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+# Basic LanceDB Functionality
+
+## How to connect to a database
+
+In local mode, LanceDB stores data in a directory on your local machine. To connect to a local database, you can use the following code:
+```python
+import lancedb
+uri = "~/.lancedb"
+db = lancedb.connect(uri)
+```
+
+LanceDB will create the directory if it doesn't exist (including parent directories).
+
+If you need a reminder of the uri, use the `db.uri` property.
+
+## How to create a table
+
+To create a table, you can use the following code:
+```python
+tbl = db.create_table("my_table",
+                      data=[{"vector": [3.1, 4.1], "item": "foo", "price": 10.0},
+                            {"vector": [5.9, 26.5], "item": "bar", "price": 20.0}])
+```
+
+Under the hood, LanceDB is converting the input data into an Apache Arrow table
+and persisting it to disk in [Lance format](github.com/eto-ai/lance).
+
+You can also pass in a pandas DataFrame directly:
+```python
+import pandas as pd
+df = pd.DataFrame([{"vector": [3.1, 4.1], "item": "foo", "price": 10.0},
+                   {"vector": [5.9, 26.5], "item": "bar", "price": 20.0}])
+tbl = db.create_table("table_from_df", data=df)
+```
+
+## How to open an existing table
+
+Once created, you can open a table using the following code:
+```python
+tbl = db.open_table("my_table")
+```
+
+If you forget the name of your table, you can always get a listing of all table names:
+
+```python
+db.table_names()
+```
+
+## How to add data to a table
+
+After a table has been created, you can always add more data to it using
+
+```python
+df = pd.DataFrame([{"vector": [1.3, 1.4], "item": "fizz", "price": 100.0},
+                   {"vector": [9.5, 56.2], "item": "buzz", "price": 200.0}])
+tbl.add(df)
+```
+
+## How to search for (approximate) nearest neighbors
+
+Once you've embedded the query, you can find its nearest neighbors using the following code:
+
+```python
+tbl.search([100, 100]).limit(2).to_df()
+```
+
+This returns a pandas DataFrame with the results.
+
+## What's next
+
+This section covered the very basics of the LanceDB API.
+LanceDB supports many additional features when creating indices to speed up search and options for search.
+These are contained in the next section of the documentation.
diff --git a/docs/src/index.md b/docs/src/index.md
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@@ -35,5 +35,5 @@ result = table.search([100, 100]).limit(2).to_df()
 
 
 ## Documentation Quick Links
-
+* [`Basic Operations`](basic.md) - basic functionality of LanceDB.
 * [`API Reference`](python.md) - detailed documentation for the LanceDB Python SDK.