lancedb/docs/web/enterprise/authentication.mdx

---
title: "Authentication"
sidebarTitle: "Authentication"
description: "Authentication modes for LanceDB Enterprise: API keys and OAuth credentials."
icon: key
keywords: ["authentication", "oauth", "api key", "azure managed identity", "client credentials"]
availability:
  oss: unavailable
  enterprise: available
  summary: >-
    Requests to a deployment carry an API key or an OAuth token, whichever it is
    configured to accept. Embedded LanceDB has no server to sign in to; see
    [Architecture](/architecture).
---

A deployment authenticates every request before
[authorization](/governance/authorization) decides what it may do, against a
`db://` remote table, in one of two ways:

- **API keys** -- a long-lived shared secret passed as `api_key` on connect. Works in every SDK.
- **OAuth 2.0** -- short-lived bearer tokens obtained from your identity provider, refreshed automatically by the client.

OAuth is the recommended option when you want to rotate credentials centrally,
plug into an existing identity provider, or run on Azure with managed
identities so no secret material lives on the client.

## API key {#api-key}

Pass the API key from your Enterprise tenant on `connect`. This works with
both the synchronous and asynchronous Python clients, as well as TypeScript
and Rust.

```python
import lancedb

db = lancedb.connect(
    uri="db://your-database-uri",
    api_key="your-api-key",
    region="us-east-1",
    host_override="https://your-enterprise-endpoint.com",
)
```

An API key belongs in the environment rather than in source. See
[Database](/management/database#deployment) for the connection options.

## OAuth {#oauth}

The async Python client and the TypeScript client can obtain bearer tokens
from an OIDC issuer and attach them to every request. Token acquisition,
caching, and refresh are handled inside the client -- your application code
only provides the configuration.

A deployment accepts these tokens only when its administrator has configured
it with your identity provider. Ask them for the issuer URL, client ID and
scopes to use.

<Info>
In Python, OAuth is supported through `lancedb.connect_async`. The synchronous
`connect` entry point continues to use API key authentication for `db://`
URIs. In TypeScript, `lancedb.connect` accepts `oauthConfig` directly.
</Info>

### Supported flows {#supported-flows}

`OAuthFlowType` selects how the client acquires tokens:

| Flow | Python value | TypeScript value | When to use |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Client Credentials | `OAuthFlowType.CLIENT_CREDENTIALS` | `OAuthFlowType.ClientCredentials` | Service-to-service / machine-to-machine. Requires a client ID and client secret registered with your identity provider. |
| Azure Managed Identity | `OAuthFlowType.AZURE_MANAGED_IDENTITY` | `OAuthFlowType.AzureManagedIdentity` | Workloads running on Azure compute (VMs, AKS, App Service, Container Apps). Tokens are fetched from the Azure IMDS endpoint, so no client secret is stored on the client. |

### Configure OAuth {#configure-oauth}

Build an OAuth config and pass it on connect. Use `oauth_config` in Python and
`oauthConfig` in TypeScript.

<CodeGroup>
```python Python icon="python"
import lancedb
from lancedb.remote import OAuthConfig, OAuthFlowType

# Client Credentials (service-to-service)
oauth_config = OAuthConfig(
    issuer_url="https://login.microsoftonline.com/{tenant}/v2.0",
    client_id="your-application-client-id",
    client_secret="your-application-client-secret",
    scopes=["api://lancedb-api/.default"],
    flow=OAuthFlowType.CLIENT_CREDENTIALS,
)

db = await lancedb.connect_async(
    uri="db://your-database-uri",
    region="us-east-1",
    host_override="https://your-enterprise-endpoint.com",
    oauth_config=oauth_config,
)
```

```typescript TypeScript icon="square-js"
import * as lancedb from "@lancedb/lancedb";
import { OAuthConfig, OAuthFlowType } from "@lancedb/lancedb";

// Client Credentials (service-to-service)
const oauthConfig: OAuthConfig = {
  issuerUrl: "https://login.microsoftonline.com/{tenant}/v2.0",
  clientId: "your-application-client-id",
  clientSecret: "your-application-client-secret",
  scopes: ["api://lancedb-api/.default"],
  flow: OAuthFlowType.ClientCredentials,
};

const db = await lancedb.connect("db://your-database-uri", {
  region: "us-east-1",
  hostOverride: "https://your-enterprise-endpoint.com",
  oauthConfig,
});
```
</CodeGroup>

For workloads running on Azure compute, use a managed identity instead of a
client secret:

<CodeGroup>
```python Python icon="python"
from lancedb.remote import OAuthConfig, OAuthFlowType

oauth_config = OAuthConfig(
    issuer_url="https://login.microsoftonline.com/{tenant}/v2.0",
    client_id="your-application-client-id",
    scopes=["api://lancedb-api/.default"],
    flow=OAuthFlowType.AZURE_MANAGED_IDENTITY,
    # Optional: required only for user-assigned managed identities.
    managed_identity_client_id="your-user-assigned-identity-client-id",
)
```

```typescript TypeScript icon="square-js"
import { OAuthConfig, OAuthFlowType } from "@lancedb/lancedb";

const oauthConfig: OAuthConfig = {
  issuerUrl: "https://login.microsoftonline.com/{tenant}/v2.0",
  clientId: "your-application-client-id",
  scopes: ["api://lancedb-api/.default"],
  flow: OAuthFlowType.AzureManagedIdentity,
  // Optional: required only for user-assigned managed identities.
  managedIdentityClientId: "your-user-assigned-identity-client-id",
};
```
</CodeGroup>

### Configuration reference {#configuration-reference}

The same configuration is available in both SDKs. Python uses `snake_case`
field names; TypeScript uses `camelCase`.

| Python field / TypeScript field | Required | Description |
| --- | --- | --- |
| `issuer_url` / `issuerUrl` | Yes | OIDC issuer URL or OAuth authority URL. For Azure, use `https://login.microsoftonline.com/{tenant_id}/v2.0`. |
| `client_id` / `clientId` | Yes | Application / client ID registered with your identity provider. |
| `scopes` | Yes | List of OAuth scopes to request. For Azure managed identity, provide exactly one scope or resource, for example `["api://your-app-id/.default"]`. |
| `flow` | No | Selects the OAuth flow. Defaults to Client Credentials. |
| `client_secret` / `clientSecret` | Conditional | Required for Client Credentials. Redacted from the config's `repr` (Python) and `Debug` output (TypeScript native binding) so it does not leak into logs. |
| `managed_identity_client_id` / `managedIdentityClientId` | No | Client ID of a user-assigned managed identity. Only used with Azure Managed Identity; omit for system-assigned identities. |
| `refresh_buffer_secs` / `refreshBufferSecs` | No | How many seconds before token expiry to proactively refresh. Defaults to 300. Keep this well below the token TTL -- setting it greater than or equal to the TTL forces a refresh on every request. |

<Warning>
Treat the client secret like any other production credential. Load it from a
secret manager or environment variable rather than committing it to source
control. Both SDKs deliberately omit the secret from their debug/repr output
so accidental log lines do not expose the value.
</Warning>

Embedded LanceDB has nothing to authenticate to -- your process opens the files
directly, and the object store's own credentials are the only gate.