Looker Cloud Looker Cloud is a cloud-native business intelligence platform that enables teams to model, explore, and visualize their data. Using Looker’s PostgreSQL dialect, you can connect Looker Cloud directly to Firebolt. This integration allows analysts and business users to query Firebolt’s high-performance data warehouse from within Looker dashboards and Explores. Because Looker Cloud runs on managed Google Cloud infrastructure, some setup steps are required before the connection works. In particular, you must contact Firebolt Support to provide help in setting up the connection. Once this step is complete, you’ll configure a service account in Looker and finalize the connection.

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Quickstart

This guide walks through prerequisites, permissions, and connection setup. By the end, Looker Cloud will be connected to Firebolt and ready to run queries. If Firebolt Support has already confirmed connectivity, skip ahead to Configure the connection in Looker Cloud.

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Prerequisites

Before starting, make sure you have:
  1. Looker Cloud Account – With admin access to configure database connections.
  2. Firebolt account – You need an active Firebolt account. If you do not have one, you can sign up for one.
  3. Firebolt database and table – You must have access to a Firebolt database that contains a table with data ready for visualization. If you don’t have access, you can create a database and then load data into it.
  4. Firebolt service account – You must have access to an active Firebolt service account, which facilitates programmatic access to Firebolt, its ID and secret.
  5. Firebolt user – You must have a user that is associated with your service account. The user should have USAGE permission to query your database, and OPERATE permission to start and stop an engine if it is not already started.

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Step 1: Contact Firebolt Support

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Using UI to contact Support

Without this step, the connection will not be possible.
To enable Looker Cloud connectivity, you must request this to Firebolt Support. This can be done through the UI, as described in Help Menu. When contacting Support most of the information will already be filled in, but you must provide:
  • Your account.
  • The severity of your need to use Looker Cloud.
  • The subject: “Looker Cloud connectivity request”.
  • The description which can be copied from below.:
Hello Support Team,

We are requesting access to Looker Cloud from our Firebolt account <account_name>. Please provide steps to enable connectivity.

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Emailing Support directly

Alternatively, you can email Support at support@firebolt.io with the same information as above, this time also having to provide:
  • Your organization name.
  • Your account.
The subject and description can be copied from above or by clicking the support email address.

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Step 2: Configure the Connection in Looker Cloud

With connectivity and permissions in place, set up the connection in Looker:
  1. Go to Admin → Database → Connections and click New Connection.
  2. Fill in the following details:
KeyValue
Namefirebolt_connection (or any suitable name)
DialectPostgreSQL 9.5+
Hostpg.<region_name>.app.firebolt.io
Port5432
Database<account_name>@<database_name>@<engine_name>
UsernameFirebolt service account ID
PasswordFirebolt service account secret

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Host details

The host is based on your Firebolt region. Example: 
pg.us-east-1.app.firebolt.io
Confirm your region with: 
SELECT region
FROM information_schema.accounts
WHERE account_name = '<your_account>';

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Database field

The Database field must include three components joined with @: 
<account_name>@<database_name>@<engine_name>

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Step 3: Test and Connect

  1. Click Test to validate the connection.
  2. If successful, click Connect.
  3. If it fails, double-check:
  • The host uses the correct region.
  • The Database field is formatted correctly.
  • The service account has sufficient privileges.
  • The ID and secret are valid.

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Performance and Limits

Firebolt enforces soft rate limits to ensure fair usage:
Limit typeThresholdScope
New connections600 per minutePer IP address
Queries600 per minutePer organization/account
These limits are not hard blocks. Contact Support if you need them raised (provide org name, workload, and requested threshold).

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Compatibility Notes

Some Looker SQL and LookML features are not fully supported through Firebolt’s PostgreSQL adapter.
  • Unsupported functions: diff_days(), diff_hours(), contains(), exp().
  • Partially supported functions: extract_minutes(), trunc_months() (only work with TIMESTAMP/TIMESTAMPTZ, not DATE).
  • Unsupported metrics: Median, list of unique values.
  • Unsupported dimension types: Any date_... or duration_... types. Use custom SQL dimensions in .view.lkml instead like:
dimension: diff_days_now {
  sql: CAST(DATE_DIFF('day', DATE_TRUNC('day', table."column"), CURRENT_TIMESTAMP) AS BIGINT);;
}