Create an index on a table

Create an index on a table field for faster search operations. Supports vector indexes (IVF_FLAT, IVF_HNSW_SQ, IVF_PQ, etc.) and scalar indexes (BTREE, BITMAP, FTS, etc.). Index creation is handled asynchronously. Use the ListTableIndices and DescribeTableIndexStats operations to monitor index creation progress.

POST /v1/table/{id}/create_index

Error

A valid request URL is required to generate request examples

200

{
  "context": {},
  "transaction_id": "<string>"
}

{
  "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

OAuth2BearerAuthApiKeyAuth

Authorization · string · header · required

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

Path Parameters

id · 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.

Body

application/json

Index creation request

column · string · required

Lance field path to create the index on. Nested fields use dot-separated segments; use backtick-quoted segments for literal dots and double backticks inside quoted segments. Use canonical full paths for display and errors; leaf names alone only identify top-level fields; invalid or unresolved paths should return InvalidInput or TableColumnNotFound.

Minimum string length: 1

index_type · string · required

Type of index to create (e.g., BTREE, BITMAP, LABEL_LIST, IVF_FLAT, IVF_PQ, IVF_HNSW_SQ, FTS)

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

id · string[]

branch · string

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

name · string | null

Optional name for the index. If not provided, a name will be auto-generated.

distance_type · string

Distance metric type for vector indexes (e.g., l2, cosine, dot)

with_position · boolean | null

Optional FTS parameter for position tracking

base_tokenizer · string | null

Optional FTS parameter for base tokenizer

language · string | null

Optional FTS parameter for language

max_token_length · integer | null

Optional FTS parameter for maximum token length

Required range: x >= 0

lower_case · boolean | null

Optional FTS parameter for lowercase conversion

stem · boolean | null

Optional FTS parameter for stemming

remove_stop_words · boolean | null

Optional FTS parameter for stop word removal

ascii_folding · boolean | null

Optional FTS parameter for ASCII folding

Response

200

application/json

Index created successfully

Response for create index operation

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

transaction_id · string

Optional transaction identifier