Files
lancedb/python
Drew Gallardo 77208fd464 feat(remote): add RemoteTable fetch_blobs HTTP client (#3684)
Remote half of the blob read path. #3578 did local Python. This makes
`RemoteTable` hit the server.

- `fetch_blobs(column, row_ids or hits)` → bytes over `POST
/v1/table/{id}/fetch_blobs/`
- `blob_columns()` from the cached schema (describe already has the
metadata, no extra route)
- search then `fetch_blobs` works. row identity rides inside the blob
descriptor so you do not need a public `_rowid`
- `fetch_blob_files` still `NotSupported` on remote. use `fetch_blobs`
for full bytes for now. Range is a follow up

Accepts Binary / LargeBinary / BinaryView on the way back. Empty
`row_ids` short-circuits. Version + branch go in the request body same
as other read calls.

### Example

```python
db = lancedb.connect(uri="db://my-project", api_key=...)
table = db.open_table("clips")

hits = table.search(query_vec).select(["id", "video"]).limit(10).to_arrow()
# hits is just id + video. row ids are stashed on the descriptor
blobs = table.fetch_blobs("video", hits)  # null-aligned, same length as hits
```

Or pass ids yourself:

```python
blobs = table.fetch_blobs("video", [10, 20, 30])
```

### Testing

- `cargo test -p lancedb --features remote --lib`
- `cargo test -p lancedb --features remote --test blob_integration`
- `pytest python/tests/test_remote_db.py -k remote_blob`
- live e2e against a local 0.5.0 remote server (search → fetch, nulls,
nested path, old server gate)

---------

Co-authored-by: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-30 12:16:01 -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.