Skip to Content
SourcesAthenaOverview

AWS Athena

Source (Direct Connection) — Vendo queries your data through AWS Athena. Data stays in your S3 buckets — nothing is copied.

What Vendo Accesses

Vendo connects to AWS Athena and queries your S3-backed tables for use in attribution, segments, and data models.

Supported Data

DataDescription
Glue Catalog TablesAny table registered in AWS Glue Data Catalog
Partitioned TablesSupports Hive-style partitioning on S3
Multiple FormatsParquet, ORC, CSV, JSON, and Avro
Federated QueriesCross-account and cross-region queries via Athena federation

Connection Behavior

BehaviorDescription
Direct QueryNo data import — queries run through Athena
S3 ResultsQuery results staged in your S3 output bucket
IAM AuthAuthenticates via IAM access key or role
Schema DiscoveryAuto-discovers Glue Catalog databases and tables

Platform Details

SettingValue
Auth MethodIAM access key (access key ID + secret)
Connection TypeDirect connection (no sync)
ProtocolAthena JDBC / REST API
BillingQueries billed per TB scanned in your AWS account

Setup

  1. Navigate to App Connections > Add App Connection
  2. Select AWS Athena from the data warehouse category
  3. Enter your AWS region and Athena workgroup
  4. Provide IAM credentials (access key ID + secret access key)
  5. Specify the S3 output location for query results
  6. Click Save — Vendo will discover your Glue Catalog tables

Permissions Required

PermissionPurpose
athena:StartQueryExecutionRun queries
athena:GetQueryResultsRead query results
s3:GetObject on data bucketsRead source data
s3:PutObject on output bucketWrite query results
glue:GetTable, glue:GetDatabaseDiscover table schemas

Troubleshooting

  • Access denied — Check IAM policy includes all required permissions for Athena, S3, and Glue
  • Tables not appearing — Verify the Glue Catalog database exists in the specified region
  • High costs — Athena charges per TB scanned. Use partitioned tables and columnar formats (Parquet) to reduce costs
Last updated on