Use “LanceDB Enterprise” throughout the staged website guides, SDK
reference sources, generated API pages, and user-facing SDK messages. A
separate branded “LanceDB Distributed” name adds terminology without
clarifying behavior; describe where operations run directly.
- Update `docs/web`, including the architecture diagram title and alt
text. Use Enterprise in headings, table labels, and prose; simplify
redundant product/execution-model wording and name the product only once
in the diagram alt text.
- Update Python docstrings and the Python/Java reference pages,
TypeScript comments and native declaration comments, and Rust API
documentation. Regenerate the TypeScript reference, including 24
replacements across six pages.
- Update SDK warnings/errors and existing test expectations to match,
along with contributor guidance and Vale rules. Remove the obsolete rule
distinguishing Enterprise from Distributed.
- Keep lowercase “distributed” for technical descriptions. API
identifiers, anchors, asset paths, and execution behavior are unchanged.
No branded-name exceptions are proposed.
Validation:
- Python and Node native builds succeeded; focused Python tests passed
(36 passed, 4 skipped), and focused Node tests passed (14).
- TypeDoc generation and the complete MkDocs reference build passed.
MkDocs retains an existing unresolved
`lancedb.functions.SecretReference` cross-reference.
- Rust formatting, Node lint/format, changed-file Python lint/format, 32
Vale tests, and whitespace checks passed. Repository-wide Python lint
has 48 existing findings in six untouched files.
- Combined documentation assembly passed. Mintlify validation and
link/anchor/redirect checks previously passed for both site builds; no
code snippets changed.
Companion PRs: [saved editions, terminology guide, and shared
rules](https://github.com/lancedb/docs/pull/413), [Enterprise overview
and writing rules](https://github.com/lancedb/sophon/pull/9511).
---------
Co-authored-by: Brendan Clement <brendan.clement@lancedb.com>
## 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>
TaylorandBrendan Clement
Lance Release
Will JonesandClaude Opus 5.5