Plain local blob v2 scans tried to open a pylance dataset before reaching LanceDB's byte-fetch path, so `to_pandas(blob_mode="bytes")` failed when the optional dependency was absent. Batch readers also had no `blob_mode` option. Route supported blob v2 pandas conversions through the native Arrow path. Add `blob_mode` to sync and async batch readers, convert payloads during iteration, and expose the converted schema without fetching the first batch. Apply conversion after reranking and retain the default descriptor behavior. Clean up scanner error punctuation and remove the misleading plain-scan suggestion. Bytes mode retains the existing `to_arrow` restrictions for legacy/list blobs, remote tables, and namespace query pushdown. Lazy pandas handles and legacy pandas scans still require pylance; sync FTS/hybrid batching remains unsupported. Validation: - UV-managed editable Python development build completed successfully. - The absent-pylance regression tests fail against the original query implementation and pass with this change. - Blob and query suites: 403 passed, 1 skipped, 1 deselected. - Remote query suite: 190 passed. - Python-tree Ruff lint/format checks and the async reader Pyright check pass. Repository-wide Ruff reports existing errors outside the Python tree. Fixes #4645 <!-- lance-gatekeeper-fix:v1 agent=fd85998f14bb0b3c92b2d050df93a615 generation=1 --> --------- Co-authored-by: Gatefixer <313497061+lancedb-gatefixer[bot]@users.noreply.github.com> Co-authored-by: Xuanwo <github@xuanwo.io>
The Multimodal Lakehouse for AI
How to Install ✦ Detailed Documentation ✦ Tutorials and Recipes ✦ Contributors
The ultimate multimodal data platform for AI/ML applications.
LanceDB is designed for fast, scalable, and production-ready vector search. It is built on top of the Lance columnar format. You can store, index, and search over petabytes of multimodal data and vectors with ease. LanceDB is a central location where developers can build, train and analyze their AI workloads.
Demo: Multimodal Search by Keyword, Vector or with SQL
Star LanceDB to get updates!
Key Features:
- Fast Vector Search: Search billions of vectors in milliseconds with state-of-the-art indexing.
- Comprehensive Search: Support for vector similarity search, full-text search and SQL.
- Multimodal Support: Store, query and filter vectors, metadata and multimodal data (text, images, videos, point clouds, and more).
- Advanced Features: Zero-copy, automatic versioning, manage versions of your data without needing extra infrastructure. GPU support in building vector index.
Products:
- Open Source & Local: 100% open source, runs locally or in your cloud. No vendor lock-in.
- Cloud and Enterprise: Production-scale vector search with no servers to manage. Complete data sovereignty and security.
Ecosystem:
- Columnar Storage: Built on the Lance columnar format for efficient storage and analytics.
- Seamless Integration: Python, Node.js, Rust, and REST APIs for easy integration. Native Python and Javascript/Typescript support.
- Rich Ecosystem: Integrations with LangChain 🦜️🔗, LlamaIndex 🦙, Apache-Arrow, Pandas, Polars, DuckDB and more on the way.
How to Install:
Follow the Quickstart doc to set up LanceDB locally.
API & SDK: We also support Python, Typescript and Rust SDKs
| Interface | Documentation |
|---|---|
| Python SDK | https://lancedb.github.io/lancedb/python/python/ |
| Typescript SDK | https://lancedb.github.io/lancedb/js/globals/ |
| Rust SDK | https://docs.rs/lancedb/latest/lancedb/index.html |
| REST API | https://docs.lancedb.com/api-reference/rest |
Join Us and Contribute
We welcome contributions from everyone! Whether you're a developer, researcher, or just someone who wants to help out.
If you have any suggestions or feature requests, please feel free to open an issue on GitHub or discuss it on our Discord server.
Check out the GitHub Issues if you would like to work on the features that are planned for the future. If you have any suggestions or feature requests, please feel free to open an issue on GitHub.

