DynamoDB

Overview

Amazon DynamoDB is a fully managed, serverless NoSQL key-value and document database. It stores schemaless items in tables keyed by a partition key (and an optional sort key), scales automatically, and delivers single-digit millisecond latency. DynamoDB runs only on AWS, with a local emulator (DynamoDB Local) available for development.

Driver

Arris connects with the official aws-sdk-dynamodbcrate over the DynamoDB JSON API. Queries are issued as PartiQL, DynamoDB's SQL-compatible dialect, through the ExecuteStatement operation.

Crate: aws-sdk-dynamodb
Version: 1.116

Connection fields

Field	Description
Region	AWS region the table lives in, such as `us-east-1`. Required unless supplied by the environment.
Access Key ID	AWS access key id. Leave blank to use the default credential chain (environment, shared profile, or IAM role).
Secret Access Key	AWS secret access key paired with the access key id. Stored in the macOS Keychain.
Session Token	Optional temporary session token for STS or assumed-role credentials.
Endpoint URL	Optional endpoint override, for example `http://localhost:8000` to target DynamoDB Local or a VPC endpoint.

DynamoDB has no host, port, or database fields, and no connection URI. Configure the fields above directly. All connections also support an optional SSH tunnel; seeSSH tunnels for details.

Authentication

When you enter an access key id and secret access key, Arris uses them as static credentials (with the session token if provided). When those fields are blank, the AWS default credential chain is used, resolving credentials from environment variables, the shared~/.aws/credentials profile, or an attached IAM role. Connections always use TLS, so there are no SSL mode options.

textDynamoDB Local endpoint

http://localhost:8000

Schema browser

Once connected, Arris lists every table in the region. DynamoDB only declares its key attributes, so Arris samples a page of items per table to surface the rest. Each table node shows the following children:

Columns: the partition key and optional sort key with their scalar types, plus the non-key attributes discovered from the sampled items, each with the type inferred from its values.
Indexes: global secondary indexes (GSIs) and the attributes they key on.

Double-click any table to open it in a new tab with browse mode.

Query language

DynamoDB has no SQL surface, so Arris uses PartiQL for every statement. Write PartiQL directly in the editor; statements run through ExecuteStatement and read results page through DynamoDB's NextToken automatically. Result columns follow your SELECTprojection order, and ORDER BY (which PartiQL itself lacks) is applied by Arris over the full result set. Arris also accepts the familiar ANSI-styleINSERT INTO t (cols) VALUES (...) and translates it to PartiQL for you, and appliesUPDATE / DELETE with any WHERE (not only a full primary key).

sqlPartiQL examples

SELECT * FROM "orders" WHERE "customer_id" = 1
INSERT INTO "orders" VALUE {'order_id': 200, 'customer_id': 1, 'status': 'pending', 'amount': 42.00}
UPDATE "orders" SET "status" = 'shipped' WHERE "order_id" = 200
DELETE FROM "orders" WHERE "order_id" = 200

Supported PartiQL commands

Command	Notes
`SELECT`	Reads items from a table or index. Result columns follow the projection order and page automatically via `NextToken`.
`INSERT`	Adds items. Both the native PartiQL `VALUE` document form and the standard `INSERT INTO t (cols) VALUES (...)` form (including multiple rows) are accepted.
`UPDATE`	Updates matching items. A full primary-key match runs directly; any other `WHERE` (a non-key or range condition) is applied by selecting the matching rows first, then updating each.
`DELETE`	Deletes matching items, using the same full-key-or-match behavior as `UPDATE`.

Unsupported commands

Command	Notes
`EXPLAIN`	DynamoDB has no query planner, so plan output is not available.
`JOIN`	PartiQL on DynamoDB does not support joins across tables. Use federation mode to join a DynamoDB table with another source.
`GROUP BY` and aggregates	PartiQL has no `GROUP BY` or aggregate functions (`COUNT`, `SUM`, ...). Run these through federation mode, which aggregates in the query engine.
DDL (`CREATE` / `DROP`)	Manage tables through the AWS console, CLI, or infrastructure tooling.