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docs: Comprehensive Spice.ai connector docs (Cloud + Spice-to-Spice / sidecar)#1653

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lukekim merged 1 commit into
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May 6, 2026
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docs: Comprehensive Spice.ai connector docs (Cloud + Spice-to-Spice / sidecar)#1653
lukekim merged 1 commit into
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Summary

Rewrite the Spice.ai data connector docs to cover both architectures the connector actually supports — the existing docs only covered the managed Cloud Platform path. The same connector federates queries to any Spice runtime over Arrow Flight, including self-hosted Spice instances in a cluster-sidecar, edge-to-core, or local-dev topology.

What changed

website/docs/components/data-connectors/spiceai/index.md (rewritten)

  • Both topologies up front: Spice → Spice Cloud Platform vs. Spice → Spice (self-hosted / sidecar), with quick-start examples for each.
  • All five from: URI formats: path-style, colon-style, and URL-style cloud forms; plus colon-prefixed http:// / https:// / grpc+tls:// forms for self-hosted upstreams.
  • Full parameter table with the actual user-facing names: spiceai_api_key, spiceai_token, spiceai_region, spiceai_endpoint, spiceai_flight_endpoint, spiceai_tls_ca_certificate_file. The previous docs incorrectly used unprefixed names like endpoint and were missing spiceai_region and spiceai_tls_ca_certificate_file entirely.
  • Endpoint resolution precedence documented: explicit spiceai_endpointfrom: URI scheme → built from spiceai_region.
  • Spice → Spice authentication via the upstream's runtime.auth.api-key.keys (not previously documented).
  • TLS with private CAs via spiceai_tls_ca_certificate_file for cluster-internal certs.
  • Append-stream CDC between Spice runtimes with refresh_mode: append example.
  • Worked sidecar example including TLS, CA pinning, append streams, and a multi-dataset spicepod.

website/docs/components/data-connectors/spiceai/deployment.md (rewritten)

  • Topology decision matrix mapping each use case to its endpoint format.
  • Authentication source table distinguishing Cloud (always required) from self-hosted (optional, must match upstream runtime.auth.api-key.keys).
  • Sidecar deployment pattern for Kubernetes — co-locating a sidecar Spice with each application pod and federating to a central upstream.
  • Edge → core federation pattern where edge runtimes accelerate local datasets and federate cold queries to a core Spice.
  • TLS / CA pinning operations guidance.
  • Per-topology troubleshooting: new error rows for UnsupportedEndpointScheme, CloudEndpointRegionMismatch, MissingRequiredParameter: api_key or token, TLS handshake failures with private CAs.

Verification

All claims verified against the actual connector source:

  • from: URI parsing → spice_dataset_path (crates/runtime/src/dataconnector/spiceai.rs:526-553); test cases at :651-757.
  • Self-hosted endpoint detection → is_flight_endpoint_path (:207-212).
  • Supported schemes (http://, https://, grpc+tls://; rejects grpc://) → ensure_supported_endpoint_scheme (:214-223).
  • Parameter list → PARAMETERS array (:176-184).
  • Endpoint resolution order → get_endpoint (:252-279).
  • Authentication fallback to anonymous on self-hosted → get_credentials (:293-306); test (:858-864).
  • Real-world parameter names confirmed in test/spicepods/tpch/sf1/federated/spicecloud.yaml.

Test plan

  • Verified parameter names and defaults against Rust source
  • Verified URI-format parsing against connector tests
  • Confirmed runtime.auth.api-key.keys syntax matches runtime.md reference
  • Cross-links resolve
  • Markdown renders correctly

The Spice.ai data connector targets two architectures with the same
spice.ai: URI scheme, but the existing docs only covered the managed
Cloud Platform case. Add comprehensive coverage of the Spice → Spice
self-hosted federation pattern (cluster sidecar, edge-to-core,
local development) including:

- All five `from:` URI formats (path/colon/URL-style cloud + colon-prefixed
  http/https/grpc+tls for self-hosted)
- The full parameter list: spiceai_api_key, spiceai_token,
  spiceai_region, spiceai_endpoint, spiceai_flight_endpoint,
  spiceai_tls_ca_certificate_file
- Endpoint resolution precedence (params -> from URI -> region default)
- Authentication via runtime.auth.api-key on the upstream
- TLS with custom CA pinning for cluster-internal certs
- Append-stream CDC between Spice runtimes
- Sidecar deployment patterns and example spicepods
- Topology decision matrix and per-topology troubleshooting

Also corrects parameter names that the previous docs had wrong
(plain `endpoint` -> `spiceai_endpoint`; missing `spiceai_region`).

Verified against the connector source: spice_dataset_path URI
parsing, get_endpoint resolution order, get_credentials handling,
and the full PARAMETERS array.
@claudespice claudespice self-assigned this May 5, 2026
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github-actions Bot commented May 5, 2026

🔍 Pull with Spice Failed

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github-actions Bot commented May 5, 2026

🚀 deployed to https://5261d810.spiceai-org-website.pages.dev

@lukekim lukekim merged commit e5fcb73 into trunk May 6, 2026
6 of 8 checks passed
@lukekim lukekim deleted the docs/spiceai-connector-comprehensive branch May 6, 2026 00:52
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