diff --git a/internal/impl/snowflake/streaming/integration_test.go b/internal/impl/snowflake/streaming/integration_test.go
index 5fb9bddc49..85999b5577 100644
--- a/internal/impl/snowflake/streaming/integration_test.go
+++ b/internal/impl/snowflake/streaming/integration_test.go
@@ -273,10 +273,11 @@ func TestIntegerCompat(t *testing.T) {
 	ctx := context.Background()
 	restClient, streamClient := setup(t)
 	channelOpts := streaming.ChannelOptions{
-		Name:         t.Name(),
-		DatabaseName: envOr("SNOWFLAKE_DB", "BABY_DATABASE"),
-		SchemaName:   "PUBLIC",
-		TableName:    "TEST_INT_TABLE",
+		Name:             t.Name(),
+		DatabaseName:     envOr("SNOWFLAKE_DB", "BABY_DATABASE"),
+		SchemaName:       "PUBLIC",
+		TableName:        "TEST_INT_TABLE",
+		BuildParallelism: 1,
 	}
 	_, err := restClient.RunSQL(ctx, streaming.RunSQLRequest{
 		Database: channelOpts.DatabaseName,
@@ -347,10 +348,11 @@ func TestTimestampCompat(t *testing.T) {
 	ctx := context.Background()
 	restClient, streamClient := setup(t)
 	channelOpts := streaming.ChannelOptions{
-		Name:         t.Name(),
-		DatabaseName: envOr("SNOWFLAKE_DB", "BABY_DATABASE"),
-		SchemaName:   "PUBLIC",
-		TableName:    "TEST_TIMESTAMP_TABLE",
+		Name:             t.Name(),
+		DatabaseName:     envOr("SNOWFLAKE_DB", "BABY_DATABASE"),
+		SchemaName:       "PUBLIC",
+		TableName:        "TEST_TIMESTAMP_TABLE",
+		BuildParallelism: 1,
 	}
 	var columnDefs []string
 	var columnNames []string
diff --git a/internal/impl/snowflake/streaming/rest.go b/internal/impl/snowflake/streaming/rest.go
index bca68015e8..5e43c2ae35 100644
--- a/internal/impl/snowflake/streaming/rest.go
+++ b/internal/impl/snowflake/streaming/rest.go
@@ -323,7 +323,7 @@ func NewRestClient(account, user, version, app string, privateKey *rsa.PrivateKe
 		// this should only show up in development, not released binaries
 		version = "99.0.0"
 	}
-	userAgent := fmt.Sprintf("RedpandaConnect/%v", version)
+	userAgent := fmt.Sprintf("RedpandaConnect_SnowpipeStreamingSDK/%v", version)
 	debugf(logger, "making snowflake HTTP requests using User-Agent: %s", userAgent)
 	c = &SnowflakeRestClient{
 		account:    account,
diff --git a/internal/impl/snowflake/streaming/streaming.go b/internal/impl/snowflake/streaming/streaming.go
index 5c68aa6740..619895634d 100644
--- a/internal/impl/snowflake/streaming/streaming.go
+++ b/internal/impl/snowflake/streaming/streaming.go
@@ -156,6 +156,9 @@ type encryptionInfo struct {
 
 // OpenChannel creates a new or reuses a channel to load data into a Snowflake table.
 func (c *SnowflakeServiceClient) OpenChannel(ctx context.Context, opts ChannelOptions) (*SnowflakeIngestionChannel, error) {
+	if opts.BuildParallelism <= 0 {
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("invalid build parallelism: %d", opts.BuildParallelism)
+	}
 	resp, err := c.client.openChannel(ctx, openChannelRequest{
 		RequestID: c.nextRequestID(),
 		Role:      c.options.Role,