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Jack Ye
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SQL now leads with why you'd reach for it beyond analytics: it's served over Flight SQL, so it's the way in for any language without a native LanceDB SDK, and broadly every public SDK method has a corresponding SQL statement. Closes by pointing at the SQL Reference as the spec that defines the precise behavior behind both the SQL surface and the SDK operations it mirrors. Moving both into Getting Started (before Agentic Skills) means a reader knows what the API surface even is before being told how to hand it to an agent.
100 lines
4.2 KiB
Plaintext
100 lines
4.2 KiB
Plaintext
---
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title: "SDKs"
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sidebarTitle: "SDKs"
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description: "The language clients — Python, TypeScript, Rust — and what stays true across all of them."
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icon: code-compare
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keywords: ["python", "typescript", "rust", "java", "sdk", "rest", "api reference"]
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---
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A language SDK is the primary way to work with LanceDB: create and manage
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tables, write and query data, build indexes, run feature engineering. The same
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table API works whether you're connected to an embedded database or an
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Enterprise deployment -- application code moves between the two by changing
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the connection URI.
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## Officially supported SDKs {#supported-sdks}
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Python, TypeScript and Rust are supported against both embedded and deployed
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LanceDB.
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| Reference | Description |
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|:--------------|-------------------|
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| <Icon icon="python" /> [Python](https://lancedb.github.io/lancedb/python/python/) | Full-featured Python client with pandas and numpy integration |
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| <Icon icon="square-js" /> [TypeScript](https://lancedb.github.io/lancedb/js/) | A TypeScript wrapper around the Rust library, built with `napi-rs` |
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| <Icon icon="rust" /> [Rust](https://docs.rs/lancedb/latest/lancedb/index.html) | Native Rust library with persistent storage and high performance |
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Not every SDK covers the same surface, though:
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| | Python | TypeScript |
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| --- | :---: | :---: |
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| Create and manage catalog objects | yes | yes |
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| Insert, merge, update, delete | yes | yes |
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| Filter, project, aggregate, join | yes | yes |
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| Vector search | yes | yes |
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| Full-text search | yes | yes |
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| Feature engineering, jobs | yes | partly |
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| Runs against a local database | yes | yes |
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TypeScript has no methods for [functions](/management/function). Reach the
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gap with SQL instead -- see [SQL](/basics/sql).
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## REST API {#rest}
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<Badge color="red">Enterprise</Badge> A deployment implements the
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[Lance REST Namespace](/basics/lance#enterprise), so the catalog is reachable
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over HTTP by anything that speaks it -- see the
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[REST API reference](/api-reference/rest).
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| Reference | Description |
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|:--------------|-------------------|
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| <Icon icon="java" /> [Java](https://lancedb.github.io/lancedb/java/java/) | REST API Enterprise SDK in Java |
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## Community SDKs {#community-sdks}
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Contributed by the community rather than supported by LanceDB, so feature parity
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and release cadence vary.
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| Reference | Description |
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|:--------------|-------------------|
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| <Icon icon="golang" /> [Go](https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/lancedb/lancedb-go/pkg/lancedb) | Community-contributed Go SDK |
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| <Icon icon="gem" /> [Ruby](https://github.com/scientist-labs/lancelot) | Community-contributed Ruby bindings |
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| <Icon icon="swift" /> [Swift](https://github.com/RyanLisse/LanceDbSwiftKit) | Community-contributed Swift SDK |
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| <Icon icon="R" /> [R](https://github.com/CathalByrneGit/lancedb) | Community-contributed R package |
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| <Icon icon="flutter" /> [Flutter](https://github.com/Alexcn/flutter_lancedb) | Community-contributed Flutter bindings |
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For any other language, [SQL](/basics/sql) reaches the same tables without a
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LanceDB-specific SDK at all.
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## Python multiprocessing {#multiprocessing}
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<Warning>
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Do not use `fork` as the start method with Python's `multiprocessing` module.
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Lance is multi-threaded internally, and `fork` with alive threads is unsafe --
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use `spawn` instead. See
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[this discussion](https://discuss.python.org/t/concerns-regarding-deprecation-of-fork-with-alive-threads/33555)
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for why.
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</Warning>
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## What stays the same {#invariants}
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Whichever you pick:
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- **Types are Arrow types.** A vector column is a `FixedSizeList<Float32>`
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everywhere, not a SQL type mapped onto storage. See
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[Functions and types](/sql/functions).
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- **Reads are Arrow.** Nothing is serialized into language objects on the way out
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unless you convert it.
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- **The catalog is one catalog.** A table created from TypeScript is visible to
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Python and to SQL immediately -- there is no per-language namespace.
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## What to read next {#next}
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<CardGroup cols={2}>
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<Card title="SQL" icon="table-list" href="/basics/sql">
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The same tables, reached by any Flight SQL client -- and the one way in for a language with no SDK.
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</Card>
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<Card title="Agentic Skills" icon="robot" href="/basics/agentic-skills">
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Give a coding agent a current reference to this same API surface.
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</Card>
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</CardGroup>
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