Files
lancedb/docs
Dan Rammer f1c4967eeb feat: bring the MemWAL LSM surface to parity across the SDKs (#3962)
## Why

Four of the eight LSM methods are **remote-only in the core**. `impl
BaseTable for NativeTable` implements only
`set`/`unset`/`get_lsm_write_spec` and `close_lsm_writers`; `flush_lsm`,
`compact_lsm` and `get_lsm_stats` fall through to trait defaults
returning `NotSupported` (`rust/lancedb/src/table.rs:679,687,696`), and
`checkpoint_lsm` is built on all three.

That explains the state of the bindings: Node had bound the four that
work against a local table and stopped, so a Cloud user could install an
LSM write spec but had no way to observe fresh-tier state or drive a
checkpoint. Java had none of it at all.

| SDK | set/unset/get spec | closeWriters | flush | compact | getStats |
checkpoint |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rust core |  |  |  |  |  |  |
| Python |  |  |  |  |  |  |
| Node *(before)* |  |  | — | — | — | — |
| **Node (after)** |  |  | **new** | **new** | **new** | **new** |
| Java *(before)* | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| **Java (after)** | **new** | n/a | **new** | **new** | **new** |
**new** |

Go and C are separate repos and are out of scope here. `closeLsmWriters`
drains cached in-process shard writers, so it has no meaning for Java,
which is a pure REST client.

## Node

Adds napi bindings for `flushLsm`, `compactLsm`, `checkpointLsm` and
`getLsmStats`, plus typed `LsmStats` / `BucketStats` / `GenerationStats`
/ `MemtableStats` objects — typed rather than a JSON blob, matching the
existing `LsmWriteSpec` object in the same file, with `u64` cast to
`i64` per that file's convention.

Because these four are remote-only, the new tests assert each binding
reaches the core and surfaces `NotSupported` against a local table. That
covers the wiring; behavior against a real endpoint stays covered by the
mocked-endpoint tests in `rust/lancedb/src/remote/table.rs`.

## Python

No new methods. All eight are on `LanceTable`, `AsyncTable` and
`RemoteTable` — the last four landed on the sync `RemoteTable` in #3961,
which is merged into this branch.

What was missing here was reachability. `LsmWriteSpec` was importable
only from the private `lancedb._lancedb`, appearing in `table.py` solely
under `if TYPE_CHECKING:`, and `docs/src/python/python.md` had no
mention of it, which per the repo's docs guidance means it rendered
nowhere in the API reference. It is now `lancedb.LsmWriteSpec`, in
`__all__`, and documented.

## Java

Java reaches LanceDB purely over REST through the generated Lance
Namespace client, and these routes are not in that spec, so they are
issued through a small dedicated client rather than added to the spec.
That call is revisitable — LSM is one of four unspecified route families
alongside `multipart_write`, `page_cache/prewarm` and
`branches/diff|merge`. If those are ever regularized into the spec as a
group, `LanceDbTableLsm` is one file that gets deleted.

`LsmWriteSpec` here is deliberately **not**
`org.lance.memwal.InitializeMemWalParams`. That type defaults to
maintaining *no* indexes where a spec here defaults to maintaining
*every* index, and it cannot express the `null` that asks the server to
resolve the set:

| Value | On the wire | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| unset (null) | `null` | Server resolves **every** maintainable index |
| `Collections.emptyList()` | `[]` | Maintain **none** |
| `Arrays.asList("id_idx")` | `["id_idx"]` | Exactly those |

A dedicated test pins null and `[]` as distinct on the wire, since
collapsing them is the failure mode that motivated a LanceDB-owned type.

`checkpointLsm` is ported from `rust/lancedb/src/table/checkpoint.rs`
with its constants and status semantics intact: 429/503 retried in place
against an 8-budget, 421 restarting from flush against a 3-budget, 5s
poll, and a target watermark fixed after the seal so it terminates under
write load.

`getLsmStats` returns typed `LsmStats` / `BucketStats` /
`GenerationStats` / `MemtableStats`, mirroring the Rust structs in
`rust/lancedb/src/table/lsm_stats.rs` and the objects Node exposes.
Decoding is strict — see below.

## Review feedback

Both gatekeeper findings were real. Each was reproduced against the
scripted test server first, and each fix ships with the reproducer as a
regression test.

**The transport was doubling every checkpoint retry budget.**
`HttpClients.createDefault()` installs Apache's default response retry
strategy, whose retryable-status list is exactly 429 and 503 — the two
statuses `isRetryable` owns. A 429 held against `flush_lsm` issued
**18** wire requests where the loop intends 9, and `compact_lsm` was
retried in place despite the loop being built to fall through to a fresh
stats poll instead. Timing confirmed the mechanism: that run took 25.4s
≈ 16.3s of the loop's own backoff plus 9 × the transport's 1s retry
interval.

Automatic retries are now disabled, so the checkpoint loop is the sole
owner of the 421/429/503 transitions. A side effect worth noting:
`testCheckpointRetriesRetryableStatusInPlace` was passing on a
transport-absorbed 429 and never reaching `issue()`'s retry branch at
all. It now exercises the real path.

**Stats decoding failed open.** `getLsmStats` read the response with
Jackson's `path()`, which yields a missing node that iterates as an
empty array — making "malformed" indistinguishable from "no buckets",
which is indistinguishable from "drained". Four separate payloads made
`checkpointLsm()` report convergence for a checkpoint that never ran:

| Response | Before | Now |
|---|---|---|
| `{"lsm_stats": null}` or absent key | disabled ✓ | disabled ✓ |
| `{"lsm_stats": {}}` | **reported success** | `IllegalStateException` |
| empty response body | **reported success** | `IllegalStateException` |
| bucket missing required fields | **reported success** |
`IllegalStateException` |

The empty-body row is the one to weight: a proxy 200 with no body is a
realistic production event, and it silently reported a checkpoint that
never happened.

Decoding is now strict and fails closed, matching the serde contract on
the Rust side exactly. One deliberate deviation from the review comment,
which asked that *only* explicit JSON `null` count as disabled: Rust has
`#[serde(default)]` on `lsm_stats`, so an **absent key** decodes to
`None` there too. Java now matches that. It is an absent-or-malformed
**`buckets`** that fails closed, which is the case the comment was
actually protecting.

## Testing

- Java: **33 passing** (8 existing + 25 LSM) against a scripted
`com.sun.net.httpserver.HttpServer` — no new test dependency. Wire
assertions mirror `rust/lancedb/src/remote/table.rs:6581-6748`;
checkpoint tests cover convergence, not piling onto a latched bucket,
421 restart-from-flush, 429 retry-in-place, terminal-status propagation,
reissue exhaustion, the exact wire-request count against the retry
budget, and five malformed stats payloads.
- Node: **19 LSM tests passing**; `cargo check`, `npm run build`, `npm
run tsc`, `npm run lint`, `npm run docs` all clean.
- Python: `ruff format --check` and `ruff check` clean.
- Java formatting: `./mvnw -pl lancedb-core spotless:apply` and
`spotless:check` both clean under a JDK 11 toolchain.

## Note: spotless needs a pre-16 JDK

`./mvnw spotless:apply` fails on JDK 16+ with
`JCTree$JCImport.getQualifiedIdentifier()` — google-java-format 1.7,
pinned at `java/pom.xml:34`, predates JDK 16's compiler API change.
**This is pre-existing** and reproduces on a pristine `main` checkout.

It is not a blocker, just a toolchain requirement. Spotless was run
against these sources under JDK 11 and both `spotless:apply` and
`spotless:check` pass on the whole module:

```shell
JAVA_HOME=/path/to/jdk11 ./mvnw -pl lancedb-core spotless:apply
```

Bumping the plugin so it works on modern JDKs is still worth doing, but
separately from this PR.

🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code)

---------

Co-authored-by: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-08-19 11:44:46 -05:00
..

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

  1. Install LanceDB Python. See setup in Python contributing guide. Run make develop to install the Python package.
  2. 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 @lancedb/lancedb package must be built before running the tests:

pushd nodejs
npm ci
npm run build
popd

Then you can run the examples by going to the nodejs/examples directory and running the tests like a normal npm package:

pushd nodejs/examples
npm ci
npm 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
npm run docs
popd