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Async Usage#

Icechunk includes an optional asynchronous interface for orchestrating repos and sessions. However, the Icechunk core is fully asynchronous and delivers full parallelism and performance whether you choose to use the synchronous or asynchronous interface. Most users, particularly those doing interactive data science and analytics, should use the synchronous interface.

When to use async#

The async interface allows for icechunk operations to run concurrently, without blocking the current thread while waiting for IO operations. The most common reason to use async is that you are developing a backend service in which work may be happening across multiple Icechunk repositories simultaneously.

Using the async interface#

You can call both sync and async methods on a Repository, Session, or Store as needed. (Of course, to use the async methods, you must be within a async function.) Methods that support async are named with an _async postfix:

import icechunk

async def get_branches(storage: icechunk.Storage) -> set[str]:
    repo = await icechunk.Repository.open_async(storage)
    return await repo.list_branches_async()