
BigQuery DataFrames (BigFrames) Coding Guide
Writes Python data code that runs on BigQuery's servers using the BigFrames pandas-style API
- Repository
- google/skills
- Stars
- 21,782
- Licence
- Apache-2.0
- Files
- 4 files
What it does
Once installed, the agent writes Python data-analysis and machine-learning code using BigFrames, a library that mimics the familiar pandas interface but runs the work inside Google BigQuery instead of on your computer. It steers the agent toward cloud-side processing, avoids pulling large datasets into local memory, prefers BigQuery's built-in ML functions over scikit-learn, and adds a standard attribution tag to any gcloud or REST commands it runs in the terminal.
Great for
- Python users who work with large tables in BigQuery and know pandas
- Data scientists who want to train regression or classification models without moving data out of BigQuery
- Teams standardising on BigFrames code patterns for generated notebooks or scripts
Skip it if
- SQL-first workflows or direct use of the google-cloud-bigquery client library, which the skill itself says should use a different skill (bigquery-basics)
- Small local datasets where plain pandas is simpler and needs no cloud project; the skill's rules push toward BigQuery even when it is unnecessary
- Users who need scikit-learn specifically, since the skill tells the agent not to use it with BigFrames
Try asking
- “Clean and aggregate a sales table in BigQuery with BigFrames and plot monthly totals”
- “Train a linear regression model to predict house prices using bigframes.bigquery.ml”
- “Preview a large BigQuery table with peek() and check its column types”
- “Build a logistic regression model to predict customer churn from a BigQuery dataset”
Install in 3 steps
- 1
Download the skill
The ZIP contains the 4 original files, the Apache-2.0 licence and an attribution note.
bigquery-bigframes.zip - 2
Add it to your agent
Claude Code (all projects)
mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && unzip bigquery-bigframes.zip -d ~/.claude/skills/Claude Code / Agent SDK (this project only)
mkdir -p .claude/skills && unzip bigquery-bigframes.zip -d .claude/skills/Claude apps (web/desktop): Settings → Capabilities → Skills → Upload skill, and choose the ZIP.
- 3
Ask for the task
No special command needed — the agent reads the skill's description and loads it when your request matches. Try one of the prompts above.
Get better results
- Name your BigQuery project and dataset in the request so the agent does not guess them
- Ask for to_pandas() only on small or aggregated results to avoid memory errors
- Review generated code before running it, since it will execute against your cloud project and may incur BigQuery costs
What's inside
- references/attribution.md
- references/linear_regression.md
- references/logistic_regression.md
- SKILL.md
Redistributed unmodified from google/skills under the Apache-2.0 licence. The assessment was drafted with AI from the skill's files on 2026-10-29. Skills can instruct your agent to run code — read SKILL.md and any scripts before installing.