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Local AI Development
This feature is currently available in a private preview and may not be accessible to all customers.
Coalesce supports building data pipelines locally with the AI agent of your choice: Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, Snowflake Cortex, or any other AI coding agent. Your pipeline lives as files in a Git repository on your machine. Your agent edits those files, the Coalesce CLI validates and runs them against your warehouse, and Coalesce Desktop gives you a visual view of the pipeline as it takes shape.
You bring your own agent and your own LLM. Coalesce does not proxy or host the model.
The Components
| Component | What it does | When you need it |
|---|---|---|
coa CLI | Authors, validates, plans, deploys, and runs pipelines from your local workspace | Always. It is the engine of local development |
| Coalesce Desktop | A visual review surface over your local workspace. Changes your agent makes appear instantly | Recommended for every developer |
| Coalesce platform skills | Teach your agent how to build Coalesce pipelines correctly | Recommended when your agent supports skills or plugins |
| Transform MCP | Read and administrative access to your Coalesce organization: run history, job status, deployed environments | Recommended for monitoring; the only piece read-only users need |
CLI or MCP?
Install both for full coverage. They serve different halves of the workflow:
- Use the CLI to build. Creating nodes, validating the workspace, planning, deploying, and running pipelines all happen through
coaagainst your local files. - Use the MCP to observe. Checking whether last night's runs succeeded, diagnosing a failing job, or querying a deployed Environment with authority are what Transform MCP is good at.
A viewer or administrator who never edits pipelines can skip the CLI entirely and connect only the MCP.
Getting Set Up
The Local Development Setup Guide walks through the full installation: prerequisites, the CLI, the Desktop app, platform skills, authentication, and a smoke test that proves your agent can build.