feat: add update_field_metadata to edit per-field metadata (#3482)

### Summary
Adds update_field_metadata to the client SDK (Rust core, Python, and
TypeScript) so clients can edit per-field (column) Arrow metadata
(schema.fields[].metadata)

### Testing
- added unit tests
- ran E2E against a local server on both local and remote tables (set →
merge → delete), across Python sync/async and TypeScript

### Next steps
- deprecate replace_field_metadata in the python lancedb favor of this
(typescript didn't have replace_field_metadata method). This matches
Lance's API direction (Lance already deprecated replace_field_metadata
for update_field_metadata)
This commit is contained in:
Brendan Clement
2026-06-02 07:00:00 -07:00
committed by GitHub
parent 7b874905fd
commit d065be0474
17 changed files with 537 additions and 7 deletions

View File

@@ -1571,6 +1571,33 @@ describe("schema evolution", function () {
expect(await table.schema()).toEqual(expectedSchema3);
});
it("can update field metadata", async function () {
const con = await connect(tmpDir.name);
const table = await con.createTable("fm", [
{ id: 1, category: "a" },
{ id: 2, category: "b" },
]);
const res = await table.updateFieldMetadata([
{ path: "category", metadata: { unit: "label", pii: "false" } },
]);
expect(res).toHaveProperty("version");
expect(res.version).toBe(2);
let cat = (await table.schema()).fields.find((f) => f.name === "category");
expect(cat?.metadata.get("unit")).toBe("label");
expect(cat?.metadata.get("pii")).toBe("false");
// merge: add a key, delete one via null, keep the rest
await table.updateFieldMetadata([
{ path: "category", metadata: { source: "import", pii: null } },
]);
cat = (await table.schema()).fields.find((f) => f.name === "category");
expect(cat?.metadata.get("unit")).toBe("label"); // preserved
expect(cat?.metadata.get("source")).toBe("import"); // added
expect(cat?.metadata.has("pii")).toBe(false); // deleted
});
it("can cast to various types", async function () {
const con = await connect(tmpDir.name);