FAQ

I need some help. Who do I call?

Drop us a line at support@bauplanlabs.com and we’ll come running. This goes for everything: questions, suggestions, complaints, improvements. Don’t be shy and reach out!

I found a bug. Who do I tell?

If you found a bug, you are strongly encouraged to open an issue in this repository. When you do it, please remember to report the JobId printed out by the system. You can also send us a note at support@bauplanlabs.com.

How easy is it to integrate Bauplan with other tools?

Pretty easy. Bauplan is built for S3 on Iceberg’s open format and a Python-native runtime, ensuring seamless integration with modern data stacks:

  • Object storage native – runs directly on your S3 so you don’t really have to move data in Bauplan.

  • Iceberg compatible – Works with any engine and catalog that speaks Iceberg - Snowflake, Databricks, Athena, and Trino.

  • No proprietary dependencies – Fully open and standards-based, avoiding vendor lock-in.

We really don’t believe in vendor lock-in so it is very easy to get out of Bauplan: your data remains in your S3 and your code is just pure Python.

How does Bauplan handle schema evolution?

Bauplan’s Iceberg tables support schema evolution without breaking queries.

  • Add, rename, or drop columns.

  • Maintain backward compatibility.

How does Bauplan help with managing and querying data in a lakehouse architecture?

Bauplan is designed to make lakehouse implementation as seamless as possible by eliminating complexity and reducing infrastructure overhead:

  • Native object storage access (S3) – Query data directly from your object storage

  • SQL querying with ACID guarantees – Leverages Iceberg for transactional consistency and schema evolution.

  • Flexible, serverless compute – Run workloads efficiently without managing clusters or proprietary infrastructure.

Does Bauplan support versioned data access?

Yes, Bauplan enables versioning in two ways:

  • Time-travel queries: access previous table versions at any point in time.

  • Data branching: isolate data changes safely, enabling experimentation without affecting production (docs).

All this, while ensuring transactional consistency and integrity across updates, merges, and queries.

What file formats does Bauplan support in ingestion?

Bauplan supports CSV and Parquet, stored in S3. Bauplan tables are represented as Iceberg tables. We currently do not support Delta tables and Hudi tables.

Does Bauplan run Spark under the hood?

No, Bauplan does not run Spark. Unlike Spark, which relies on a distributed computing model with JVM-based execution, Bauplan operates with a declarative programming model that natively supports Python and SQL functions, executing them efficiently on cloud-based virtual machines.

I already have a lot of Spark code, can I run it with Bauplan?

Yes, Bauplan supports PySpark functions - see our docs for details - so you can copy and paste your PySpark code and run it on Bauplan. However, for now we run your PySpark code on a single-node architecture rather than a distributed cluster, so you should ensure your jobs are not too large.

What kind of applications can I deploy using Bauplan?

You can build any application that uses data pipelines and structured and semi-structured data. Today Bauplan is used for data transformation, data enrichment, ML pipelines, data products, user-facing analytics and AI applications. Here are some real-world examples: here.

How does Bauplan simplify debugging in production?

Bauplan ensures reproducible debugging by versioning data, code, and execution environments, so you can always trace and fix issues efficiently:

  • Time travel for data – Access the exact version of a dataset from when an issue occurred.

  • Branching for debugging – Create an isolated debug branch to reproduce and fix failures without disrupting production.

  • Immutable execution environments – Containerized runs ensure the same dependencies, preventing environment drift.

  • Versioned pipelines – Track and restore previous transformations for consistent troubleshooting.

Does Bauplan optimize my code?

Not really. Bauplan does not force you to learn a new syntax. We provide lighting fast feedback loop in the cloud by removing many bottlenecks you would normally have - network bandwidth, caching, containerization and data passing between functions: if a function or a pipeline runs on your laptop, it will run in Bauplan, faster, more robustly and directly integrated with our data lake. However, we do not change your code in any way; it runs exactly as you write it.

How many new tools or frameworks do I need to learn to use Bauplan?

Zero, zip, zilch, nada. We designed Bauplan specifically to rely only on abstractions familiar to every developer.

  • Standard Languages: Utilize familiar languages like Python and SQL to develop your applications.

  • No Complex Frameworks: Avoid the need for complex big-data frameworks like Spark; Bauplan simplifies data processing without additional infrastructure.

  • Software Engineering Practices: Apply standard software engineering practices such as modularity, test-driven development, and CI/CD directly within Bauplan.

There are enough DSLs, data frameworks, and dataframe APIs in the world. We don’t need a new one.

Can I use the table I write with Bauplan somewhere else?

Yes, every table produced by Bauplan is stored as an Iceberg table in your S3 bucket, making it accessible to any engine that supports Apache Iceberg, such as:

  • Databricks

  • Snowflake

  • Trino/Presto

  • Athena

I have an orchestrator and I like it. Do I have to ditch it to use Bauplan

No, please keep it. Bauplan is not an orchestrator, it’s a serverless Data Lakehouse. We are good at being really fast, running pipelines, querying and branching data. We are not terribly good at scheduling, re-try and fan-out. We integrate with the outermost layer of orchestration, so you can keep your favorite frameworks and maintain the capabilities that really matter for an orchestrator. For instance, you can call Bauplan functions and DAGs as Airflow tasks, they just will be run by Bauplan optimized runtime. Do you wanna see an example?

What does Bauplan mean?

Bauplan is a term from evolutionary biology and means “ground plan” or “structural plan”. It is a concept from evolutionary biology used to identify common sets of morphological features in organism like as symmetry, layers, segmentation, nerve, limb configuration. Different phyla of animals can be grouped based on their bauplan. For instance, the vertebrates share the same Bauplan, while invertebrates have many Baupläne. We wanted a name that could convey our passion for structural optimization of complex systems. What makes a bauplan successful in the history of evolution? How many ways are there to optimize the structure of an organism against its environment?

If you want to know more about this kind of stuff check out this amazing book by Sean B. Carroll.