Files
lancedb/python
Drew Gallardo 65cd142c7e feat: add remote branch diff and merge client APIs (#3686)
This PR adds some support for `diff` / `merge` in the remote client as
for local tables we stay `NotSupported` until
https://github.com/lance-format/lance/issues/7263.


This wires the two review-and-land calls against the remote REST API:
- `POST /v1/table/{id}/branches/diff`
- `POST /v1/table/{id}/branches/merge`

Rust gets typed results (`BranchDiff`, `MergeBranchResult`). Python
returns the wire JSON, same shape as the REST response.

Merge here means promoting a branch's added columns onto `main`.

### Behavior
- Remote only. Local raises `NotSupported`.
- A rejected merge is not an exception. HTTP 409 still returns `Ok` / a
dict with `status="rejected"` and blockers in `diff.mergeBlockers`.
- Unknown blocker / status codes parse as `Unknown` so a newer server
does not break older clients.
- `MergePreview` tolerates missing fields for the same reason.
- Merge requests are not retried. 409 is final and carries the body you
need.

### Example
```python

table = db.open_table("images")

table.branches.create("exp")
exp = table.branches.checkout("exp")

exp.add_columns({"tag": "cast('draft' as string)"})

diff = table.branches.diff("exp")
preview = table.branches.merge("exp", dry_run=True)
result = table.branches.merge("exp", dry_run=False)

if result["status"] == "merged":
    print("landed at", result["mainVersionAfter"])
elif result["status"] == "rejected":
    print(result["diff"]["mergeBlockers"])
```

### Testing
cargo test -p lancedb --features remote diff_branch
cargo test -p lancedb --features remote merge_branch

---------

Co-authored-by: Cursor <cursoragent@cursor.com>
2026-07-18 12:38:05 -07:00
..
2025-01-29 08:27:07 -08:00
2024-04-05 16:22:59 -07:00

LanceDB Python SDK

A Python library for LanceDB.

Installation

pip install lancedb

Pre-Haswell x86_64 hosts: lancedb-compat

The default lancedb wheel targets x86-64-haswell (AVX2 + FMA + F16C) for full performance on modern hardware. Pre-Haswell hosts — Intel Sandy Bridge / Ivy Bridge / Westmere; AMD Bulldozer / Piledriver / Steamroller — don't have AVX2 and crash with Illegal instruction at import lancedb.

For those hosts, install the lancedb-compat package instead:

pip install lancedb-compat

Same Python API (import lancedb works as usual). The compat wheel is compiled at the x86-64-v2 baseline (Nehalem-class) and uses runtime SIMD dispatch in the embedded lance crate to pick the right kernel tier (scalar / AVX / AVX+FMA / AVX2+FMA / AVX-512) at load time, so it still goes fast on modern hardware while running cleanly on the pre-Haswell silicon. Use lance.simd_info() from Python to verify which tier was selected.

lancedb and lancedb-compat install to the same lancedb/ namespace and conflict at install time. Pick one. To switch, pip uninstall lancedb first, then pip install lancedb-compat (or vice-versa).

If you need a custom baseline (or lancedb-compat isn't yet published for your platform), build from source with the override:

RUSTFLAGS="-C target-cpu=x86-64-v2" maturin build --release
pip install ./target/wheels/lancedb-*.whl

Preview Releases

Stable releases are created about every 2 weeks. For the latest features and bug fixes, you can install the preview release. These releases receive the same level of testing as stable releases, but are not guaranteed to be available for more than 6 months after they are released. Once your application is stable, we recommend switching to stable releases.

pip install --pre --extra-index-url https://pypi.fury.io/lancedb/ lancedb

Usage

Basic Example

import lancedb
db = lancedb.connect('<PATH_TO_LANCEDB_DATASET>')
table = db.open_table('my_table')
results = table.search([0.1, 0.3]).limit(20).to_list()
print(results)

Development

See CONTRIBUTING.md for information on how to contribute to LanceDB.