Describe information of a table

curl --request POST \
  --url {scheme}://{host}:{port}/{basePath}/v1/table/{id}/describe \
  --header 'Authorization: Bearer <token>' \
  --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --data '
{
  "identity": {
    "api_key": "<string>",
    "auth_token": "<string>"
  },
  "context": {},
  "id": [
    "<string>"
  ],
  "version": 1,
  "tag": "<string>",
  "branch": "<string>",
  "with_table_uri": false,
  "load_detailed_metadata": true,
  "check_declared": false,
  "vend_credentials": true
}
'

import requests

url = "{scheme}://{host}:{port}/{basePath}/v1/table/{id}/describe"

payload = {
    "identity": {
        "api_key": "<string>",
        "auth_token": "<string>"
    },
    "context": {},
    "id": ["<string>"],
    "version": 1,
    "tag": "<string>",
    "branch": "<string>",
    "with_table_uri": False,
    "load_detailed_metadata": True,
    "check_declared": False,
    "vend_credentials": True
}
headers = {
    "Authorization": "Bearer <token>",
    "Content-Type": "application/json"
}

response = requests.post(url, json=payload, headers=headers)

print(response.text)

const options = {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: {Authorization: 'Bearer <token>', 'Content-Type': 'application/json'},
  body: JSON.stringify({
    identity: {api_key: '<string>', auth_token: '<string>'},
    context: {},
    id: ['<string>'],
    version: 1,
    tag: '<string>',
    branch: '<string>',
    with_table_uri: false,
    load_detailed_metadata: true,
    check_declared: false,
    vend_credentials: true
  })
};

fetch('{scheme}://{host}:{port}/{basePath}/v1/table/{id}/describe', options)
  .then(res => res.json())
  .then(res => console.log(res))
  .catch(err => console.error(err));

<?php

$curl = curl_init();

curl_setopt_array($curl, [
  CURLOPT_PORT => "62437",
  CURLOPT_URL => "{scheme}://{host}:{port}/{basePath}/v1/table/{id}/describe",
  CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
  CURLOPT_ENCODING => "",
  CURLOPT_MAXREDIRS => 10,
  CURLOPT_TIMEOUT => 30,
  CURLOPT_HTTP_VERSION => CURL_HTTP_VERSION_1_1,
  CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST => "POST",
  CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => json_encode([
    'identity' => [
        'api_key' => '<string>',
        'auth_token' => '<string>'
    ],
    'context' => [
        
    ],
    'id' => [
        '<string>'
    ],
    'version' => 1,
    'tag' => '<string>',
    'branch' => '<string>',
    'with_table_uri' => false,
    'load_detailed_metadata' => true,
    'check_declared' => false,
    'vend_credentials' => true
  ]),
  CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => [
    "Authorization: Bearer <token>",
    "Content-Type: application/json"
  ],
]);

$response = curl_exec($curl);
$err = curl_error($curl);

curl_close($curl);

if ($err) {
  echo "cURL Error #:" . $err;
} else {
  echo $response;
}

package main

import (
	"fmt"
	"strings"
	"net/http"
	"io"
)

func main() {

	url := "{scheme}://{host}:{port}/{basePath}/v1/table/{id}/describe"

	payload := strings.NewReader("{\n  \"identity\": {\n    \"api_key\": \"<string>\",\n    \"auth_token\": \"<string>\"\n  },\n  \"context\": {},\n  \"id\": [\n    \"<string>\"\n  ],\n  \"version\": 1,\n  \"tag\": \"<string>\",\n  \"branch\": \"<string>\",\n  \"with_table_uri\": false,\n  \"load_detailed_metadata\": true,\n  \"check_declared\": false,\n  \"vend_credentials\": true\n}")

	req, _ := http.NewRequest("POST", url, payload)

	req.Header.Add("Authorization", "Bearer <token>")
	req.Header.Add("Content-Type", "application/json")

	res, _ := http.DefaultClient.Do(req)

	defer res.Body.Close()
	body, _ := io.ReadAll(res.Body)

	fmt.Println(string(body))

}

HttpResponse<String> response = Unirest.post("{scheme}://{host}:{port}/{basePath}/v1/table/{id}/describe")
  .header("Authorization", "Bearer <token>")
  .header("Content-Type", "application/json")
  .body("{\n  \"identity\": {\n    \"api_key\": \"<string>\",\n    \"auth_token\": \"<string>\"\n  },\n  \"context\": {},\n  \"id\": [\n    \"<string>\"\n  ],\n  \"version\": 1,\n  \"tag\": \"<string>\",\n  \"branch\": \"<string>\",\n  \"with_table_uri\": false,\n  \"load_detailed_metadata\": true,\n  \"check_declared\": false,\n  \"vend_credentials\": true\n}")
  .asString();

require 'uri'
require 'net/http'

url = URI("{scheme}://{host}:{port}/{basePath}/v1/table/{id}/describe")

http = Net::HTTP.new(url.host, url.port)

request = Net::HTTP::Post.new(url)
request["Authorization"] = 'Bearer <token>'
request["Content-Type"] = 'application/json'
request.body = "{\n  \"identity\": {\n    \"api_key\": \"<string>\",\n    \"auth_token\": \"<string>\"\n  },\n  \"context\": {},\n  \"id\": [\n    \"<string>\"\n  ],\n  \"version\": 1,\n  \"tag\": \"<string>\",\n  \"branch\": \"<string>\",\n  \"with_table_uri\": false,\n  \"load_detailed_metadata\": true,\n  \"check_declared\": false,\n  \"vend_credentials\": true\n}"

response = http.request(request)
puts response.read_body

{
  "context": {},
  "table": "<string>",
  "namespace": [
    "<string>"
  ],
  "version": 1,
  "location": "<string>",
  "table_uri": "<string>",
  "schema": {
    "fields": [
      {
        "name": "<string>",
        "nullable": true,
        "type": {
          "type": "<string>",
          "fields": "<array>",
          "length": 1
        },
        "metadata": {}
      }
    ],
    "metadata": {}
  },
  "storage_options": {},
  "stats": {
    "num_deleted_rows": 1,
    "num_fragments": 1
  },
  "metadata": {},
  "properties": {
    "owner": "Ralph",
    "created_at": "1452120468"
  },
  "managed_versioning": true,
  "is_only_declared": true
}

{
  "type": "/errors/bad-request",
  "title": "Malformed request",
  "status": 400,
  "detail": "",
  "instance": "/v1/namespaces"
}

{
  "type": "/errors/unauthorized-request",
  "title": "No valid authentication credentials for the operation",
  "status": 401,
  "detail": "",
  "instance": "/v1/namespaces"
}

{
  "type": "/errors/forbidden-request",
  "title": "Not authorized to make this request",
  "status": 403,
  "detail": "",
  "instance": "/v1/namespaces"
}

{
  "type": "/errors/not-found-error",
  "title": "Not found Error",
  "status": 404,
  "detail": "",
  "instance": "/v1/namespaces/{ns}"
}

{
  "type": "/errors/service-unavailable",
  "title": "Slow down",
  "status": 503,
  "detail": "",
  "instance": "/v1/namespaces"
}

{
  "type": "/errors/server-error",
  "title": "Internal Server Error",
  "status": 500,
  "detail": "",
  "instance": "/v1/namespaces"
}

POST

table

{id}

describe

Describe information of a table

curl --request POST \
  --url {scheme}://{host}:{port}/{basePath}/v1/table/{id}/describe \
  --header 'Authorization: Bearer <token>' \
  --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --data '
{
  "identity": {
    "api_key": "<string>",
    "auth_token": "<string>"
  },
  "context": {},
  "id": [
    "<string>"
  ],
  "version": 1,
  "tag": "<string>",
  "branch": "<string>",
  "with_table_uri": false,
  "load_detailed_metadata": true,
  "check_declared": false,
  "vend_credentials": true
}
'

import requests

url = "{scheme}://{host}:{port}/{basePath}/v1/table/{id}/describe"

payload = {
    "identity": {
        "api_key": "<string>",
        "auth_token": "<string>"
    },
    "context": {},
    "id": ["<string>"],
    "version": 1,
    "tag": "<string>",
    "branch": "<string>",
    "with_table_uri": False,
    "load_detailed_metadata": True,
    "check_declared": False,
    "vend_credentials": True
}
headers = {
    "Authorization": "Bearer <token>",
    "Content-Type": "application/json"
}

response = requests.post(url, json=payload, headers=headers)

print(response.text)

const options = {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: {Authorization: 'Bearer <token>', 'Content-Type': 'application/json'},
  body: JSON.stringify({
    identity: {api_key: '<string>', auth_token: '<string>'},
    context: {},
    id: ['<string>'],
    version: 1,
    tag: '<string>',
    branch: '<string>',
    with_table_uri: false,
    load_detailed_metadata: true,
    check_declared: false,
    vend_credentials: true
  })
};

fetch('{scheme}://{host}:{port}/{basePath}/v1/table/{id}/describe', options)
  .then(res => res.json())
  .then(res => console.log(res))
  .catch(err => console.error(err));

<?php

$curl = curl_init();

curl_setopt_array($curl, [
  CURLOPT_PORT => "62437",
  CURLOPT_URL => "{scheme}://{host}:{port}/{basePath}/v1/table/{id}/describe",
  CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
  CURLOPT_ENCODING => "",
  CURLOPT_MAXREDIRS => 10,
  CURLOPT_TIMEOUT => 30,
  CURLOPT_HTTP_VERSION => CURL_HTTP_VERSION_1_1,
  CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST => "POST",
  CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => json_encode([
    'identity' => [
        'api_key' => '<string>',
        'auth_token' => '<string>'
    ],
    'context' => [
        
    ],
    'id' => [
        '<string>'
    ],
    'version' => 1,
    'tag' => '<string>',
    'branch' => '<string>',
    'with_table_uri' => false,
    'load_detailed_metadata' => true,
    'check_declared' => false,
    'vend_credentials' => true
  ]),
  CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => [
    "Authorization: Bearer <token>",
    "Content-Type: application/json"
  ],
]);

$response = curl_exec($curl);
$err = curl_error($curl);

curl_close($curl);

if ($err) {
  echo "cURL Error #:" . $err;
} else {
  echo $response;
}

package main

import (
	"fmt"
	"strings"
	"net/http"
	"io"
)

func main() {

	url := "{scheme}://{host}:{port}/{basePath}/v1/table/{id}/describe"

	payload := strings.NewReader("{\n  \"identity\": {\n    \"api_key\": \"<string>\",\n    \"auth_token\": \"<string>\"\n  },\n  \"context\": {},\n  \"id\": [\n    \"<string>\"\n  ],\n  \"version\": 1,\n  \"tag\": \"<string>\",\n  \"branch\": \"<string>\",\n  \"with_table_uri\": false,\n  \"load_detailed_metadata\": true,\n  \"check_declared\": false,\n  \"vend_credentials\": true\n}")

	req, _ := http.NewRequest("POST", url, payload)

	req.Header.Add("Authorization", "Bearer <token>")
	req.Header.Add("Content-Type", "application/json")

	res, _ := http.DefaultClient.Do(req)

	defer res.Body.Close()
	body, _ := io.ReadAll(res.Body)

	fmt.Println(string(body))

}

HttpResponse<String> response = Unirest.post("{scheme}://{host}:{port}/{basePath}/v1/table/{id}/describe")
  .header("Authorization", "Bearer <token>")
  .header("Content-Type", "application/json")
  .body("{\n  \"identity\": {\n    \"api_key\": \"<string>\",\n    \"auth_token\": \"<string>\"\n  },\n  \"context\": {},\n  \"id\": [\n    \"<string>\"\n  ],\n  \"version\": 1,\n  \"tag\": \"<string>\",\n  \"branch\": \"<string>\",\n  \"with_table_uri\": false,\n  \"load_detailed_metadata\": true,\n  \"check_declared\": false,\n  \"vend_credentials\": true\n}")
  .asString();

require 'uri'
require 'net/http'

url = URI("{scheme}://{host}:{port}/{basePath}/v1/table/{id}/describe")

http = Net::HTTP.new(url.host, url.port)

request = Net::HTTP::Post.new(url)
request["Authorization"] = 'Bearer <token>'
request["Content-Type"] = 'application/json'
request.body = "{\n  \"identity\": {\n    \"api_key\": \"<string>\",\n    \"auth_token\": \"<string>\"\n  },\n  \"context\": {},\n  \"id\": [\n    \"<string>\"\n  ],\n  \"version\": 1,\n  \"tag\": \"<string>\",\n  \"branch\": \"<string>\",\n  \"with_table_uri\": false,\n  \"load_detailed_metadata\": true,\n  \"check_declared\": false,\n  \"vend_credentials\": true\n}"

response = http.request(request)
puts response.read_body

{
  "context": {},
  "table": "<string>",
  "namespace": [
    "<string>"
  ],
  "version": 1,
  "location": "<string>",
  "table_uri": "<string>",
  "schema": {
    "fields": [
      {
        "name": "<string>",
        "nullable": true,
        "type": {
          "type": "<string>",
          "fields": "<array>",
          "length": 1
        },
        "metadata": {}
      }
    ],
    "metadata": {}
  },
  "storage_options": {},
  "stats": {
    "num_deleted_rows": 1,
    "num_fragments": 1
  },
  "metadata": {},
  "properties": {
    "owner": "Ralph",
    "created_at": "1452120468"
  },
  "managed_versioning": true,
  "is_only_declared": true
}

{
  "type": "/errors/bad-request",
  "title": "Malformed request",
  "status": 400,
  "detail": "",
  "instance": "/v1/namespaces"
}

{
  "type": "/errors/unauthorized-request",
  "title": "No valid authentication credentials for the operation",
  "status": 401,
  "detail": "",
  "instance": "/v1/namespaces"
}

{
  "type": "/errors/forbidden-request",
  "title": "Not authorized to make this request",
  "status": 403,
  "detail": "",
  "instance": "/v1/namespaces"
}

{
  "type": "/errors/not-found-error",
  "title": "Not found Error",
  "status": 404,
  "detail": "",
  "instance": "/v1/namespaces/{ns}"
}

{
  "type": "/errors/service-unavailable",
  "title": "Slow down",
  "status": 503,
  "detail": "",
  "instance": "/v1/namespaces"
}

{
  "type": "/errors/server-error",
  "title": "Internal Server Error",
  "status": 500,
  "detail": "",
  "instance": "/v1/namespaces"
}

Authorizations

Authorization

string

header

required

The access token received from the authorization server in the OAuth 2.0 flow.

Path Parameters

string

required

string identifier of an object in a namespace, following the Lance Namespace spec. When the value is equal to the delimiter, it represents the root namespace. For example, v1/namespace/$/list performs a ListNamespace on the root namespace.

Query Parameters

delimiter

string

An optional delimiter of the string identifier, following the Lance Namespace spec. When not specified, the $ delimiter must be used.

with_table_uri

boolean

default:false

Whether to include the table URI in the response

load_detailed_metadata

boolean

default:false

Whether to load detailed metadata that requires opening the dataset. When false (default), only location is required in the response. When true, the response includes additional metadata such as version, schema, and stats.

check_declared

boolean

default:false

Whether to check if the table exists only as a namespace declaration without storage data. When false (default), the response should return null for is_only_declared unless another option such as load_detailed_metadata requires the check.

Body

application/json

identity

object

Identity information of a request.

Show child attributes

context

object

Arbitrary context as key-value pairs. How to use the context is custom to the specific implementation.

On a request, it carries caller-provided context to the implementation. On a response, it carries implementation-provided context back to the caller.

REST NAMESPACE ONLY Context entries are mapped to and from HTTP headers using the header. prefix:

On a request, any entry whose key starts with header. is sent as an HTTP request header with the prefix stripped. For example, the entry {"header.Authorization": "Bearer abc"} is sent as the request header Authorization: Bearer abc.
On a response, every HTTP response header is returned as an entry whose key is the header name prefixed with header.. For example, the response header x-request-id: abc123 is returned as the entry {"header.x-request-id": "abc123"}.

Show child attributes

string[]

version

integer<int64>

Version of the table to describe. If not specified, server should resolve it to the latest version.

Required range: x >= 0

tag

string

Tag name to describe the table at. If specified, the server should resolve the tag to a version number and describe that version. Cannot be used together with version or branch.

branch

string

Branch to target. When not specified, the main branch is used.

with_table_uri

boolean

default:false

Whether to include the table URI in the response. Default is false.

load_detailed_metadata

boolean

Whether to load detailed metadata that requires opening the dataset. When true, the response must include all detailed metadata such as version, schema, and stats which require reading the dataset. When not set, the implementation can decide whether to return detailed metadata and which parts of detailed metadata to return.

check_declared

boolean

default:false

Whether to check if the table exists only as a namespace declaration without storage data. Default is false. When true, the response should populate is_only_declared. When false, the implementation should return null for is_only_declared unless another option such as load_detailed_metadata requires checking declared-only table state.

vend_credentials

boolean

Whether to include vended credentials in the response storage_options. When true, the implementation should provide vended credentials for accessing storage. When not set, the implementation can decide whether to return vended credentials.

Response

Table properties result when loading a table

context

object

Arbitrary context as key-value pairs. How to use the context is custom to the specific implementation.

On a request, it carries caller-provided context to the implementation. On a response, it carries implementation-provided context back to the caller.

REST NAMESPACE ONLY Context entries are mapped to and from HTTP headers using the header. prefix:

On a request, any entry whose key starts with header. is sent as an HTTP request header with the prefix stripped. For example, the entry {"header.Authorization": "Bearer abc"} is sent as the request header Authorization: Bearer abc.
On a response, every HTTP response header is returned as an entry whose key is the header name prefixed with header.. For example, the response header x-request-id: abc123 is returned as the entry {"header.x-request-id": "abc123"}.

Show child attributes

table

string

Table name. Only populated when load_detailed_metadata is true.

namespace

string[]

The namespace identifier as a list of parts. Only populated when load_detailed_metadata is true.

version

integer<int64>

Table version number. Only populated when load_detailed_metadata is true.

Required range: x >= 0

location

string

Table storage location (e.g., S3/GCS path).

table_uri

string

Table URI. Unlike location, this field must be a complete and valid URI. Only returned when with_table_uri is true.

schema

object

Table schema in JSON Arrow format. Only populated when load_detailed_metadata is true.

Show child attributes

storage_options

object

Configuration options to be used to access storage. The available options depend on the type of storage in use. These will be passed directly to Lance to initialize storage access. When vend_credentials is true, this field may include vended credentials. If the vended credentials are temporary, the expires_at_millis key should be included to indicate the millisecond timestamp when the credentials expire.

Show child attributes

stats

object | null

Table statistics. Only populated when load_detailed_metadata is true.

Show child attributes

metadata

object

Optional table metadata as key-value pairs. This records the information of the table and requires loading the table. It is only populated when load_detailed_metadata is true.

Show child attributes

properties

object | null

Properties stored on the table, if supported by the server. This records the information managed by the namespace. If the server does not support table properties, it should return null for this field. If table properties are supported, but none are set, it should return an empty object.

Show child attributes

Example:

{
  "owner": "Ralph",
  "created_at": "1452120468"
}

managed_versioning

boolean

When true, the caller should use namespace table version operations (CreateTableVersion, BatchCreateTableVersions, DescribeTableVersion, ListTableVersions, BatchDeleteTableVersions) to manage table versions instead of relying on Lance's native version management.

is_only_declared

boolean | null

When true, indicates that the table has been declared in the namespace but not yet created on storage. This means the table exists in the namespace but has no data files on the underlying storage. When false, the table has storage components (data and metadata files). When null, the implementation did not check whether the table is only declared. Clients should treat an omitted value as null. Implementations should populate this field when check_declared is true or another option such as load_detailed_metadata requires checking declared-only table state. Operations like describe_table with load_detailed_metadata=true may fail for declared-only tables.