/analyzing-data

name: analyzing-data
description: Queries the data warehouse with SQL and answers business questions about data. Use when answering anything that needs warehouse data - counts, metrics, trends, aggregations, joins across tables, data lookups, or ad-hoc SQL analysis (for example "who uses X", "how many Y", "show me Z", "find customers", "what is the count").

Data Analysis

Answer business questions by querying the data warehouse. The kernel auto-starts on first `exec` call.

**All CLI commands below are relative to this skill's directory.** Before running any `scripts/cli.py` command, `cd` to the directory containing this file.

Workflow

1. **Pattern lookup** — Check for a cached query strategy:

   uv run scripts/cli.py pattern lookup "<user's question>"

If a pattern exists, follow its strategy. Record the outcome after executing:

   uv run scripts/cli.py pattern record <name> --success  # or --failure

2. **Concept lookup** — Find known table mappings:

   uv run scripts/cli.py concept lookup <concept>

3. **Table discovery** — If cache misses, search the codebase (`Grep pattern="<concept>" glob="**/*.sql"`) or query `INFORMATION_SCHEMA`. See [reference/discovery-warehouse.md](reference/discovery-warehouse.md).

4. **Execute query**:

   uv run scripts/cli.py exec "df = run_sql('SELECT ...')"
   uv run scripts/cli.py exec "print(df)"

5. **Cache learnings** — Always cache before presenting results:

   # Cache concept → table mapping
   uv run scripts/cli.py concept learn <concept> <TABLE> -k <KEY_COL>
   # Cache query strategy (if discovery was needed)
   uv run scripts/cli.py pattern learn <name> -q "question" -s "step" -t "TABLE" -g "gotcha"

6. **Present findings** to user.

Kernel Functions

| Function | Returns | |----------|---------| | `run_sql(query, limit=100)` | Polars DataFrame | | `run_sql_pandas(query, limit=100)` | Pandas DataFrame | | `run_sql_many(queries, limit=100)` | List of Polars DataFrames (one per query) |

`pl` (Polars) and `pd` (Pandas) are pre-imported.

**Run independent queries together** with `run_sql_many` — they execute concurrently (Snowflake async / connection-pool fan-out) instead of one at a time:

uv run scripts/cli.py exec "dfs = run_sql_many(['SELECT ...', 'SELECT ...']); print(dfs[0])"

`run_sql_many` is **fail-fast**: if any query errors, the call raises and the results of the queries that succeeded are discarded. Use separate `run_sql` calls if you need partial results.

**Timeouts:** `exec` waits up to 120s by default, then interrupts the query and returns a "client stopped waiting" message (the query may still finish server-side). Raise it for known long-running queries: `uv run scripts/cli.py exec "..." -t 600`.

**Idle kernel:** the kernel self-terminates after 2h idle (preserving state until then). Override with `ASTRO_KERNEL_IDLE_TIMEOUT` (seconds; `0` disables).

CLI Reference

Kernel

uv run scripts/cli.py warehouse list      # List warehouses
uv run scripts/cli.py start [-w name]     # Start kernel (with optional warehouse)
uv run scripts/cli.py exec "..."          # Execute Python code
uv run scripts/cli.py status              # Kernel status
uv run scripts/cli.py restart             # Restart kernel
uv run scripts/cli.py stop                # Stop kernel
uv run scripts/cli.py install <pkg>       # Install package

Concept Cache

uv run scripts/cli.py concept lookup <name>                     # Look up
uv run scripts/cli.py concept learn <name> <TABLE> -k <KEY_COL> # Learn
uv run scripts/cli.py concept list                               # List all
uv run scripts/cli.py concept import -p /path/to/warehouse.md   # Bulk import

Pattern Cache

uv run scripts/cli.py pattern lookup "question"                                      # Look up
uv run scripts/cli.py pattern learn <name> -q "..." -s "..." -t "TABLE" -g "gotcha"  # Learn
uv run scripts/cli.py pattern record <name> --success                                # Record outcome
uv run scripts/cli.py pattern list                                                   # List all
uv run scripts/cli.py pattern delete <name>                                          # Delete

Table Schema Cache

uv run scripts/cli.py table lookup <TABLE>            # Look up schema
uv run scripts/cli.py table cache <TABLE> -c '[...]'  # Cache schema
uv run scripts/cli.py table list                       # List cached
uv run scripts/cli.py table delete <TABLE>             # Delete

Cache Management

uv run scripts/cli.py cache status                # Stats
uv run scripts/cli.py cache clear [--stale-only]  # Clear

References

• [reference/discovery-warehouse.md](reference/discovery-warehouse.md) — Large table handling, warehouse exploration, INFORMATION_SCHEMA queries
• [reference/common-patterns.md](reference/common-patterns.md) — SQL templates for trends, comparisons, top-N, distributions, cohorts