## Summary
Adopts the product terminology guide across the docs site pages, SDK
docstrings and error messages. "LanceDB OSS" and local mode become
**LanceDB Embedded**. "Remote" as the execution model becomes **LanceDB
Distributed**, which LanceDB Enterprise provides. Where free vs paid is
the point, pages contrast "LanceDB Embedded (open source)" with "LanceDB
Enterprise". This is a first trial of the Embedded name, so reviewers
can judge it in context.
- **Embedded vs Distributed** for where execution runs (`optimize()`,
consistency, branching, maintenance). Main pages define it once:
"LanceDB Enterprise runs LanceDB Distributed: …"
- **LanceDB Cloud** is kept only for legacy-Cloud specifics (`db://`
region, the brute-force KNN limit) and marked legacy. "Cloud and
Enterprise" becomes Enterprise or Distributed.
- **Plan executor** becomes "executor" or the fleet name.
- **Error messages** change, e.g. `optimize is not supported for remote
tables.` → `... in LanceDB Distributed.` Tests that match on them are
updated.
- **Vale rules** (`EmbeddedName`, `OSSProduct`, `RemoteExecution`,
`DistributedEnterprise`, `LegacyCloud`, `InternalNames`) enforce the
terms in prose.
Unchanged: identifiers (`availability.oss`, the `remote` module and
feature, `RemoteTable`, `db://`), heading anchors, internal code
comments, and Geneva.
## Evidence
- Rust lib tests for the changed messages and the Python tests in
`test_remote_db.py`, `test_materialized_views.py` and `test_table.py`
pass locally.
- Not run locally:
- The Node tests: `remote.test.ts` and `table.test.ts` have updated
assertions.
- Vale.
- The `experimental_functions`-marked materialized-view tests.
- `docs/src` API reference was hand-edited to match the docstrings
rather than regenerated.
## Merge Risk
**Door:** two-way; prose and message text only.
**Blast Radius:** `docs`, `error-messages`: callers matching on old
error strings would break.
Companion PRs: lancedb/docs (assembler labels, STYLE.md) and sophon
(Enterprise pages).
🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code)
---------
Co-authored-by: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
The prose check fails because it downloads its Vale rules from the
now-private docs repository.
Keep the five unchanged rules from `vale-lancedb-v0.1.0` in this
repository and disable `vale sync` in CI. This also works for
contributors without access to the docs repository. The update
instructions record the release and archive checksum.
Will JonesandClaude Opus 5.5
Brendan Clement