MCP server¶

In the Snowflake-managed MCP server, CORTEX_AGENT_RUN and CODING_AGENT tools now have a "background" boolean argument; if set to true, the tool returns immediately with a handle that can be polled.

In MCP servers which have at least one tool of the CORTEX_AGENT_RUN or CODING_AGENT types, Snowflake now automatically adds three supplementary tools. ASYNC_AGENT_RUN_STATUS and ASYNC_AGENT_RUN_CANCEL allow polling or canceling a run using its handle. AGENT_RUN_RESULT reads the reply of any agent run, using a run handle. With the content_cel_filter tool parameter (also newly added to CORTEX_AGENT_RUN and CODING_AGENT), a client can request an outline first and then read only the blocks it needs.

For more information, see Cortex Agent supplementary tools, Run an agent tool in the background, and CREATE MCP SERVER.