---
title: "Describe information of a table"
method: POST
path: "/v1/table/{id}/describe"
tags: ["Table", "Metadata"]
---

# Describe information of a table

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

Describe the detailed information for table `id`.

REST NAMESPACE ONLY
REST namespace passes `with_table_uri` and `load_detailed_metadata` as query parameters instead of in the request body.

## Path parameters

- `id` string, required

## Query parameters

- `delimiter` string
- `with_table_uri` boolean
- `load_detailed_metadata` boolean

## Request body

- DescribeTableRequest
  - `id` string[]
  - `version` integer — Version of the table to describe. If not specified, server should resolve it to the latest version.
  - `with_table_uri` boolean — 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.
  - `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 `200`

Table properties result when loading a table

- DescribeTableResponse
  - `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 — Table version number. Only populated when `load_detailed_metadata` is true.
  - `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` JsonArrowSchema — JSON representation of a Apache Arrow schema.
    - `fields` JsonArrowField[], required
      - `metadata` unknown
      - `name` string, required
      - `nullable` boolean, required
      - `type` JsonArrowDataType, required — JSON representation of an Apache Arrow DataType
        - `fields` JsonArrowField[] — Fields for complex types like Struct, Union, etc.
        - `length` integer — Length for fixed-size types
        - `type` string, required — The data type name
    - `metadata` unknown
  - `storage_options` unknown
  - `stats` TableBasicStats
    - `num_deleted_rows` integer, required — Number of deleted rows in the table
    - `num_fragments` integer, required — Number of fragments in the table
  - `metadata` unknown

## 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

- **2026-01-01** `bf2b77f98a25` — 1 breaking, 3 info
  - the response property `location` became optional for the status `200`
  - added the new optional request property `vend_credentials`
  - the `load_detailed_metadata` request property default value `false` was removed
  - added the optional property `metadata` to the response with the `200` status
- **2025-12-31** `d98cd66a527b` — 4 info
  - added the new optional `query` request parameter `load_detailed_metadata` to all path's operations
  - added the new optional `query` request parameter `load_detailed_metadata`
  - added the new optional request property `load_detailed_metadata`
  - the response property `location` became required for the status `200`
- **2025-12-20** `5d6099d672d3` — 6 breaking, 6 warning, 6 info
  - the `code` response property's min was decreased from `400.00` to `0.00` for the response status `400`
  - the `code` response property's min was decreased from `400.00` to `0.00` for the response status `401`
  - the `code` response property's min was decreased from `400.00` to `0.00` for the response status `403`
  - the `code` response property's min was decreased from `400.00` to `0.00` for the response status `404`
  - …14 more
- …earlier changes not shown

[Full 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/bf2b77f98a25/schema)