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David Stancu

David Stancu

Principal Software Engineer at Spice AI
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Spice v1.10.0-rc.1 (Dec 2, 2025)

· 11 min read
David Stancu
David Stancu
Principal Software Engineer at Spice AI

Announcing the release of Spice v1.10.0-rc.1! ⚡

v1.10.0-rc1 is a release candidate for early testing of v1.10 features including an all new caching acceleration mode, tiny_lfu caching policy, a new DynamoDB Streams connector (Preview), improvements to the DynamoDB connector, faster distributed query execution, S3 connector improvements, and security hardening for v1.10.0-stable.

What's New in v1.10.0-rc1​

Caching Acceleration Mode with SWR and TinyLFU​

This release introduces a new caching acceleration mode that implements the stale-while-revalidate (SWR) pattern using Data Accelerators such as DuckDB or Cayenne, enabling queries to return file-persisted cached results immediately while asynchronously refreshing data in the background. Combined with the new TinyLFU cache eviction policy, Spice can now maintain higher cache hit rates while keeping memory usage predictable.

Key Features:

  • Stale-While-Revalidate (SWR): Returns cached data immediately while refreshing in the background
  • Data Accelerator Support: Cached accelerators can persist data to disk using DuckDB, SQLite, or Cayenne file modes.
  • TinyLFU Cache Policy: Probabilistic cache admission policy that maintains high hit rates with minimal overhead
  • Predictable Memory Usage: Configurable memory limits with automatic eviction of less frequently used entries

Example Spicepod.yml configuration:

runtime:
  caching:
    sql_results:
      enabled: true
      eviction_policy: tiny_lfu # default lru

datasets:
  - from: s3://my-bucket/data.parquet
    name: cached_data
    acceleration:
      enabled: true
      engine: duckdb
      mode: file # Persist cache to disk
      refresh_mode: caching
      refresh_check_interval: 10m

For more details, refer to the Data Acceleration Documentation and Caching Documentation.

DynamoDB Streams Data Connector in Preview​

DynamoDB Connector now integrates with DynamoDB Streams which enables real-time streaming with support for both table bootstrapping and continuous change data capture (CDC). This connector automatically detects changes in DynamoDB tables and streams them into Spice for real-time query, search, and LLM-inference.

Key Features:

  • Real-Time CDC: Automatically captures inserts, updates, and deletes from DynamoDB tables
  • Table Bootstrapping: Initial full table load before streaming changes

Example Spicepod.yml configuration:

datasets:
  - from: dynamodb:my_table
    name: orders_stream
    acceleration:
      enabled: true
      refresh_mode: changes

For more details, refer to the DynamoDB Connector Documentation.

Cayenne Accelerator Enhancements​

The Cayenne data accelerator now supports:

  • Sort Columns Configuration: Optimize inserts by pre-sorting data on specified columns for improved query performance

Example Spicepod.yml configuration:

datasets:
  - from: s3://my-bucket/data.parquet
    name: sorted_data
    acceleration:
      enabled: true
      engine: cayenne
      mode: file_create
      params:
        sort_columns: timestamp,region

For more details, refer to the Cayenne Documentation.

S3 Connector Improvements​

S3 Location Predicate Pruning: The S3 data connector now supports location-based predicate pruning, dramatically reducing data scanned by pushing down predicates to S3 listing operations. This optimization is especially effective for partitioned datasets stored in S3.

AWS S3 Tables Write Support: Full read/write capability for AWS S3 Tables, enabling fast integration with AWS's table format for S3.

For more details, refer to the S3 Tables Data Connector Documentation and Glue Data Connection Documentation.

Faster Distributed Query Execution​

Distributed query planning and execution have been significantly improved:

  • Fixed executor registration in cluster mode for more reliable distributed deployments
  • Improved hostname resolution for Flight server binding, enabling better executor discovery
  • Distributed accelerator registration: Data accelerators now properly register in distributed mode
  • Optimized query planning: DistributeFileScanOptimizer improvements for faster planning with large datasets

For more details, refer to the Distributed Query Documentation.

Search Improvements​

Search capabilities have been improved with several performance and reliability enhancements:

  • Fixed FTS query blocking: Full-text search queries no longer block unnecessarily, improving query responsiveness
  • Optimized vector index operations: Eliminated unnecessary list_vectors calls for better performance
  • Improved limit pushdown: IndexerExec now properly handles limit pushdown for more efficient searches

For more details, refer to the Search Documentation.

Security Hardening​

Multiple security improvements have been implemented:

  • SQL identifier quoting: Hardened SQL identifier quoting across all connectors to prevent injection attacks
  • Token redaction: Sensitive tokens are now fully redacted in debug output to prevent credential leakage
  • Path traversal prevention: Fixed tar extraction to prevent path traversal vulnerabilities
  • Input sanitization: Added validation for top_n_sample order_by parsing
  • Improved credential handling: Improved credential management in Glue connector

Developer Experience Improvements​

  • Health probe metrics: Added health probe latency metrics for better observability
  • CLI improvements: Fixed .clear history command in the REPL to fully clear persisted history

Contributors​

Breaking Changes​

No breaking changes.

Cookbook Updates​

No major cookbook updates. The Spice Cookbook still offers 82+ recipes to help you prototype quickly.

Upgrading​

To try v1.10.0-rc1, use one of the following methods:

CLI:

spice upgrade --version 1.10.0-rc1

Homebrew:

brew upgrade spiceai/spiceai/spice

Docker:

Pull the spiceai/spiceai:1.10.0-rc1 image:

docker pull spiceai/spiceai:1.10.0-rc1

For available tags, see DockerHub.

Helm:

helm repo update
helm upgrade spiceai spiceai/spiceai --version 1.10.0-rc1

AWS Marketplace:

🎉 Spice is available in the AWS Marketplace.

What's Changed​

Changelog​

Spice v1.8.3 (Oct 27, 2025)

· 5 min read
David Stancu
David Stancu
Principal Software Engineer at Spice AI

Announcing the release of Spice v1.8.3! ⚡

Spice v1.8.3 is a patch release focused on performance, reliability, and observability. This release delivers optimizations for DuckDB acceleration, parameterized queries, and query plans. A new opt-in dedicated thread pool for queries is now in preview.

What's New in v1.8.3​

DuckDB Data Accelerator Improvements​

  • Connection Pool Sizing: The DuckDB accelerator now supports a configurable connection_pool_size parameter, supporting fine-grained control over concurrent query execution. This enables tuning for high-concurrency workloads and improved resource utilization.

Example Spicepod.yaml snippet:

datasets:
  - from: postgres:my_table
    name: my_table
    acceleration:
      enabled: true
      engine: duckdb
      params:
        connection_pool_size: 10
  • Automatic Statistics Recomputation: The new on_refresh_recompute_statistics parameter, on by default, triggers automatic ANALYZE execution after refreshes. This keeps DuckDB optimizer statistics up-to-date, ensuring efficient query plans and optimal performance.

Example Spicepod.yaml snippet:

datasets:
  - from: postgres:my_table
    name: my_table
    acceleration:
      enabled: true
      engine: duckdb
      params:
        on_refresh_recompute_statistics: disabled # default enabled

Task History SQL Query Plan Capture & Configuration​

Spice now supports automated SQL query plan capture and store (via EXPLAIN or EXPLAIN ANALYZE) in the task history, enabling deeper analysis and debugging of query execution. This feature is configurable, supporting control of which queries are included based on duration thresholds and plan type.

  • New Configuration Options:
    • task_history.captured_plan: Controls which plan is captured (none, explain, or explain analyze). Default none.
    • task_history.min_sql_duration: Minimum query duration before a plan is captured.
    • task_history.min_plan_duration: Minimum plan execution duration before a plan is captured.

Example spicepod.yaml snippet:

runtime:
  task_history:
    captured_plan: explain analyze
    min_sql_duration: 5s
    min_plan_duration: 10s

Query plans are captured asynchronously to avoid blocking query execution. The result of the plan is stored in the standard sql_query output in the task history.

Learn more in the Task History Documentation.

Query Performance Optimizations​

  • Optimized Prepared Statements (Parameterized Queries): Prepared statement caching for parameterized SQL queries has been improved, reducing planning overhead for repeated queries with different parameters. This results in faster execution and lower latency for workloads that reuse query structures.

  • Limit Pushdown via BytesProcessedExec: Introduces the BytesProcessedExec physical operator, enabling limit pushdown for large datasets. This optimization reduces the amount of data processed and improves top-k query performance.

Dedicated Query Thread Pool (Opt-In)​

Spice now supports running query execution and accelerated refreshes on a dedicated thread pool, separate from the HTTP server. This prevents heavy query workloads from slowing down API responses, keeping health and readiness checks fast. Opt-In for v1.8.3: This feature is opt-in for this release and will become enabled by default (opt-out) in v1.9.

Example Spicepod.yaml snippet:

runtime:
  params:
    dedicated_thread_pool: sql_engine # Default: disabled

Validation & Reliability Improvements​

  • Selective Evaluation Scorer Loading: Evaluation scorers are now loaded only when evaluation is explicitly defined, reducing unnecessary initialization and improving startup performance.

  • Improved Error Reporting: Enhanced error messages for misconfigured full-text search (FTS) on datasets and views, providing actionable feedback for configuration issues.

REPL & Usability​

  • Execution Time Display: The Spice REPL now displays query execution time even when queries return no results, improving user feedback and diagnostics.

Contributors​

Breaking Changes​

No breaking changes.

Cookbook Updates​

No major cookbook updates.

The Spice Cookbook includes 81 recipes to help you get started with Spice quickly and easily.

Upgrading​

To upgrade to v1.8.3, use one of the following methods:

CLI:

spice upgrade

Homebrew:

brew upgrade spiceai/spiceai/spice

Docker:

Pull the spiceai/spiceai:1.8.3 image:

docker pull spiceai/spiceai:1.8.3

For available tags, see DockerHub.

Helm:

helm repo update
helm upgrade spiceai spiceai/spiceai

AWS Marketplace:

🎉 Spice is now available in the AWS Marketplace!

What's Changed​

Changelog​