MinIO AIStor Tables API Reference

MinIO AIStor Tables implements native Apache Iceberg tables support directly within MinIO AIStor object storage, eliminating dependencies on external catalog services or metadata databases. The MinIO AIStor Tables API provides a RESTful interface compatible with the Iceberg REST Catalog specification.

Iceberg clients typically require a base path consisting of the MinIO AIStor endpoint and catalog API path (https://aistor.example.net:9000/_iceberg). Refer to the documentation for your preferred client, library, or application for specific behaviors around endpoint construction.

All API requests use the following base path:

http://example.net:9000/_iceberg/v1

Replace example.net with your MinIO AIStor server hostname or IP address.

Authentication

All requests require AWS Signature Version 4 (SigV4) authentication with the service name s3tables. Requests must include standard AWS SigV4 headers:

  • Authorization - AWS SigV4 signature
  • X-Amz-Date - Request timestamp
  • X-Amz-Content-SHA256 - Payload hash

Example authentication flow

To authenticate a request:

  1. Create an HTTP request with method, URL, headers, and body.
  2. Calculate the payload hash (SHA256 of request body).
  3. Generate the SigV4 signature using your access key and secret key.
  4. Add the signature to the Authorization header.

Most AWS SDKs and libraries provide built-in SigV4 signing functionality. For example, the following Python code uses boto3and botocore:

from botocore.auth import SigV4Auth
from botocore.awsrequest import AWSRequest
import boto3

session = boto3.Session(
    aws_access_key_id='your-access-key',
    aws_secret_access_key='your-secret-key'
)

request = AWSRequest(
    method='POST',
    url='http://localhost:9000/_iceberg/v1/warehouses',
    data='{"name":"analytics"}',
    headers={'Content-Type': 'application/json'}
)

SigV4Auth(session.get_credentials(), 's3tables', 'region').add_auth(request)
MinIO AIStor Tables uses standard MinIO AIStor policy-based access control (PBAC) to define authorized actions on warehouses, namespaces, and tables. For more information about PBAC in MinIO AIStor, see Access Control with Policy Management

Warehouse operations

Warehouses serve as the root container for all tables and namespaces.

Create warehouse

Create a new warehouse for storing tables and namespaces.

POST /_iceberg/v1/warehouses

Request body:

{
  "name": "analytics",
  "upgrade-existing": false
}
Field Type Required Description
name string Yes Warehouse name (3-63 chars, lowercase/numbers/hyphens).
upgrade-existing boolean No Allow upgrading existing bucket to warehouse (default: false).

Response: 200 OK

{
  "name": "analytics"
}

Action: s3tables:CreateWarehouse

Warehouse versioning

MinIO AIStor creates the underlying warehouse bucket with versioning enabled and purge-on-delete configured. Iceberg relies on versioning to recover from failed transactions and to expire snapshots safely, so this configuration is applied automatically at warehouse creation. When you upgrade an existing bucket to a warehouse, the same versioning configuration is applied.

Because warehouse buckets require versioning, you cannot suspend versioning on a warehouse bucket. A PUT bucket-versioning request that attempts to set the Suspended state (or that supplies excluded prefixes) on a warehouse bucket is rejected with HTTP 400 Bad Request and the S3 error code InvalidBucketState (“This bucket is a Tables warehouse, versioning cannot be suspended.”).

List warehouses

Return all warehouses accessible to the authenticated user or service.

GET /_iceberg/v1/warehouses

Query parameters:

Parameter Type Description
pageToken string Pagination token from previous response.
pageSize integer Maximum number of results to return.
search string Case-insensitive substring filter applied to warehouse names.
stats boolean Set to true to return aggregate statistics and switch to index-based pagination. See Listing with search and statistics.

Response: 200 OK

{
  "warehouses": ["analytics", "dev", "staging"],
  "next-page-token": "token-for-next-page"
}

Action: s3tables:ListWarehouses

Get warehouse

Retrieve metadata for a specific warehouse.

GET /_iceberg/v1/warehouses/{warehouse}

Response: 200 OK

{
  "name": "analytics",
  "bucket": "mybucket",
  "uuid": "9c12d441-03fe-4693-9a96-a0705ddf69c1",
  "created-at": "2025-10-22T10:30:00Z",
  "properties": {
    "owner": "data-team",
    "description": "Data science tables",
    "environment": "production"
  }
}

Action: s3tables:GetWarehouse

Resource: arn:aws:s3tables:::bucket/{warehouse}

Delete warehouse

Remove a warehouse. The warehouse must be empty (no namespaces) before deletion.

DELETE /_iceberg/v1/warehouses/{warehouse}

Query parameters:

Parameter Type Description
preserve-bucket boolean Keep underlying storage bucket (default: false).

Response: 204 No Content

Action: s3tables:DeleteWarehouse

Resource: arn:aws:s3tables:::bucket/{warehouse}

Namespace operations

Namespaces organize tables within a warehouse and support custom properties.

Create namespace

Create a new namespace within a warehouse.

POST /_iceberg/v1/{warehouse}/namespaces

Request body:

{
  "namespace": ["data_science"],
  "properties": {
    "owner": "data-team",
    "description": "Data science tables",
    "environment": "production"
  }
}
Field Type Required Description
namespace array[string] Yes Array with one or more namespace names (max 10).
properties object No Key-value properties (each key/value max 2KB).

Response: 200 OK

{
  "namespace": ["data_science"],
  "properties": {
    "owner": "data-team",
    "description": "Data science tables",
    "environment": "production"
  }
}

Action: s3tables:CreateNamespace

Resource: arn:aws:s3tables:::bucket/{warehouse}

List namespaces

Return all namespaces in a warehouse.

GET /_iceberg/v1/{warehouse}/namespaces

Query parameters:

Parameter Type Description
pageToken string Pagination token from previous response.
pageSize integer Maximum number of results to return.
parent string Parent namespace for hierarchical listing.
search string Case-insensitive substring filter applied to namespace names.
stats boolean Set to true to return aggregate statistics and switch to index-based pagination. See Listing with search and statistics.

Response: 200 OK

{
  "namespaces": [
    ["data_science"],
    ["engineering"],
    ["marketing"]
  ],
  "next-page-token": "token-for-next-page"
}

Action: s3tables:ListNamespaces

Resource: arn:aws:s3tables:::bucket/{warehouse}

Get namespace

Retrieve namespace properties.

GET /_iceberg/v1/{warehouse}/namespaces/{namespace}

Response: 200 OK

{
  "namespace": ["data_science"],
  "properties": {
    "owner": "data-team",
    "description": "Data science tables"
  }
}

Action: s3tables:GetNamespace

Resource: arn:aws:s3tables:::bucket/{warehouse}

Update namespace properties

Update or add namespace properties.

POST /_iceberg/v1/{warehouse}/namespaces/{namespace}/properties

Request body:

{
  "updates": {
    "owner": "new-team",
    "description": "Updated description"
  },
  "removals": ["environment"]
}

Response: 200 OK

{
  "updated": ["owner", "description"],
  "removed": ["environment"],
  "missing": []
}

Action: s3tables:UpdateNamespaceProperties

Delete namespace

Remove a namespace. The namespace must be empty (no tables) before deletion.

DELETE /_iceberg/v1/{warehouse}/namespaces/{namespace}

Response: 204 No Content

Action: s3tables:DeleteNamespace

Resource: arn:aws:s3tables:::bucket/{warehouse}

Table operations

Tables are Apache Iceberg tables with schema, partitioning, and transaction support.

Create table

Create a new table with specified schema and optional partitioning.

POST /_iceberg/v1/{warehouse}/namespaces/{namespace}/tables

Request body:

{
  "name": "orders",
  "schema": {
    "type": "struct",
    "fields": [
      {
        "id": 1,
        "name": "order_id",
        "type": "long",
        "required": true
      },
      {
        "id": 2,
        "name": "customer_id",
        "type": "long",
        "required": true
      },
      {
        "id": 3,
        "name": "order_date",
        "type": "date",
        "required": true
      },
      {
        "id": 4,
        "name": "amount",
        "type": "decimal(10,2)",
        "required": true
      }
    ]
  },
  "partition-spec": [
    {
      "name": "order_date_year",
      "transform": "year",
      "source-id": 3,
      "field-id": 1000
    }
  ],
  "properties": {
    "owner": "orders-team",
    "description": "Order transactions"
  }
}
Field Type Required Description
name string Yes Table name (1-250 chars, lowercase/numbers/underscores)
schema object Yes Iceberg schema with field definitions
partition-spec array No Partition specification (default: unpartitioned)
write-order object No Sort order for data files
properties object No Table properties (max 2KB each)
stage-create boolean No Create staged table for atomic commits

Restrictions:

  • MinIO AIStor manages table locations, you cannot specify a custom location.
  • Properties cannot begin with write.data.path.
  • Most write.metadata.* properties are not supported.

Response: 200 OK

{
  "metadata": {
    "format-version": 2,
    "table-uuid": "9c12d441-03fe-4693-9a96-a0705ddf69c1",
    "location": "s3://analytics/data_science/orders",
    "current-schema-id": 0,
    "schemas": [...],
    "partition-specs": [...],
    "properties": {...}
  },
  "metadata-location": "s3://analytics/.aistor-tables/data_science/orders/metadata/v1.metadata.json",
  "config": {}
}

Action: s3tables:CreateTable

Resource: arn:aws:s3tables:::bucket/{warehouse}/table/*

Conditions:

  • s3tables:namespace - Restrict by namespace name
  • s3tables:tableName - Restrict by table name

Staged table creation

Setting stage-create to true creates the table as a draft. A staged table:

  • Is invisible to List tables and cannot be loaded with Get table metadata.
  • Returns a null metadata-location in the create response, which signals that the table is a draft without a final, queryable metadata location.

Finalize a staged table with a subsequent commit to the table endpoint (see Commit table changes). The commit marks the table as live, populates its metadata-location, and makes it visible to List tables. Staging lets you atomically create a table together with its first data commit.

List tables

Return all tables in a namespace.

GET /_iceberg/v1/{warehouse}/namespaces/{namespace}/tables

Query parameters:

Parameter Type Description
pageToken string Pagination token from previous response.
pageSize integer Maximum number of results to return.
search string Case-insensitive substring filter applied to table names.
stats boolean Set to true to return aggregate statistics and switch to index-based pagination. See Listing with search and statistics.

Response: 200 OK

{
  "identifiers": [
    {
      "namespace": ["data_science"],
      "name": "orders"
    },
    {
      "namespace": ["data_science"],
      "name": "customers"
    }
  ],
  "next-page-token": "token-for-next-page"
}

Action: s3tables:ListTables

Get table metadata

Retrieve complete table metadata including schema, partitioning, and snapshots.

GET /_iceberg/v1/{warehouse}/namespaces/{namespace}/tables/{table}

Response: 200 OK

{
  "metadata": {
    "format-version": 2,
    "table-uuid": "9c12d441-03fe-4693-9a96-a0705ddf69c1",
    "location": "s3://analytics/data_science/orders",
    "last-updated-ms": 1698854400000,
    "current-schema-id": 0,
    "schemas": [...],
    "current-snapshot-id": 3051729675574597004,
    "snapshots": [...],
    "partition-specs": [...],
    "properties": {...}
  },
  "metadata-location": "s3://analytics/.aistor-tables/data_science/orders/metadata/v3.metadata.json"
}

Action: s3tables:GetTable

Resource: arn:aws:s3tables:::bucket/{warehouse}/table/*

You can also use a HEAD request to check if a table exists without returning metadata.

HEAD /_iceberg/v1/{warehouse}/namespaces/{namespace}/tables/{table}

Response:

  • 200 OK - Table exists
  • 404 Not Found - Table does not exist

Commit table changes

Atomically commit changes to a table using optimistic concurrency control.

POST /_iceberg/v1/{warehouse}/namespaces/{namespace}/tables/{table}

Request body:

{
  "identifier": {
    "namespace": ["data_science"],
    "name": "orders"
  },
  "requirements": [
    {
      "type": "assert-table-uuid",
      "uuid": "9c12d441-03fe-4693-9a96-a0705ddf69c1"
    },
    {
      "type": "assert-last-assigned-field-id",
      "last-assigned-field-id": 4
    }
  ],
  "updates": [
    {
      "action": "append",
      "manifest-list": "s3://analytics/data_science/orders/metadata/snap-3051729675574597004.avro"
    }
  ]
}

Commit requirements:

Requirements validate preconditions before applying updates. Common types include:

Type Description
assert-table-uuid Verify table UUID matches expected value.
assert-ref-snapshot-id Verify branch/tag points to expected snapshot.
assert-last-assigned-field-id Verify schema field ID counter.
assert-current-schema-id Verify active schema version.
assert-last-assigned-partition-id Verify partition spec ID counter.

Commit updates:

Updates modify table state atomically. Common actions include:

Action Description
append Add new data files via manifest list.
set-properties Update table properties.
remove-properties Delete table properties.
upgrade-format-version Upgrade to newer Iceberg format.
add-schema Register new schema version.
set-current-schema Change active schema.
add-snapshot Add new snapshot to table.
set-snapshot-ref Update branch or tag reference.

Response: 200 OK

{
  "metadata": {...},
  "metadata-location": "s3://analytics/.aistor-tables/data_science/orders/metadata/v4.metadata.json"
}

Action: s3tables:UpdateTable

Rename table

Move a table to a different namespace or change its name.

POST /_iceberg/v1/{warehouse}/tables/rename

Request body:

{
  "source": {
    "namespace": ["data_science"],
    "name": "orders"
  },
  "destination": {
    "namespace": ["analytics"],
    "name": "order_history"
  }
}

Response: 204 No Content

Action: s3tables:RenameTable

Delete table

Remove a table from the catalog.

DELETE /_iceberg/v1/{warehouse}/namespaces/{namespace}/tables/{table}

Query parameters:

Parameter Type Default Description
purgeRequested boolean true Delete metadata and data files.

Response: 204 No Content

Purge Behavior:

  • purgeRequested=true (default) - Remove both catalog metadata and table data files.
  • purgeRequested=false - Remove only catalog entry, preserving data files.
Default purge behavior differs from standard Iceberg

MinIO AIStor Tables defaults purgeRequested to true, which differs from the standard Iceberg default of false. This is a deliberate choice for Spark compatibility.

The Iceberg Java client omits the purgeRequested parameter entirely when requesting a drop without purge (dropTable(identifier, false)). Because the parameter is omitted, the server applies its default of true, so dropping a table through Spark or the Java client deletes the data files even when the client intended to preserve them.

To drop a table without purging data files, explicitly pass purgeRequested=false in the query string:

DELETE /_iceberg/v1/{warehouse}/namespaces/{namespace}/tables/{table}?purgeRequested=false

The standard Iceberg Java client cannot send this parameter. Applications that require drop-without-purge should use PyIceberg or make a direct REST API call.

The catalog also advertises s3.delete-enabled=false through the Get catalog configuration endpoint to signal well-behaved clients not to attempt client-side file deletion.

Action: s3tables:DeleteTable

Resource: arn:aws:s3tables:::bucket/{warehouse}/table/*

Preview table data

Return a sample of rows from the current snapshot of a table without a query engine. Rows are read directly from the table’s Parquet data files using an Iceberg scan, so no external engine is required.

GET /_iceberg/v1/{warehouse}/namespaces/{namespace}/tables/{table}/preview

Query parameters:

Parameter Type Default Description
limit integer 100 Maximum number of rows to return. Must be a positive integer and cannot exceed 1000.

Response: 200 OK

{
  "schema": [
    { "name": "order_id", "type": "int64" },
    { "name": "amount", "type": "decimal128(10, 2)" }
  ],
  "rows": [
    [1001, "42.50"],
    [1002, "17.00"]
  ],
  "row_count": 2
}
Field Type Description
schema array[object] Column definitions, each with a name and a type.
rows array[array] Row values in the same column order as schema.
row_count integer Number of rows returned in this response.

A request for a table that does not exist returns 404 Not Found with error type NoSuchTableException.

Action: s3tables:GetTableData

Resource: arn:aws:s3tables:::bucket/{warehouse}/table/*

Get table maintenance job status

Return the last execution status of each automated maintenance job for a table.

GET /_iceberg/v1/{warehouse}/namespaces/{namespace}/tables/{table}/maintenance-job-status

Response: 200 OK

{
  "tableARN": "arn:aws:s3tables:::bucket/analytics/table/9c12d441-03fe-4693-9a96-a0705ddf69c1",
  "status": {
    "icebergSnapshotManagement": {
      "status": "Successful",
      "lastRunTimestamp": "2026-07-24T10:30:00Z"
    },
    "icebergCompaction": {
      "status": "Failed",
      "lastRunTimestamp": "2026-07-24T09:15:00Z",
      "failureMessage": "compaction aborted"
    },
    "icebergUnreferencedFileRemoval": {
      "status": "Not_Yet_Run"
    }
  }
}

The status object contains one entry per maintenance type that is configured on the table: icebergSnapshotManagement, icebergCompaction, and icebergUnreferencedFileRemoval. Each entry has the following fields:

Field Type Description
status string Last execution status - one of Successful, Failed, Disabled, or Not_Yet_Run.
lastRunTimestamp string RFC 3339 timestamp of the last run. Omitted when the job has not run.
failureMessage string Error detail for a failed run. Omitted when the last run did not fail.

A maintenance type reports Disabled when it is turned off in the table or warehouse configuration, or when the corresponding maintenance feature is disabled cluster-wide. A type that is enabled but has never executed reports Not_Yet_Run.

You can retrieve the same information from the command line with mc table maintenance status.

Action: s3tables:GetTableMaintenanceJobStatus

Resource: arn:aws:s3tables:::bucket/{warehouse}/table/*

Listing with search and statistics

The List warehouses, List namespaces, and List tables operations support a case-insensitive substring search filter and an optional statistics mode intended for console and UI use.

Search filter

Add search to any list request to return only the entries whose name contains the given substring, matched case-insensitively. The filter works with both the default token-based pagination and the statistics mode described below.

GET /_iceberg/v1/analytics/namespaces/data_science/tables?search=order

Statistics mode

Add stats=true to a list request to include aggregate statistics for each returned entry and switch from token-based pagination to index-based pagination.

GET /_iceberg/v1/warehouses?stats=true&page=0&page_size=100&sort=size&sort_order=desc

Query parameters:

Parameter Type Default Description
stats boolean false Set to true to enable statistics mode. Required to use the page, page_size, sort, sort_order, and ui_token parameters; when set, the index-based page/page_size parameters replace the default token-based pageToken/pageSize. The search filter works in both modes.
page integer 0 Zero-based page index. The item offset is page * page_size.
page_size integer 100 Number of items per page. Values above 1000 are capped at 1000.
sort string name Statistic field to sort by. See the allowed values below. When omitted, entries are ordered by name.
sort_order string asc Sort direction - asc or desc.
search string - Case-insensitive substring filter applied to entry names.
ui_token string - Routing token returned by a previous response. Pass it back on subsequent page requests.

The allowed sort values depend on the entity being listed:

Operation Allowed sort values
List warehouses namespaces, tables, records, size
List namespaces tables, records, size
List tables records, size

When sort is omitted, entries are ordered by name.

Response headers:

Header Description
X-Minio-Ui-List-Token Routing token for the cached listing. Pass it back as ui_token on subsequent page requests so they reach the node that holds the cache.
X-Minio-Ui-Total-Count Total number of items matching the current search filter, for calculating the total page count.

In statistics mode, the response body adds a stats object keyed by entry name alongside the normal listing fields:

{
  "warehouses": ["analytics", "dev"],
  "stats": {
    "analytics": {
      "namespaces": 3,
      "tables": 12,
      "records": 4500000,
      "size": 892000000
    }
  }
}

Advanced operations

Multi-table transactions

Commit changes to multiple tables atomically.

POST /_iceberg/v1/{warehouse}/transactions/commit

Request body:

{
  "table-changes": [
    {
      "identifier": {
        "namespace": ["data_science"],
        "name": "orders"
      },
      "requirements": [...],
      "updates": [...]
    },
    {
      "identifier": {
        "namespace": ["data_science"],
        "name": "customers"
      },
      "requirements": [...],
      "updates": [...]
    }
  ]
}

Response: 200 OK

The transaction succeeds only if all table commits succeed. If any table commit fails, the entire transaction is rolled back.

Get catalog configuration

Retrieve catalog-level configuration and capabilities.

GET /_iceberg/v1/{warehouse}/config?warehouse={warehouse}

Response: 200 OK

{
  "defaults": {
    "s3.endpoint": "http://localhost:9000",
    "s3.delete-enabled": "false"
  },
  "overrides": {}
}

The catalog returns s3.delete-enabled=false to signal clients not to attempt client-side deletion of table data files. Deletion is handled server-side by the catalog when a table is dropped with purge. See Delete table for details.

Get global statistics

Return system-wide aggregate statistics across all warehouses. This is a MinIO AIStor extension with no AWS S3 Tables equivalent.

GET /_iceberg/v1/stats

Response: 200 OK

{
  "warehouses": 3,
  "namespaces": 12,
  "tables": 148,
  "records": 4500000,
  "size": 892000000,
  "updated_at": "2026-07-24T10:30:00Z"
}
Field Type Description
warehouses integer Total number of warehouses in the system.
namespaces integer Total number of namespaces across all warehouses.
tables integer Total number of tables across all warehouses.
records integer Total number of records across all tables.
size integer Total size in bytes across all tables.
updated_at string RFC 3339 timestamp of when the aggregate statistics were last computed.

Each of the numeric count and size fields is omitted from the response when its value is zero. The updated_at field is always present; before any statistics have been computed it serializes as 0001-01-01T00:00:00Z.

Action: s3tables:ListWarehouses

Additional information

Error responses

All errors return JSON responses with the following structure:

{
  "error": {
    "code": 409,
    "type": "IcebergTableAlreadyExists",
    "message": "The specified table already exists."
  }
}
Field Type Description
code integer HTTP status code.
type string Error type identifier for programmatic handling.
message string Human-readable error description.

Common error types:

HTTP Status Error Type Description
400 BadRequest Invalid request format or parameters.
404 NoSuchTableException Specified table does not exist.
404 IcebergNamespaceNotFound Specified namespace does not exist.
404 IcebergWarehouseNotFound Specified warehouse does not exist.
409 IcebergTableAlreadyExists Table with this name already exists.
409 IcebergNamespaceAlreadyExists Namespace with this name already exists.
409 IcebergWarehouseAlreadyExists Warehouse with this name already exists.
409 CommitFailedException Table commit failed due to conflict or lock.
409 IcebergNamespaceNotEmptyError Cannot delete namespace containing tables.
409 IcebergWarehouseNotEmpty Cannot delete warehouse containing namespaces.
500 InternalError Internal server error occurred.
501 IcebergPurgeNotSupported Purge operation failed.
503 TableRecoveryInProgress Table is recovering from failed transaction.

Naming constraints

Entity names must follow these rules:

Entity Length Allowed Characters Notes
Warehouse 3-63 chars Lowercase letters, numbers, hyphens Cannot contain periods.
Namespace 1-250 chars Lowercase letters, numbers, underscores May be multilevel, max 10.
Table 1-250 chars Lowercase letters, numbers, underscores

Additional constraints:

  • Multi-level namespaces: Maximum 10 nested namespaces.
  • Custom table locations: Not allowed (MinIO AIStor manages locations).
  • Property size: Each property key and value limited to 2KB.

Rate limits

MinIO AIStor Tables does not impose hard rate limits but implements best-effort concurrency control:

  • Concurrent commits to the same table use optimistic locking.
  • Failed commits due to conflicts should be retried with exponential backoff.
  • Maximum transaction timeout is configurable per deployment.

AWS S3 Tables compatibility

MinIO AIStor Tables is compatible with the AWS S3 Tables API, so tools and clients built for AWS S3 Tables work with minimal or no changes:

  • /buckets is an alias for /warehouses. AWS S3 Tables uses TableBucket for the concept that MinIO AIStor calls a warehouse.
  • Policy actions accept both s3tables:CreateWarehouse and s3tables:CreateTableBucket as equivalents. See Controlling access to MinIO AIStor Tables.
  • The ARN format matches the AWS S3 Tables specification.