fix(python): expose FTS build memory limits (#3796)

## Summary

- expose `memory_limit` and `num_workers` on the Python FTS
configuration for local builds
- forward both build-only settings to the Lance inverted-index builder
- add an end-to-end regression proving the configured memory budget
reaches the native build

## Root cause

LanceDB 0.26.1 pinned Lance 1.0.1. That Lance version used an FTS
partition-merge path whose retained data made memory grow with merge
progress on very large indexes. Upstream Lance
[#5754](https://github.com/lance-format/lance/pull/5754) changed
partition merging to stream its inputs, reducing peak memory by about
25%. Lance [#6174](https://github.com/lance-format/lance/pull/6174) then
removed the old merge phase, compressed posting lists during
construction, reduced indexing memory by about 60%, and introduced a
total build `memory_limit` for bounded workers.

Current `main` pins Lance 11.0.0-beta.3, which contains those
architectural fixes. This PR does not duplicate or claim the upstream
leak fix; it addresses the remaining Python API gap.

## This repair

LanceDB Python did not expose the native FTS builder resource controls.
`memory_limit` now sets the total local-build budget in MiB, divided
among effective workers, and `num_workers` controls build parallelism.
Both are build-only settings and do not affect remote builds or
persisted index configuration.

## Validation

- `cargo check --quiet --features remote --tests --examples`
- `cargo fmt --all`
- `uv run --project python --extra tests --extra dev ruff check .`
- `uv run --project python --extra tests --extra dev ruff format --check
python/python/lancedb/index.py python/python/tests/test_fts.py`
- `uv run --project python --extra tests pytest python/tests/test_fts.py
-q` (51 passed)

Fixes #2923

<!-- lance-gatekeeper-fix:v1 agent=a1ceedf74531e0212cb6f1ebf9390a26
generation=1 -->

---------

Co-authored-by: Gatefixer <313497061+lancedb-gatefixer[bot]@users.noreply.github.com>
This commit is contained in:
lancedb-gatefixer[bot]
2026-08-21 16:31:34 -07:00
committed by GitHub
parent 01679e37fd
commit 9e8f1c1a6d
5 changed files with 81 additions and 7 deletions
+11
View File
@@ -163,6 +163,15 @@ class FTS:
The number of documents per compressed posting block. Supported values
are 128 and 256. A value of 256 uses the experimental FTS V3 format
and may introduce breaking changes.
memory_limit : int, optional
The total memory limit in MiB for the local FTS build stage. The limit
is divided evenly among indexing workers. This build-only setting is
not persisted with the index and does not apply to remote tables.
num_workers : int, optional
The number of workers for a local FTS build. By default Lance uses
roughly half of the available CPU cores. The effective value is
limited by the available compute capacity. This build-only setting is
not persisted with the index and does not apply to remote tables.
Notes
-----
@@ -185,6 +194,8 @@ class FTS:
prefix_only: bool = False
block_size: int = 128
custom_stop_words: Optional[List[str]] = None
memory_limit: Optional[int] = None
num_workers: Optional[int] = None
@dataclass
+8
View File
@@ -245,6 +245,14 @@ def test_create_inverted_index_rejects_invalid_block_size(table):
table.create_index("text", config=FTS(block_size=129))
def test_create_inverted_index_respects_build_memory_limit(table):
with pytest.raises(ValueError, match="exceeds worker memory limit"):
table.create_index(
"text",
config=FTS(memory_limit=0, num_workers=1),
)
def test_custom_stop_words_list(table):
table.create_index(
"text",