finding-expensive-queries SKILL.md skillA
finding-expensive-queries from altimateai/data-engineering-skills is an agent skill: a SKILL.md folder an AI agent loads when a task calls for it.
mdr add altimateai/data-engineering-skills/finding-expensive-queries@git:20260121.476f750Pins git:20260121.476f750 in mdr.lock. Pin the fingerprint instead.
- Audit grade
- A, 17 of 17 checks passed
- Kind
- SKILL.md skill
- Repository
- altimateai/data-engineering-skills
- Path
skills/snowflake/finding-expensive-queries/SKILL.md- Versions recorded
- 1
- Latest version
- git:20260121.476f750, committed Jan 21, 2026
- Size
- 2,653 bytes
- Repository stars
- 129
- License
- MIT
Finds and ranks expensive Snowflake queries by cost, time, or data scanned. Use when: (1) User asks to find slow, expensive, or problematic queries (2) Task mentions "query history", "top queries", "most expensive", or "slowest queries" (3) Analyzing warehouse costs or identifying optimization candidates (4) Finding queries that scan the most data or have the most spillage Returns ranked list of queries with metrics and optimization recommendations.
Collected from public GitHub. Every version is saved exactly as it was and never changes. Install it at an exact version with the mdr tool, and every file is checked before it reaches your agent. The main file is checked against the SHA-256 fingerprint recorded here, and the others against the fingerprints GitHub keeps for its source commit. The automatic checks below grade the latest version, and the same checks always give the same file the same grade.
What the file says
# Finding Expensive Queries
**Query history → Rank by metric → Identify patterns → Recommend optimizations**
## Workflow
### 1. Ask What to Optimize For
Before querying, clarify:
- Time period? (last day, week, month)
- Metric? (execution time, bytes scanned, cost, spillage)
- Warehouse? (specific or all)
- User? (specific or all)
### 2. Find Expensive Queries by Cost
Use QUERY_ATTRIBUTION_HISTORY for credit/cost analysis:
```sql
SELECT
query_id,
warehouse_name,
user_name,
credits_attributed_compute,
start_time,
end_time,
query_tag
FROM SNOWFLAKE.ACCOUNT_USAGE.QUERY_ATTRIBUTION_HISTORY
WHERE start_time >= DATEADD('days', -7, CURRENT_TIMESTAMP())
ORDER BY credits_attributed_compute DESC
LIMIT 20;
```
### 3. Get Performance Stats for Specific Queries
Use QUERY_HISTORY for detailed performance metrics (run separately, not joined):
```sql
SELECT
query_id,
query_text,
total_elapsed_time/1000 as seconds,
bytes_scanned/1e9 as gb_scanned,
bytes_spilled_to_local_storage/1e9 as gb_spilled_local,
bytes_spilled_to_remote_storage/1e9 as gb_spilled_remote,
partitions_scanned,
partitions_total
…Read the whole file at its exact version.
How to install
mdr add altimateai/data-engineering-skills/finding-expensive-queries@sha256:2d7178d79b38b14cThe line at the top of this page pins the label git:20260121.476f750, which is what most people want. This one pins the sha256 fingerprint of the contents instead, so it survives a label being moved. Either way the exact version is written to mdr.lock, and mdr install downloads and checks those contents again, so it installs them exactly or stops with an error.
[](https://markdownregistry.com/a/art_fiuksj5hwqu3lc5y)
2 badge image fetches in 30 days. What the badge shows.
Versions
The registry has recorded 1 version of this file, committed on Jan 21, 2026.
Audit of the latest version
- pass: Frontmatter block present
- pass: Frontmatter declares a name
- pass: Frontmatter declares a description
- pass: Size between 200 bytes and 200 KB (2653 bytes)
- pass: No zero-width or bidi control characters
- pass: No instruction hidden inside an HTML comment
- pass: No link to an exfiltration or paste host
- pass: No credential-shaped string
- pass: No instruction to send local credentials anywhere
- pass: No text hidden with inline styles
- pass: No prompt-injection phrasing
- pass: No curl or wget piped into a shell
- pass: No recursive delete of root, home or parent
- pass: No instruction to read or print local credentials
- pass: No base64 blob over 200 characters
- pass: No link to a raw IP address
- pass: No script tag
Source
altimateai/data-engineering-skills · 129 stars · license MIT · pushed 2026-10-23 · branch main
API
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/artifacts/art_fiuksj5hwqu3lc5y GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/resolve?ref=altimateai/data-engineering-skills/finding-expensive-queries GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/blob/2d7178d79b38b14c8066a8a9153aa1884ccd875e3043921aaafb9dab790b562d
Your AI assistant does the legwork. You hear about the deals worth your word. Hand yours the standing instructions at modelranch.com and it joins the network that reads files like this one.
Guides: the SKILL.md format and its required fields · what to check before you install a skill · how to pin a skill to an exact version · where to find agent skills · keeping a team on the same skills · which agent file does what.