QUESTION

Why does PAT show "Failed to parse query" messages when running with the --backend flag, and is this expected behaviour?

INFO: Failed to parse query [Rule Name]. Skipping table name validation

ANSWER

When running PAT with the --backend flag, it attempts to parse each query’s SQL (using sqlfluff) to validate table names. For more complex SQL, the parser isn’t always able to reliably determine the table names. When that happens, PAT logs Failed to parse… Skipping table name validation and continues.

This is just a warning that the validation step was skipped for that query, rather than an indication that the query itself is invalid.

If the messages are noisy, using --ignore-table-names is a safe option to skip that validation step. The queries themselves should still work as expected in Panther.