Intent locks, also known as intent-for-update locks, indicate an intent to modify a particular row. Intent locks are acquired when a transaction:

Intent locks do not conflict with read locks, so acquiring an intent lock does not block other transactions from reading the same row. However, intent locks do prevent other transactions from acquiring either an intent lock or a write lock on the same row, guaranteeing that the row cannot be changed by any other transaction before an update.

If an intent lock is requested by a transaction executing at snapshot isolation, the intent lock is only acquired if the row is an unmodified row in the database and common to all concurrent transactions. If the row is a snapshot copy, however, an intent lock is not acquired since the original row has already been modified by another transaction. Any attempt by the snapshot transaction to update that row fails and a snapshot update conflict error is returned.