How to Fix Snowflake "390197 - Multi-factor authentication is required"

April 2026

Snowflake error 390197 means password auth will not work with your MFA policy. Switch the Skippr warehouse connection to key-pair auth.

Short Answer

Snowflake error 390197 - Multi-factor authentication is required means password auth is blocked by policy. In Skippr, the fix is to switch the warehouse connection to key-pair auth.

That is the normal setup for automated workloads. Once you switch, Skippr can run without interactive MFA prompts.

Why This Error Happens

MFA is a human-login control. Automated pipelines need non-interactive auth, which is why Snowflake recommends service accounts and key-pair auth here.

• Using password authentication on a Snowflake account with MFA enforced.
• Trying to treat an automated pipeline like an interactive user session.
• Reusing a personal user account instead of a service account built for automation.

How to Fix It with Skippr

Use a Snowflake service account, generate a key pair, assign the public key, and point Skippr at the private key path.

• Generate a Snowflake key pair with OpenSSL.
• Assign the public key to the Snowflake user or service account.
• Set SNOWFLAKE_PRIVATE_KEY_PATH and the rest of the Snowflake auth environment variables.
• Reconnect the Snowflake warehouse in Skippr.
• Run skippr doctor or skippr run again.

When Skippr Is the Better Path

For teams that care about governance, this setup is a feature, not a burden. The auth path stays explicit and works cleanly with production Snowflake controls.

Once the service account is in place, the rest of the workflow is straightforward: connect the source, land bronze tables, and generate the dbt project from the same run path.