feat: support remote storage for context store

README.md

@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@ Key motivations inspired by the broader Lance roadmap<sup>[1](https://github.com
 
 - Unified schema for agent messages (`ContextRecord`) with optional embeddings and metadata.
 - Automatic versioning via Lance manifests with `checkout(version)` support.
+- Remote persistence: point the store at `s3://` URIs with either AWS environment variables or explicit credentials/endpoint overrides.
 - Python API (`lance_context.api.Context`) aligned with the Rust implementation.
 - Integration tests that exercise real persistence, image serialization, and version rollbacks.
 
@@ -65,6 +66,17 @@ ctx.add("assistant", "Let me fetch suggestions…")
 ctx.checkout(first_version)
 
 print("Entries after checkout:", ctx.entries())
+
+# Store context in S3 (e.g., for MinIO/moto test endpoints)
+ctx = Context.create(
+    "s3://my-bucket/context.lance",
+    aws_access_key_id="minioadmin",
+    aws_secret_access_key="minioadmin",
+    region="us-east-1",
+    endpoint_url="http://localhost:9000",
+    allow_http=True,
+)
+# AWS_* environment variables work too—pass overrides only when you need custom endpoints.
 ```
 
 ### Rust

crates/lance-context-core/src/lib.rs

@@ -7,4 +7,4 @@ mod store;
 
 pub use context::{Context, ContextEntry, Snapshot};
 pub use record::{ContextRecord, SearchResult, StateMetadata};
-pub use store::ContextStore;
+pub use store::{ContextStore, ContextStoreOptions};

crates/lance-context-core/src/store.rs

@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+use std::collections::HashMap;
 use std::sync::Arc;
 
 use arrow_array::builder::{
@@ -13,7 +14,8 @@ use arrow_array::{
 use arrow_schema::{ArrowError, DataType, Field, FieldRef, Schema, TimeUnit};
 use chrono::DateTime;
 use futures::TryStreamExt;
-use lance::dataset::{Dataset, WriteMode, WriteParams};
+use lance::dataset::{builder::DatasetBuilder, Dataset, WriteMode, WriteParams};
+use lance::io::ObjectStoreParams;
 use lance::{Error as LanceError, Result as LanceResult};
 
 use crate::record::{ContextRecord, SearchResult, StateMetadata};
@@ -28,23 +30,32 @@ pub struct ContextStore {
     dataset: Dataset,
 }
 
+/// Additional configuration when opening a [`ContextStore`].
+#[derive(Debug, Clone, Default)]
+pub struct ContextStoreOptions {
+    pub storage_options: Option<HashMap<String, String>>,
+}
+
+impl ContextStoreOptions {
+    #[must_use]
+    pub fn storage_options(&self) -> Option<HashMap<String, String>> {
+        self.storage_options.clone()
+    }
+}
+
 impl ContextStore {
     /// Open an existing context dataset or create a new one with the project schema.
     pub async fn open(uri: &str) -> LanceResult<Self> {
-        match Dataset::open(uri).await {
+        Self::open_with_options(uri, ContextStoreOptions::default()).await
+    }
+
+    /// Open a dataset with explicit object store configuration (e.g. S3 credentials).
+    pub async fn open_with_options(uri: &str, options: ContextStoreOptions) -> LanceResult<Self> {
+        let storage_options = options.storage_options();
+        match Self::load_with_options(uri, storage_options.clone()).await {
             Ok(dataset) => Ok(Self { dataset }),
             Err(LanceError::DatasetNotFound { .. }) => {
-                let schema = Arc::new(Self::schema());
-                let empty_batch = RecordBatch::new_empty(schema.clone());
-                let batches = RecordBatchIterator::new(
-                    vec![Ok::<RecordBatch, ArrowError>(empty_batch)].into_iter(),
-                    schema.clone(),
-                );
-                let params = WriteParams {
-                    mode: WriteMode::Create,
-                    ..Default::default()
-                };
-                let dataset = Dataset::write(batches, uri, Some(params)).await?;
+                let dataset = Self::create_with_options(uri, storage_options).await?;
                 Ok(Self { dataset })
             }
             Err(err) => Err(err),
@@ -156,6 +167,47 @@ impl ContextStore {
         ])
     }
 
+    async fn load_with_options(
+        uri: &str,
+        storage_options: Option<HashMap<String, String>>,
+    ) -> LanceResult<Dataset> {
+        if let Some(options) = storage_options {
+            DatasetBuilder::from_uri(uri)
+                .with_storage_options(options)
+                .load()
+                .await
+        } else {
+            Dataset::open(uri).await
+        }
+    }
+
+    async fn create_with_options(
+        uri: &str,
+        storage_options: Option<HashMap<String, String>>,
+    ) -> LanceResult<Dataset> {
+        let schema = Arc::new(Self::schema());
+        let empty_batch = RecordBatch::new_empty(schema.clone());
+        let batches = RecordBatchIterator::new(
+            vec![Ok::<RecordBatch, ArrowError>(empty_batch)].into_iter(),
+            schema.clone(),
+        );
+
+        let mut params = WriteParams {
+            mode: WriteMode::Create,
+            ..Default::default()
+        };
+
+        if let Some(options) = storage_options {
+            let store_params = ObjectStoreParams {
+                storage_options: Some(options),
+                ..Default::default()
+            };
+            params.store_params = Some(store_params);
+        }
+
+        Dataset::write(batches, uri, Some(params)).await
+    }
+
     fn records_to_batch(entries: &[ContextRecord]) -> LanceResult<RecordBatch> {
         let mut id_builder = StringBuilder::new();
         let mut run_id_builder = StringBuilder::new();

python/pyproject.toml

@@ -41,7 +41,7 @@ requires = ["maturin>=1.4"]
 build-backend = "maturin"
 
 [project.optional-dependencies]
-tests = ["pytest", "ruff"]
+tests = ["pytest", "ruff", "moto[s3]", "boto3", "botocore"]
 dev = ["ruff", "pyright"]
 
 [tool.ruff]

python/python/lance_context/api.py

@@ -126,12 +126,60 @@ def _normalize_search_hit(raw: dict[str, Any]) -> dict[str, Any]:
 
 
 class Context:
-    def __init__(self, uri: str) -> None:
-        self._inner = _Context.create(uri)
+    def __init__(
+        self,
+        uri: str,
+        *,
+        storage_options: dict[str, Any] | None = None,
+        aws_access_key_id: str | None = None,
+        aws_secret_access_key: str | None = None,
+        aws_session_token: str | None = None,
+        region: str | None = None,
+        endpoint_url: str | None = None,
+        allow_http: bool = False,
+    ) -> None:
+        options = dict(storage_options or {})
+        if aws_access_key_id is not None:
+            options["aws_access_key_id"] = aws_access_key_id
+        if aws_secret_access_key is not None:
+            options["aws_secret_access_key"] = aws_secret_access_key
+        if aws_session_token is not None:
+            options["aws_session_token"] = aws_session_token
+        if region is not None:
+            options["aws_region"] = region
+        if endpoint_url is not None:
+            options["aws_endpoint_url"] = endpoint_url
+        if allow_http:
+            options["aws_allow_http"] = True
+
+        if options:
+            self._inner = _Context.create(uri, storage_options=options)
+        else:
+            self._inner = _Context.create(uri)
 
     @classmethod
-    def create(cls, uri: str) -> Context:
-        return cls(uri)
+    def create(
+        cls,
+        uri: str,
+        *,
+        storage_options: dict[str, Any] | None = None,
+        aws_access_key_id: str | None = None,
+        aws_secret_access_key: str | None = None,
+        aws_session_token: str | None = None,
+        region: str | None = None,
+        endpoint_url: str | None = None,
+        allow_http: bool = False,
+    ) -> Context:
+        return cls(
+            uri,
+            storage_options=storage_options,
+            aws_access_key_id=aws_access_key_id,
+            aws_secret_access_key=aws_secret_access_key,
+            aws_session_token=aws_session_token,
+            region=region,
+            endpoint_url=endpoint_url,
+            allow_http=allow_http,
+        )
 
     def uri(self) -> str:
         return self._inner.uri()

python/src/lib.rs

@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+use std::collections::HashMap;
 use std::sync::Arc;
 
 use chrono::{SecondsFormat, Utc};
@@ -8,7 +9,9 @@ use pyo3::IntoPyObject;
 use tokio::runtime::Runtime;
 
 use lance_context::serde::CONTENT_TYPE_TEXT;
-use lance_context::{Context as RustContext, ContextRecord, ContextStore, SearchResult};
+use lance_context::{
+    Context as RustContext, ContextRecord, ContextStore, ContextStoreOptions, SearchResult,
+};
 
 const DEFAULT_BINARY_CONTENT_TYPE: &str = "application/octet-stream";
 const BINARY_PLACEHOLDER: &str = "[binary]";
@@ -26,13 +29,59 @@ struct Context {
     run_id: String,
 }
 
+fn storage_options_from_dict<'py>(
+    dict: Option<&Bound<'py, PyDict>>,
+) -> PyResult<Option<HashMap<String, String>>> {
+    let Some(dict) = dict else {
+        return Ok(None);
+    };
+
+    let mut options = HashMap::new();
+    for (key, value) in dict.iter() {
+        let key_str = key.extract::<String>()?;
+        if value.is_none() {
+            continue;
+        }
+        let string_value = if let Ok(boolean) = value.extract::<bool>() {
+            if boolean {
+                "true".to_string()
+            } else {
+                "false".to_string()
+            }
+        } else if let Ok(number) = value.extract::<i64>() {
+            number.to_string()
+        } else if let Ok(float_val) = value.extract::<f64>() {
+            float_val.to_string()
+        } else {
+            value.str()?.to_string()
+        };
+        options.insert(key_str, string_value);
+    }
+
+    if options.is_empty() {
+        Ok(None)
+    } else {
+        Ok(Some(options))
+    }
+}
+
 #[pymethods]
 impl Context {
     #[classmethod]
-    fn create(_cls: &Bound<'_, PyType>, uri: &str) -> PyResult<Self> {
+    #[pyo3(signature = (uri, *, storage_options=None))]
+    fn create(
+        _cls: &Bound<'_, PyType>,
+        uri: &str,
+        storage_options: Option<&Bound<'_, PyDict>>,
+    ) -> PyResult<Self> {
         let runtime = Arc::new(Runtime::new().map_err(to_py_err)?);
+
+        let options = ContextStoreOptions {
+            storage_options: storage_options_from_dict(storage_options)?,
+        };
+
         let store = runtime
-            .block_on(ContextStore::open(uri))
+            .block_on(ContextStore::open_with_options(uri, options))
             .map_err(to_py_err)?;
         let run_id = new_run_id();
         Ok(Self {