lancedb/docs/web/management/database.mdx

---
title: "Database"
sidebarTitle: "Database"
description: "Connecting to LanceDB: the URI forms, their options, and what each one changes."
icon: database
keywords: ["connect", "database", "uri", "api key", "storage options", "consistency"]
---

A database is the root of a [catalog](/basics/catalog). A connection opens
exactly one, and every other object is reached through it.

Connecting is the one decision that reaches furthest: the URI you pass decides
where queries execute, which features exist, and what a table handle actually
is.

## The three URI forms {#uris}

<CodeGroup>
```python Python icon="python"
import lancedb

db = lancedb.connect("./.lancedb")                       # local directory
db = lancedb.connect("s3://bucket/path")                 # object storage
db = lancedb.connect("db://my-database", api_key="...")  # a deployment
```

```typescript TypeScript icon="square-js"
import * as lancedb from "@lancedb/lancedb";

const db = await lancedb.connect("./.lancedb");
const db = await lancedb.connect("s3://bucket/path");
const db = await lancedb.connect("db://my-database", { apiKey: "..." });
```
</CodeGroup>

The first two are **embedded**: your process opens Lance tables directly from
storage and does the work itself. The third talks to a **deployment**.

| | Embedded | Deployment |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Where queries run | in your process | on the server |
| Table handle | `LanceTable` | `RemoteTable` |
| [SQL](/basics/apis) | -- | yes |
| Server-side [jobs](/basics/jobs) | -- | yes |
| [Functions](/feature-engineering/functions) | -- | yes |
| [Authorization](/governance/authorization) | storage permissions | granted per object |

![](/static/assets/images/overview/understanding-tables.png)

Both handles expose the same table API -- create, open, mutate, query -- so
application code moves between them by changing the URI. What differs is where
resolution and execution happen, and therefore which operations exist at all.

## Connecting to a deployment {#deployment}

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

<CodeGroup>
```python Python icon="python"
db = lancedb.connect(
    "db://my-database",
    api_key="...",
    region="us-east-1",
)
```

```typescript TypeScript icon="square-js"
const db = await lancedb.connect("db://my-database", {
  apiKey: "...",
  region: "us-east-1",
});
```
</CodeGroup>

| Option | Meaning |
| --- | --- |
| `api_key` / `apiKey` | authenticates the connection -- see [Authentication](/enterprise/authentication) |
| `region` | which region hosts the database. Defaults to `us-east-1` |
| `host_override` / `hostOverride` | point at a specific endpoint instead of the regional one |
| `sql_host_override` | the same, for the [SQL endpoint](/search/sql). Python only |
| `client_config` / `clientConfig` | retries, timeouts, and connection pooling |

An API key belongs in the environment, not in source. `region` is easy to get
wrong silently -- the default is `us-east-1` whether or not that is where your
database lives, and a wrong region fails as a connection error rather than a
helpful one.

## Storage options {#storage-options}

`storage_options` configures the underlying object store -- credentials,
endpoints, and defaults for tables created through this connection:

<CodeGroup>
```python Python icon="python"
db = lancedb.connect(
    "s3://bucket/path",
    storage_options={"new_table_enable_stable_row_ids": "true"},
)
```

```typescript TypeScript icon="square-js"
const db = await lancedb.connect("s3://bucket/path", {
  storageOptions: { new_table_enable_stable_row_ids: "true" },
});
```
</CodeGroup>

<Warning>
`new_table_enable_stable_row_ids` is worth setting deliberately. Stable row ids
cannot be enabled after a table exists, and a
[materialized view](/feature-engineering/materialized-views) requires its source
to have them. A table created without them cannot later become a view's source
without being recreated.
</Warning>

See [Storage](/storage) for the full set, including per-cloud credentials.

## Read consistency {#consistency}

`read_consistency_interval` controls how often a connection checks for versions
committed by other writers.

<CodeGroup>
```python Python icon="python"
from datetime import timedelta

db = lancedb.connect(uri, read_consistency_interval=timedelta(seconds=5))
```

```typescript TypeScript icon="square-js"
const db = await lancedb.connect(uri, { readConsistencyInterval: 5 });
```
</CodeGroup>

The default reads a snapshot taken when the table was opened, so a long-lived
connection **will not see other processes' writes** until it reopens the table.
That is the right default for a batch job and the wrong one for a service.

Set it when several processes write the same table and readers must observe
those writes. The cost is a metadata check on that interval. See
[Consistency](/tables/consistency).

## Database-level operations {#operations}

| | Python | TypeScript | SQL |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| list tables | `table_names`, `list_tables` | `tableNames`, `listTables` | `SHOW TABLES` |
| the URI it opened | `uri` | `display()` | -- |
| drop every table | `drop_all_tables` | `dropAllTables` | -- |
| drop the database | `drop_database` | -- | -- |
| close | -- | `close`, `isOpen` | -- |

<CodeGroup>
```python Python icon="python"
db.table_names()
tbl = db.open_table("documents")
db.drop_table("documents")
```

```typescript TypeScript icon="square-js"
await db.tableNames();
const tbl = await db.openTable("documents");
await db.dropTable("documents");
```

```sql SQL
SHOW TABLES;
DROP TABLE documents;
```
</CodeGroup>

Each takes a `namespace_path` to act inside a [namespace](/namespaces) rather
than at the root.

<Warning>
`drop_database()` removes every table in the database. There is no confirmation
and no undo -- table [versioning](/tables/versioning) does not survive the table
being dropped.
</Warning>

## Async connections {#async}

`connect_async` returns an `AsyncConnection` with the same surface as
coroutines. The TypeScript SDK is async throughout, so its `connect` already is
one.

```python
db = await lancedb.connect_async("db://my-database", api_key="...")
tbl = await db.open_table("documents")
```

This is a different axis from the `_async` operations that return a
[job](/basics/jobs): `connect_async` is about not blocking your event loop,
while `create_index_async` is about work that outlives the call.