Spice Data Connectors

Data Connectors enable federated SQL queries across databases, data warehouses, data lakes, and files. Spice connects directly to your existing data sources and provides a unified SQL interface — no ETL pipelines required. The query planner (built on Apache DataFusion) optimizes and routes queries, including filter pushdown and column projection.

Cross-Source Federation

Query across multiple heterogeneous sources in one SQL statement:

datasets:
  - from: postgres:customers
    name: customers
    params:
      pg_host: db.example.com
      pg_user: ${secrets:PG_USER}
  - from: s3://bucket/orders/
    name: orders
    params:
      file_format: parquet
  - from: snowflake:analytics.sales
    name: sales

-- Query across all three sources in one statement
SELECT c.name, o.order_total, s.region
FROM customers c
  JOIN orders o ON c.id = o.customer_id
  JOIN sales s ON o.id = s.order_id
WHERE s.region = 'EMEA';

Without acceleration, each query fetches data directly from the underlying sources with optimized filter pushdown.

Basic Dataset Configuration

datasets:
  - from: <connector>:<identifier>
    name: <dataset_name>
    params:
      # connector-specific parameters
    acceleration:
      enabled: true # optional: enable local materialization

Supported Connectors

Databases

Connector	From Format	Status
PostgreSQL	postgres:schema.table	Stable (also Amazon Redshift)
MySQL	mysql:schema.table	Stable
DuckDB	duckdb:database.table	Stable
MS SQL Server	mssql:db.table	Beta
MongoDB	mongodb:collection	Alpha
ClickHouse	clickhouse:db.table	Alpha
DynamoDB	dynamodb:table	Release Candidate

Data Warehouses

Connector	From Format	Status
Snowflake	snowflake:db.schema.table	Beta
Databricks (Delta Lake)	databricks:catalog.schema.table	Stable
Spark	spark:db.table	Beta

Data Lakes & Object Storage

Connector	From Format	Status
S3	s3://bucket/path/	Stable
Delta Lake	delta_lake:/path/to/delta/	Stable
Iceberg	iceberg:table	Beta
Azure BlobFS	abfs://container/path/	Alpha
File (local)	file:./path/to/data	Stable

Other Sources

Connector	From Format	Status
Spice.ai	spice.ai:path/to/dataset	Stable
Dremio	dremio:source.table	Stable
GitHub	github:github.com/owner/repo/issues	Stable
GraphQL	graphql:endpoint	Release Candidate
FlightSQL	flightsql:query	Beta
ODBC	odbc:connection	Beta
FTP/SFTP	sftp://host/path/	Alpha
HTTP/HTTPS	https://url/path/data.csv	Alpha
Kafka	kafka:topic	Alpha
Debezium CDC	debezium:topic	Alpha
SharePoint	sharepoint:site/path	Alpha
IMAP	imap:mailbox	Alpha

Common Examples

PostgreSQL

datasets:
  - from: postgres:public.users
    name: users
    params:
      pg_host: localhost
      pg_port: 5432
      pg_user: ${ env:PG_USER }
      pg_pass: ${ env:PG_PASS }
    acceleration:
      enabled: true

S3 with Parquet

datasets:
  - from: s3://my-bucket/data/sales/
    name: sales
    params:
      file_format: parquet
      s3_region: us-east-1
    acceleration:
      enabled: true
      engine: duckdb

GitHub Issues

datasets:
  - from: github:github.com/spiceai/spiceai/issues
    name: spiceai.issues
    params:
      github_token: ${ secrets:GITHUB_TOKEN }
    acceleration:
      enabled: true
      refresh_mode: append
      refresh_check_interval: 24h
      refresh_data_window: 14d

Local File

datasets:
  - from: file:./data/sales.parquet
    name: sales

File Formats

Connectors reading from object stores (S3, ABFS, GCS) or network storage (FTP, SFTP) support:

Format	file_format	Status	Type
Apache Parquet	parquet	Stable	Structured
CSV	csv	Stable	Structured
Markdown	md	Stable	Document
Text	txt	Stable	Document
PDF	pdf	Alpha	Document
Microsoft Word	docx	Alpha	Document

Document Formats

Document files (md, txt, pdf, docx) produce a table with location and content columns:

datasets:
  - from: file:docs/decisions/
    name: my_documents
    params:
      file_format: md

SELECT location, content FROM my_documents LIMIT 5;

Hive Partitioning

datasets:
  - from: s3://bucket/data/
    name: partitioned_data
    params:
      file_format: parquet
      hive_partitioning_enabled: true

SELECT * FROM partitioned_data WHERE year = '2024' AND month = '01';

Dataset Naming

• name: foo creates spice.public.foo
• name: myschema.foo creates spice.myschema.foo
• Use . to organize datasets into schemas

Documentation

• Data Connectors
• Datasets Reference
• File Formats
• Data Accelerators