Connect an application

Important

Lakebase Autoscaling is in Beta in the following regions: eastus2, westeurope, westus.

Lakebase Autoscaling is the latest version of Lakebase with autoscaling compute, scale-to-zero, branching, and instant restore. For feature comparison with Lakebase Provisioned, see choosing between versions.

Choose how to connect your application to Lakebase: Databricks Apps (recommended) or external applications using Postgres drivers (SDK or REST) or the Data API. Use Databricks Apps unless you must run in existing infrastructure or a specific framework/runtime outside Databricks.

Options

Option	Description
Azure Databricks Apps	Recommended. Automatic app identity, auth, connections, and scaling. Best for new apps, dashboards, and internal tools.
External applications	Postgres drivers (SDK or REST) or Data API when you use existing infrastructure, a specific framework, or need to integrate with external systems.

Databricks Apps vs external applications

Aspect	Azure Databricks Apps	External applications
Deployment	Runs on Databricks platform	Runs on external infrastructure
Identity	Platform provides app service principal automatically	Create and manage service principal manually
Setup	Create Postgres role; configure connection in app.yaml	Create service principal, Postgres role, and configure connection parameters
Authentication	WorkspaceClient uses app identity automatically (no credentials in code)	WorkspaceClient requires explicit service principal credentials
Best for	New apps, rapid prototyping, internal tools	Existing infrastructure, specific frameworks, systems outside Databricks

For automatic auth and connection management, see Connect a Databricks App to Lakebase Autoscaling.

External applications

If you use external hosting, choose how to connect:

Option	Languages/Use case	Key benefit
Connect external app to Lakebase using SDK	Python, Java, Go	SDK handles workspace token rotation
Connect external app to Lakebase using API	Node.js, Ruby, PHP, etc.	Manage both token exchanges yourself
Data API	HTTP	Serverless, mobile, or no Postgres driver