> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.wherobots.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Connect external engines to Wherobots catalogs

> Access tables in Wherobots-managed catalogs from another engine through the Iceberg REST catalog API.

Wherobots-managed data catalogs expose an **Iceberg REST catalog API**. An external engine connects to this API to find tables and access their data, while Wherobots continues to manage the catalog metadata. Queries execute in the external engine.

This workflow uses tables in a **Wherobots-managed catalog**. Foreign catalogs connected to Wherobots, such as AWS Glue or Databricks Unity Catalog, aren't exposed through this endpoint. To use WherobotsDB with those catalogs, see [Connect WherobotsDB to external catalogs](https://docs.wherobots.com/get-started/initial-storage/data-federation-overview.md).

## Check compatibility

Iceberg REST support alone doesn't guarantee that an engine supports every table or operation. Check:

* **Authentication and storage access:** The engine must authenticate to the catalog and access the table's storage. The Snowflake integration uses a Wherobots user's API key and credentials issued by Wherobots for storage access.
* **Reads and writes:** Support for reading, creating, and updating tables depends on the engine and your permissions.
* **Iceberg format version and column types:** Confirm that the engine supports the table's format version and any spatial types.

The Wherobots-specific `raster` type is documented in the open [Spatial Extensions for Apache Iceberg Tables specification](https://docs.wherobots.com/reference/havasu-table/spec.md). It isn't part of the Apache Iceberg specification, so check whether your engine supports it.

For Wherobots table formats and spatial types, see [Iceberg tables](https://docs.wherobots.com/data-engineering/iceberg-tables/overview.md).

## Connect Snowflake

The [Snowflake tutorial](https://docs.wherobots.com/develop/spatial-catalog/snowflake.md) covers reading Iceberg v2 and v3 tables, creating tables and inserting rows through a catalog-linked database, and using Iceberg v3 geometry columns as Snowflake `GEOMETRY`. Raster columns aren't supported by this integration.

Follow the tutorial to find your catalog ID, configure authentication, and verify the connection before querying tables.


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