---
title: "Describe a table from the namespace"
method: POST
path: "/v1/table/{id}/describe"
tags: ["Table"]
---

# Describe a table from the namespace

`POST /v1/table/{id}/describe`

Get a table's detailed information under a specified namespace. Supports both lance-namespace format (with namespace in body) and LanceDB format (with database in headers).

## Path parameters

- `id` string, required

## Query parameters

- `delimiter` string, nullable — An opaque token that allows pagination for list APIs (e.g. ListNamespaces). For an initial client request for a list API, if the server cannot return all items in one response, or if there are more items than the `pageSize` specified in the client request, the server must return a `nextPageToken` in the response indicating there are more results available. After the initial request, the value of `nextPageToken` from each response must be used by the client as the `pageToken` parameter value for the next request. Clients must interpret either `null`, missing value or empty string value of `nextPageToken` from a server response as the end of the listing results.

## Request body

- DescribeTableRequest
  - `name` string
  - `namespace` string[]
  - `version` integer, nullable

## Response `200`

Table properties result when loading a table

- DescribeTableResponse
  - `name` string, required
  - `namespace` string[], required
  - `location` string, required
  - `properties` unknown
  - `schema` JsonSchema, required — JSON representation of a Apache Arrow [Schema].
    - `fields` JsonField[], required
      - `metadata` unknown
      - `name` string, required
      - `nullable` boolean, required
      - `type` JsonDataType, required — JSON representation of an Apache Arrow DataType
        - `fields` JsonField[] — Fields for complex types like Struct, Union, etc.
        - `length` integer — Length for fixed-size types
        - `type` string, required — The data type name
    - `metadata` unknown
  - `stats` TableBasicStats, required
    - `num_deleted_rows` integer, required
    - `num_fragments` integer, required
  - `table` string, required
  - `version` integer, required

## Other responses

- `400` — Indicates a bad request error. It could be caused by an unexpected request body format or other forms of request validation failure, such as invalid json. Usually serves application/json content, although in some cases simple text/plain content might be returned by the server's middleware.
- `401` — Unauthorized. The request lacks valid authentication credentials for the operation.
- `403` — Forbidden. Authenticated user does not have the necessary permissions.
- `404` — A server-side problem that means can not find the specified resource.
- `503` — The service is not ready to handle the request. The client should wait and retry. The service may additionally send a Retry-After header to indicate when to retry.
- `5XX` — A server-side problem that might not be addressable from the client side. Used for server 5xx errors without more specific documentation in individual routes.

## Changes

- **2025-07-21** `6790486d1fac` — 6 breaking, 30 warning, 30 info
  - removed the required property `code` from the response with the `400` status
  - removed the required property `code` from the response with the `401` status
  - removed the required property `code` from the response with the `403` status
  - removed the required property `code` from the response with the `404` status
  - …62 more

[Change history](https://skmtc.dev/lance-format/apis/lance-namespace-specification/changes/v1/table/:id/describe/post.md)

---

[API](https://skmtc.dev/lance-format/apis/lance-namespace-specification.md) · [All operations](https://skmtc.dev/lance-format/apis/lance-namespace-specification/llms.txt) · [OpenAPI document](https://skmtc-service-production.skmtc.workers.dev/v1/apis/lance-format/lance-namespace-specification/revisions/6790486d1fac/schema)