lancedb/docs/web/architecture.mdx

---
title: "Architecture"
sidebarTitle: "Architecture"
description: "How LanceDB is put together, and what changes between running it embedded and running it distributed."
icon: cubes
keywords: ["architecture", "embedded", "distributed", "object storage", "compute", "deployment"]
---

LanceDB has one storage layer and two ways to put compute on top of it. Which
one you run decides where queries execute, what runs on your behalf, and what
you have to operate — and almost nothing else. The data is the same
[Lance](/basics/lance) tables either way.

## One storage layer {#storage}

Everything durable lives in object storage: table data, manifests, indexes. No
machine owns a dataset, and no server has to be running for the data to exist.

```
        ┌──────────────────────────────────────────┐
        │           object storage                 │
        │  table data · manifests · indexes        │
        └──────────────────────────────────────────┘
```

That is the whole persistence story, and it is why the two deployment shapes can
differ so much above it while staying compatible below it. A table written
embedded is opened by a deployment, and the reverse, without conversion.

## Embedded {#embedded}

```
   your process
   ┌────────────────────────────────┐
   │  application                   │
   │  LanceDB library               │  ← plans, executes, indexes, compacts
   └────────────────────────────────┘
                  │
        ┌─────────▼─────────┐
        │  object storage   │
        └───────────────────┘
```

`lancedb.connect("./data")` or `connect("s3://bucket/path")` gives you a
**library**, not a client. Your process opens the tables, plans the queries,
runs the scans, builds the indexes, and writes the new versions. There is no
server in the picture at all.

**What follows from that.** Nothing runs unless you call it — no background
compaction, no server-side [jobs](/basics/jobs), no
[SQL endpoint](/basics/apis). Scale is your process's scale: a query gets the
cores and memory your process has. Access control is whatever your object store
enforces, since there is no other gatekeeper.

**What it is good at.** Development, notebooks, single-node pipelines, embedding
LanceDB inside an application, and anything where "no service to operate" is
worth more than elasticity. Comfortably handles millions of vectors on one
node -- disk-based indexes keep it performant without extra infrastructure.

## Distributed {#distributed}

<Badge color="red">Enterprise</Badge>

```
   your process
   ┌──────────────┐
   │ application  │
   │ LanceDB SDK  │  ← a thin client
   └──────┬───────┘
          │  db://  (REST / Flight SQL)
   ┌──────▼──────────────────────────────────────┐
   │  control plane   config · identity · policy │
   ├─────────────────────────────────────────────┤
   │  data plane      query serving · writes     │
   │  indexers        indexing · compaction      │
   └──────┬──────────────────────────────────────┘
          │
   ┌──────▼────────────┐
   │  object storage   │
   └───────────────────┘
```

`connect("db://...")` gives you a **client**. Planning and execution move to a
cluster, and the work splits across tiers that scale independently: a control
plane governing configuration, identity and policy; a data plane serving reads
and writes; and indexers building indexes and compacting outside the request
path.

**What follows from that.** Compute and storage are separated, so a query fleet
scales for interactive traffic without also scaling indexing capacity, and heavy
background work does not steal resources from user queries. Because a server
exists, so do the things that need one: [SQL](/sql),
[functions](/management/function), server-side jobs, and
[authorization](/governance/authorization) per object rather than per bucket.

**What it is good at.** Many concurrent queries, continuous ingestion and
indexing, multi-team access with real permissions, and workloads too large for
one machine -- customers regularly operate on billions of rows and tens of
terabytes.

## What changes, precisely {#differences}

| | Embedded | Distributed |
| --- | --- | --- |
| What you connect to | a library in your process | a cluster |
| Where queries plan and execute | your process | the data plane |
| Table handle | `LanceTable` | `RemoteTable` |
| Indexing and compaction | when you call it | dedicated indexers |
| [Jobs](/basics/jobs) | run in-process, no server record | real jobs: id, status, events, cancel |
| [SQL](/sql) | unavailable | Flight SQL endpoint |
| [Functions](/management/function) | unavailable | run on workers |
| Access control | object-store permissions | [per-object grants](/governance/authorization) |
| Scale bound | your process | the cluster |
| What you operate | nothing | a deployment |

Both expose the same table API — create, open, mutate, query — so application
code moves between them by changing the URI. What does not move is code that
depends on a row in the right-hand column.

## Choosing, and changing your mind {#choosing}

Start embedded. It has no operational cost and the API is the same one you will
keep using.

Move when you hit something in the right-hand column — usually concurrent
serving, ingestion that outgrows one machine, or a permissions requirement.
Because the storage layer is identical, moving is a connection-string change
plus a data migration, not a rewrite.

<Note>
The one thing to decide early is **stable row ids**, which cannot be enabled
after a table exists and are required for
[materialized views](/management/materialized-view). See
[Limits](/basics/limits#schema).
</Note>

## Where to go next {#next}

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Guarantees" icon="shield-check" href="/basics/guarantees">
    What a write promises, and what a reader sees.
  </Card>
  <Card title="Lance format" icon="layer-group" href="/basics/lance">
    The open format underneath both shapes.
  </Card>
  <Card title="Enterprise architecture" icon="cubes" href="/enterprise/architecture">
    The distributed tiers in detail.
  </Card>
  <Card title="Limits" icon="ruler" href="/basics/limits">
    The bounds you can actually hit.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>