OfficialDatabricks Data & Analytics

Databricks Core

Name: Databricks Core
Author: databricks

By databricks· databricks/databricks-agent-skills· 0

Authenticate, configure, and explore data with Databricks CLI commands.

Installation

1
Make sure Claude is on your device and in your terminal.
Skills load from ~/.claude/skills/ when Claude Code starts up — so you need it on your machine first. If you don't have it yet, install it once with the command below, then run claude in any terminal to verify.
One-time setup
```
npm i -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code
```
Already have it? Skip ahead.

Paste into Claude Code or into your terminal.

Install

git clone ht••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• •• ••••• •• •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• •• •• •• ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

This copies the whole skill folder into ~/.claude/skills/databricks-core/ — the SKILL.md plus any scripts, reference docs, or templates the skill ships with. Safe default: works for every skill.

Faster alternative (instruction-only skills)

Skips the clone and grabs only the SKILL.md file. Don't use this if the skill ships Python scripts, reference markdowns, or asset templates — they won't be downloaded and the skill will fail when it tries to load them.

Quick install (SKILL.md only)

mkdir -p ~/.••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• •• •••• ••••• ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• •• •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Restart Claude Code.
Quit and reopen Claude Code (or any other agent that loads from ~/.claude/skills/). New skills are picked up on startup.
Just ask Claude.
Skills auto-activate when your request matches the skill's description — no slash command needed. Trigger phrases live in the skill's own frontmatter; you can read them in the “What this skill does” section above.

Prefer to read the source first? Open on GitHub.

When Claude uses it

Databricks CLI operations: auth, profiles, data exploration, and bundles. Contains up-to-date guidelines for Databricks-related CLI tasks.

What this skill does

Databricks

Core skill for Databricks CLI, authentication, and data exploration.

Product Skills

For specific products, use dedicated skills:

databricks-jobs - Lakeflow Jobs development and deployment
databricks-pipelines - Lakeflow Spark Declarative Pipelines (batch and streaming data pipelines)
databricks-apps - Full-stack TypeScript app development and deployment
databricks-lakebase - Lakebase Postgres Autoscaling project management
databricks-model-serving - Model Serving endpoint management and inference

Prerequisites

CLI installed: Run databricks --version to check.
- If the CLI is missing or outdated (< v0.292.0): STOP. Do not proceed or work around a missing CLI.
- Read the CLI Installation reference file and follow the instructions to guide the user through installation.
- Note: In sandboxed environments (Cursor IDE, containers), install commands write outside the workspace and may be blocked. Present the install command to the user and ask them to run it in their own terminal.
- Exception: If CLI installation is blocked (sandboxed containers, restricted environments), ask the user whether to fall back to direct REST API calls using DATABRICKS_HOST and DATABRICKS_TOKEN environment variables if present in the shell. See the Databricks REST API docs.
Authenticated: databricks auth profiles
- If not: see CLI Authentication

Profile Selection - CRITICAL

NEVER auto-select a profile.

List profiles: databricks auth profiles
Present ALL profiles to user with workspace URLs
Let user choose (even if only one exists)
Offer to create new profile if needed

Claude Code - IMPORTANT

Each Bash command runs in a separate shell session.

# WORKS: --profile flag
databricks apps list --profile my-workspace

# WORKS: chained with &&
export DATABRICKS_CONFIG_PROFILE=my-workspace && databricks apps list

# DOES NOT WORK: separate commands
export DATABRICKS_CONFIG_PROFILE=my-workspace
databricks apps list  # profile not set!

Data Exploration — Use AI Tools

Use these instead of manually navigating catalogs/schemas/tables:

# discover table structure (columns, types, sample data, stats)
databricks experimental aitools tools discover-schema catalog.schema.table --profile <PROFILE>

# run ad-hoc SQL queries
databricks experimental aitools tools query "SELECT * FROM table LIMIT 10" --profile <PROFILE>

# find the default warehouse
databricks experimental aitools tools get-default-warehouse --profile <PROFILE>

See Data Exploration for details.

Quick Reference

⚠️ CRITICAL: Some commands use positional arguments, not flags

# current user
databricks current-user me --profile <PROFILE>

# list resources
databricks apps list --profile <PROFILE>
databricks jobs list --profile <PROFILE>
databricks clusters list --profile <PROFILE>
databricks warehouses list --profile <PROFILE>
databricks pipelines list --profile <PROFILE>
databricks serving-endpoints list --profile <PROFILE>

# ⚠️ Unity Catalog — POSITIONAL arguments (NOT flags!)
databricks catalogs list --profile <PROFILE>

# ✅ CORRECT: positional args
databricks schemas list <CATALOG> --profile <PROFILE>
databricks tables list <CATALOG> <SCHEMA> --profile <PROFILE>
databricks tables get <CATALOG>.<SCHEMA>.<TABLE> --profile <PROFILE>

# ❌ WRONG: these flags/commands DON'T EXIST
# databricks schemas list --catalog-name <CATALOG>    ← WILL FAIL
# databricks tables list --catalog <CATALOG>           ← WILL FAIL
# databricks sql-warehouses list                       ← doesn't exist, use `warehouses list`
# databricks execute-statement                         ← doesn't exist, use `experimental aitools tools query`
# databricks sql execute                               ← doesn't exist, use `experimental aitools tools query`

# When in doubt, check help:
# databricks schemas list --help

# get details
databricks apps get <NAME> --profile <PROFILE>
databricks jobs get --job-id <ID> --profile <PROFILE>
databricks clusters get --cluster-id <ID> --profile <PROFILE>

# bundles
databricks bundle init --profile <PROFILE>
databricks bundle validate --profile <PROFILE>
databricks bundle deploy -t <TARGET> --profile <PROFILE>
databricks bundle run <RESOURCE> -t <TARGET> --profile <PROFILE>

Troubleshooting

Error	Solution
`cannot configure default credentials`	Use `--profile` flag or authenticate first
`configuration does not support OAuth tokens`	The command requires OAuth (e.g., `databricks apps logs`). Re-authenticate with `databricks auth login --host <URL> --profile <PROFILE>`. See CLI Authentication.
`PERMISSION_DENIED`	Check workspace/UC permissions
`RESOURCE_DOES_NOT_EXIST`	Verify resource name/id and profile

Required Reading by Task

Task	READ BEFORE proceeding
First time setup	CLI Installation
Auth issues / new workspace	CLI Authentication
Exploring tables/schemas	Data Exploration
Deploying jobs/pipelines	Use `/databricks-dabs`