lnc-client 0.1.2

Python client for the Lance Wire Protocol (LWP) — high-performance, low-latency data streaming

lnc-client

Python client for the Lance Wire Protocol (LWP) — high-performance, low-latency data streaming.

Lance is an io_uring-based streaming server designed to saturate 100G NICs with minimal latency. This client implements the full LWP binary protocol for Python applications with API semantics matching the official Rust client.

Installation

pip install lnc-client

Requirements: Python 3.10+

Topic Management

Topics are created by name and referenced by numeric ID in all subsequent operations:

import asyncio
from lnc_client import LanceClient, ClientConfig

async def main():
    async with LanceClient(ClientConfig(host="127.0.0.1")) as client:
        # Create a topic — returns {"id": 1, "name": "my-events", ...}
        topic = await client.create_topic("my-events")
        topic_id = topic["id"]

        # Create with retention policy (7-day TTL, 1 GB max)
        topic = await client.create_topic_with_retention(
            "logs", max_age_secs=7 * 86400, max_bytes=1024**3,
        )

        # List all topics
        topics = await client.list_topics()

        # Get topic metadata by ID
        info = await client.get_topic(topic_id)

        # Update retention policy
        await client.set_retention(topic_id, max_age_secs=86400)

        # Delete a topic
        await client.delete_topic(topic_id)

        # Latency measurement
        rtt = await client.ping()
        print(f"Round-trip: {rtt * 1000:.2f}ms")

asyncio.run(main())

Producer

import asyncio
from lnc_client import Producer, ProducerConfig

async def main():
    config = (
        ProducerConfig()
        .with_batch_size(64 * 1024)
        .with_linger_ms(10)
        .with_compression(True)
    )
    producer = await Producer.connect("127.0.0.1:1992", config)

    # Send with ACK (guaranteed delivery) — returns batch_id
    batch_id = await producer.send(topic_id=1, data=b'{"price": 6942.25}')

    # Send without waiting for ACK (pipelined, higher throughput)
    batch_id = await producer.send_async(topic_id=1, data=b"fire and forget")

    # Send multiple records as a single batch
    from lnc_client import TlvRecord
    records = [TlvRecord.json(b'{"a":1}'), TlvRecord.json(b'{"b":2}')]
    await producer.send_batch(topic_id=1, records=records)

    # Wait for all pending ACKs
    await producer.flush()
    await producer.close()

asyncio.run(main())

Consumer (Standalone)

For independent consumption with client-managed offsets:

import asyncio
from lnc_client import StandaloneConsumer, StandaloneConfig, SeekPosition
from pathlib import Path

async def main():
    config = (
        StandaloneConfig("my-consumer", topic_id=1)
        .with_start_position(SeekPosition.BEGINNING)
        .with_offset_dir(Path("/var/lib/lance/offsets"))
        .with_max_fetch_bytes(1_048_576)
    )
    consumer = await StandaloneConsumer.connect("127.0.0.1:1992", config)

    while True:
        result = await consumer.poll()
        if result is None:
            await asyncio.sleep(0.05)
            continue

        for record in result.records:
            print(f"Type={record.record_type}, Data={record.value}")

        print(f"Offset: {result.end_offset}, Lag: {result.lag} bytes")
        await consumer.commit()

asyncio.run(main())

Seek Operations

consumer.seek(42000)                       # Absolute byte offset
consumer.seek_to(SeekPosition.BEGINNING)   # Start of stream
consumer.seek_to(SeekPosition.END)         # Tail — only new data
consumer.seek_to(SeekPosition.offset(500)) # Specific offset
consumer.rewind()                          # Alias for seek(0)

Low-Level Client

LanceClient provides direct access to all protocol operations on a single TCP connection. Producer and StandaloneConsumer are higher-level abstractions built on top of it.

async with LanceClient(ClientConfig(host="127.0.0.1")) as client:
    # Subscribe for server-side streaming
    await client.subscribe(topic_id=1, start_offset=0, max_batch_bytes=65536, consumer_id=42)
    await client.commit_offset(topic_id=1, consumer_id=42, offset=1024)
    await client.unsubscribe(topic_id=1, consumer_id=42)

Offset Persistence

Consumers can persist offsets to disk for crash recovery:

from lnc_client import FileOffsetStore, MemoryOffsetStore

# File-based (survives restarts) — auto-created when offset_dir is set
config = StandaloneConfig("my-consumer", topic_id=1).with_offset_dir("/var/lib/lance/offsets")

# Or provide a store explicitly
store = FileOffsetStore("/var/lib/lance/offsets")
consumer = await StandaloneConsumer.connect("127.0.0.1:1992", config, offset_store=store)

# In-memory (testing)
store = MemoryOffsetStore()

Configuration

ProducerConfig

Option	Default	Builder Method	Description
batch_size	32768	with_batch_size()	Max batch size in bytes
linger_ms	5	with_linger_ms()	Max wait before sending partial batch
compression	False	with_compression()	Enable LZ4 compression
max_pending_acks	64	with_max_pending_acks()	Max unacknowledged batches
connect_timeout_s	10.0	with_connect_timeout()	Connection timeout
request_timeout_s	30.0	with_request_timeout()	Per-request timeout
ssl_context	None	with_ssl()	TLS context
auto_reconnect	True	with_auto_reconnect()	Auto-reconnect on failure

StandaloneConfig

Option	Default	Builder Method	Description
consumer_name	""	(positional)	Consumer identifier
topic_id	0	(positional)	Topic to consume from
max_fetch_bytes	1048576	with_max_fetch_bytes()	Max bytes per fetch
start_position	BEGINNING	with_start_position()	Initial seek position
offset_dir	None	with_offset_dir()	Directory for persistent offsets
auto_commit_interval_s	5.0	with_auto_commit_interval()	Auto-commit interval
poll_timeout_s	0.1	with_poll_timeout()	Poll response timeout
ssl_context	None	with_ssl()	TLS context

ClientConfig

Option	Default	Builder Method	Description
host	"127.0.0.1"	with_host()	Lance server hostname
port	1992	with_port()	Lance server port
connect_timeout_s	10.0	with_connect_timeout()	Connection timeout
request_timeout_s	30.0	—	Per-request timeout
ssl_context	None	with_ssl()	TLS context

TLV Record Types

Records use Type-Length-Value encoding:

Type	Code	Description
RawData	0x01	Unstructured binary
JSON	0x02	JSON-encoded record
MessagePack	0x03	MessagePack-encoded
KeyValue	0x10	Key-value pair
Timestamped	0x11	Timestamp + data
Null	0xFF	Tombstone/empty

from lnc_client import TlvRecord

rec = TlvRecord.raw(b"binary data")
rec = TlvRecord.json(b'{"key": "value"}')
rec = TlvRecord.key_value("my-key", b"my-value")
rec = TlvRecord.timestamped(1706918400_000_000_000, b"event data")
rec = TlvRecord.null()

# Accessors for structured types
key, value = rec.as_key_value()
timestamp_ns, data = rec.as_timestamped()

Error Handling

All operations return typed exceptions with is_retryable() support:

from lnc_client import (
    LanceError,
    ConnectionError,
    BackpressureError,
    TopicNotFoundError,
    NotLeaderError,
    ServerCatchingUpError,
    AccessDeniedError,
    InvalidFrameError,
)

try:
    await producer.send(topic_id=99, data=b"test")
except NotLeaderError as e:
    print(f"Redirect to leader: {e.leader_addr}")
except ServerCatchingUpError as e:
    print(f"Server at offset {e.server_offset}, backing off")
except TopicNotFoundError:
    print("Topic doesn't exist")
except BackpressureError:
    print("Server is overloaded, slow down")
except ConnectionError:
    print("Connection lost")
except LanceError as e:
    if e.is_retryable():
        print("Transient error, retrying...")

Protocol Details

This client implements the Lance Wire Protocol (LWP) v1.0:

• 44-byte fixed header with CRC32C validation
• Hardware-accelerated checksums (SSE4.2 / ARM CRC)
• Backpressure signaling from server
• Keepalive with 30-second timeout
• Batched production with ACK tracking
• Offset-based consumption with seek/rewind
• CATCHING_UP protocol — automatic 5s backoff when server is behind
• LZ4 compression (optional, per-batch)
• Reconnection with exponential backoff (100ms base, 30s max, jitter)

Development

git clone https://github.com/nitecon/lnc-client-py.git
cd lnc-client-py
python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -e ".[dev]"
pytest -v

License

MIT