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Jack Ye
e639b1b650
## Summary
Add SQL execution to remote LanceDB connections. On the standard
synchronous connection, `execute_query` waits for the initial result
stream and returns its Arrow reader. `execute_query_async` is called
without Python `await` and immediately returns a query handle for status
inspection, streaming, or cancellation. Local databases report that SQL
is not supported.
The transport and query lifecycle live in Rust. Python exposes
native-backed synchronous and asynchronous connection methods and query
wrappers; it does not use PyArrow's Flight client.
## User experience
The standard synchronous connection supports both direct reads and
background query execution:
```python
db = lancedb.connect(
"db://analytics",
api_key="ldb_...",
sql_host_override="grpc+tls://sql.example.com:10026",
)
# Direct execution waits only until the initial result stream is available.
# Later batches continue streaming as the query progresses.
reader = db.execute_query(
"SELECT * FROM events",
default_namespace_path=["production"],
)
for batch in reader:
print(batch.num_rows)
# Background execution returns a query handle immediately. Despite the
# `_async` suffix, no Python `await` is needed on a synchronous connection.
query = db.execute_query_async("SELECT * FROM events")
print(query.id)
description = db.describe_query(query.id)
print(description.status)
print(description.progress)
print(description.expires_at)
# Start reading as soon as the service advertises partial results. The reader
# continues polling and yields newly available record batches until the query
# and all result endpoints are complete.
reader = query.reader()
for batch in reader:
print(batch.num_rows)
# Or cancel a different still-running query. Its status becomes "cancelling"
# while the server is still working, then "cancelled" once confirmed.
cancelled_query = db.execute_query_async("SELECT * FROM large_events")
cancelled_query.cancel()
```
The less commonly used asynchronous connection exposes the same
operations as coroutines:
```python
async_db = await lancedb.connect_async(
"db://analytics",
api_key="ldb_...",
sql_host_override="grpc+tls://sql.example.com:10026",
)
query = await async_db.execute_query_async("SELECT * FROM events")
async for batch in await query.reader():
print(batch.num_rows)
```
The UUIDv7 query id is scoped to the connection that submitted it. The
connection retains lightweight shared query state used by
`query.describe()` and `db.describe_query(query.id)`; the id does not
encode SQL or a Flight continuation token and is not a cross-connection
resume token. Abandoned state has bounded retention, and terminal state
remains available briefly.
Unqualified table names use the connected database and the `public`
namespace by default. `default_namespace_path` accepts a list such as
`["production", "events"]`. SQL can still use qualified names to
reference other databases and namespaces available to the deployment.
## Design
- Uses Arrow Flight `PollFlightInfo` for submission and long polling,
`DoGet` for results, and `CancelFlightInfo` for cancellation. Each
`PollInfo.info` is treated as the cumulative set of currently available
endpoints, so advertised tickets are consumed once and batches can be
delivered before execution is complete.
- Serializes result completion and cancellation into one lifecycle. A
server-accepted request reports `cancelling` and wakes blocked
status/result work; a later retry can confirm `cancelled`. Result
retrieval is rejected after cancellation is accepted, while cancellation
after a result was already delivered is a no-op.
- Assigns a time-ordered UUIDv7 connection-scoped query id and retains
only shared evolving lifecycle state, keeping SQL, Flight continuation
tokens, and Arrow result data out of public ids and the registry.
- Leaves admission control to the server while honoring server
expiration and a local fallback retention window for abandoned entries.
- Retains terminal ids for five minutes so they remain available for
connection-level description.
- Keeps one lazily initialized SQL client on each remote database
connection and attaches fresh authentication, routing, namespace, and
request metadata to every operation.
- Applies the configured overall timeout to each execution, description,
reader, and cancellation operation. A result reader carries one absolute
deadline from `reader()` through the end of streaming; connect and read
timeouts continue to bound their individual phases.
- Returns a bounded, backpressured, single-consumer Arrow stream rather
than collecting the full result in memory. Dropping the reader stops
downloading but does not implicitly cancel the server query.
- Preserves typed schemas for empty result sets through the stream
schema.
- Accepts Flight result messages up to 1 GiB so a valid row containing a
large blob, string, or vector is not rejected by tonic's 4 MiB default
receive limit.
- Supports the Python client first while keeping the authoritative
implementation in the Rust core.
LanceDB Documentation
LanceDB docs are available at docs.lancedb.com.
The SDK docs are built and deployed automatically by Github Actions
whenever a commit is pushed to the main branch. So it is possible for the docs to show
unreleased features.
Building the docs
Setup
- Install LanceDB Python. See setup in Python contributing guide.
Run
make developto install the Python package. - Install documentation dependencies. From LanceDB repo root:
pip install -r docs/requirements.txt
Preview the docs
cd docs
mkdocs serve
If you want to just generate the HTML files:
PYTHONPATH=. mkdocs build -f docs/mkdocs.yml
If successful, you should see a docs/site directory that you can verify locally.
Adding examples
To make sure examples are correct, we put examples in test files so they can be run as part of our test suites.
You can see the tests are at:
- Python:
python/python/tests/docs - Typescript:
nodejs/examples/
Checking python examples
cd python
pytest -vv python/tests/docs
Checking typescript examples
The examples depend on @lancedb/lancedb at file:../dist, so the package must be
built before running the tests. This uses pnpm; see the
Typescript contributing guide for the toolchain setup.
pushd nodejs
pnpm install
pnpm build
popd
Then you can run the examples by going to the nodejs/examples directory, which is a
separate pnpm package with its own lockfile:
pushd nodejs/examples
pnpm install
pnpm test
popd
API documentation
Python
The Python API documentation is organized based on the file docs/src/python/python.md.
We manually add entries there so we can control the organization of the reference page.
However, this means any new types must be manually added to the file. No additional
steps are needed to generate the API documentation.
Typescript
The typescript API documentation is generated from the typescript source code using typedoc.
When new APIs are added, you must manually re-run the typedoc command to update the API documentation. The new files should be checked into the repository.
pushd nodejs
# `pnpm docs` would invoke pnpm's built-in `docs` command, not the script.
pnpm run docs
popd