---
title: "Create an index on a table"
method: POST
path: "/v1/table/{id}/create_index"
tags: ["Table", "Index", "Metadata"]
---

# Create an index on a table

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

Create an index on a table field for faster search operations.
Supports vector indexes (IVF_FLAT, IVF_HNSW_SQ, IVF_PQ, etc.) and scalar indexes (BTREE, BITMAP, FTS, etc.).
Index creation is handled asynchronously.
Use the `ListTableIndices` and `DescribeTableIndexStats` operations to monitor index creation progress.

## Request body

- CreateTableIndexRequest
  - `identity` Identity — Identity information of a request.
    - `api_key` string — API key for authentication. REST NAMESPACE ONLY This is passed via the `x-api-key` header.
    - `auth_token` string — Bearer token for authentication. REST NAMESPACE ONLY This is passed via the `Authorization` header with the Bearer scheme (e.g., `Bearer <token>`).
  - `context` Context — Arbitrary context as key-value pairs. How to use the context is custom to the specific implementation. On a request, it carries caller-provided context to the implementation. On a response, it carries implementation-provided context back to the caller. REST NAMESPACE ONLY Context entries are mapped to and from HTTP headers using the `header.` prefix: - On a request, any entry whose key starts with `header.` is sent as an HTTP request header with the prefix stripped. For example, the entry `{"header.Authorization": "Bearer abc"}` is sent as the request header `Authorization: Bearer abc`. - On a response, every HTTP response header is returned as an entry whose key is the header name prefixed with `header.`. For example, the response header `x-request-id: abc123` is returned as the entry `{"header.x-request-id": "abc123"}`.
  - `id` string[]
  - `branch` string — Branch to target. When not specified, the main branch is used.
  - `column` string, required — Lance field path to create the index on. Nested fields use dot-separated segments; use backtick-quoted segments for literal dots and double backticks inside quoted segments. Use canonical full paths for display and errors; leaf names alone only identify top-level fields; invalid or unresolved paths should return InvalidInput or TableColumnNotFound.
  - `index_type` string, required — Type of index to create (e.g., BTREE, BITMAP, LABEL_LIST, IVF_FLAT, IVF_PQ, IVF_HNSW_SQ, FTS)
  - `name` string, nullable — Optional name for the index. If not provided, a name will be auto-generated.
  - `distance_type` string — Distance metric type for vector indexes (e.g., l2, cosine, dot)
  - `with_position` boolean, nullable — Optional FTS parameter for position tracking
  - `base_tokenizer` string, nullable — Optional FTS parameter for base tokenizer
  - `language` string, nullable — Optional FTS parameter for language
  - `max_token_length` integer, nullable — Optional FTS parameter for maximum token length
  - `lower_case` boolean, nullable — Optional FTS parameter for lowercase conversion
  - `stem` boolean, nullable — Optional FTS parameter for stemming
  - `remove_stop_words` boolean, nullable — Optional FTS parameter for stop word removal
  - `ascii_folding` boolean, nullable — Optional FTS parameter for ASCII folding

## Response `200`

Index created successfully

- CreateTableIndexResponse — Response for create index operation
  - `context` Context — Arbitrary context as key-value pairs. How to use the context is custom to the specific implementation. On a request, it carries caller-provided context to the implementation. On a response, it carries implementation-provided context back to the caller. REST NAMESPACE ONLY Context entries are mapped to and from HTTP headers using the `header.` prefix: - On a request, any entry whose key starts with `header.` is sent as an HTTP request header with the prefix stripped. For example, the entry `{"header.Authorization": "Bearer abc"}` is sent as the request header `Authorization: Bearer abc`. - On a response, every HTTP response header is returned as an entry whose key is the header name prefixed with `header.`. For example, the response header `x-request-id: abc123` is returned as the entry `{"header.x-request-id": "abc123"}`.
  - `transaction_id` string — Optional transaction identifier

## 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.

---

[API](https://skmtc.net/lancedb/apis/lance-namespace-specification.md) · [All operations](https://skmtc.net/lancedb/apis/lance-namespace-specification/llms.txt) · [OpenAPI document](https://skmtc-service-staging.skmtc.workers.dev/v1/apis/lancedb/lance-namespace-specification/versions/d5b7c114f475/schema)