Reference

CQL syntax reference

CQL is the default native-protocol mode. Existing Cassandra-compatible drivers can connect to the MTS native protocol endpoint and use CQL syntax plus admitted MTS extensions.

Session and namespace

SHOW SESSION;
SET mts.dialect = 'cql';

CREATE KEYSPACE IF NOT EXISTS app
  WITH replication = {'class': 'SimpleStrategy', 'replication_factor': 1};

USE app;

Tables and scalar data

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS app.events (
  tenant text,
  id text,
  status text,
  created_at bigint,
  body text,
  doc document,
  embedding vector<float, 2>,
  PRIMARY KEY (tenant, id)
);

INSERT INTO app.events (tenant, id, status, created_at, body, doc, embedding)
VALUES (
  'tenant-alpha',
  'e1',
  'open',
  1700000000,
  'refund policy changed',
  fromJson('{"category":"returns","priority":"high"}'),
  [0.0, 0.1]
);

SELECT tenant, id, status, body
FROM app.events
WHERE tenant = 'tenant-alpha' AND id = 'e1';

UPDATE app.events
SET status = 'closed'
WHERE tenant = 'tenant-alpha' AND id = 'e1';

DELETE FROM app.events
WHERE tenant = 'tenant-alpha' AND id = 'e1';

CQL prepared statements

prepared = session.prepare(
    "SELECT tenant, id, body FROM app.events WHERE tenant = ? AND id = ?"
)
rows = session.execute(prepared, ("tenant-alpha", "e1"))

Scalar and ordered access paths

CREATE INDEX events_tenant_status_time_idx
ON app.events (tenant, status, created_at)
USING 'sis'
WITH OPTIONS = {
  'family':'scalar_ordered_composite',
  'order':'tenant ASC, status ASC, created_at DESC'
};

WAIT FOR INDEX events_tenant_status_time_idx QUERYABLE TIMEOUT '60 seconds';

SELECT id, status, created_at
FROM app.events
WHERE tenant = 'tenant-alpha'
  AND status = 'open'
ORDER BY created_at DESC
LIMIT 50;

Raw text, trigram, and regex-like access paths

CREATE ACCESS PATH events_body_trigram
ON app.events
USING TRIGRAM_TEXT_SIS(body)
WITH (
  case_mode = 'ascii_insensitive_v1',
  normalization_contract = 'raw_utf8_bytes_v1',
  regex_dialect = 'mts_regex_v1'
);

WAIT FOR ACCESS PATH events_body_trigram QUERYABLE TIMEOUT '60 seconds';

SELECT id, body
FROM app.events
WHERE tenant = 'tenant-alpha'
  AND body LIKE '%refund%'
LIMIT 20;

Full-text and BM25-style retrieval

CREATE INDEX events_body_fulltext_idx
ON app.events (body AS body)
USING 'sis'
WITH OPTIONS = {
  'mode':'FULLTEXT',
  'analyzer':'english_v1',
  'positions':'true',
  'max_indexed_value_bytes':'256'
};

WAIT FOR INDEX events_body_fulltext_idx QUERYABLE TIMEOUT '60 seconds';

SELECT id, body
FROM app.events
WHERE tenant = 'tenant-alpha'
  AND body MATCH 'refund policy'
LIMIT 20;

Vector search

CREATE INDEX events_embedding_idx
ON app.events (embedding)
USING 'sis'
WITH OPTIONS = {'search_mode':'exact','budget':'64'};

WAIT FOR INDEX events_embedding_idx QUERYABLE TIMEOUT '60 seconds';

SELECT id, body
FROM app.events
WHERE tenant = 'tenant-alpha'
ORDER BY embedding ANN OF [0.0, 0.1]
WITH (topk = 10)
LIMIT 10;

Document selectors

CREATE INDEX events_doc_category_idx
ON app.events (doc_get_text(doc, '$.category'))
USING 'sis'
WITH OPTIONS = {'family':'auto'};

WAIT FOR INDEX events_doc_category_idx QUERYABLE TIMEOUT '60 seconds';

SELECT id, doc_get_text(doc, '$.category') AS category
FROM app.events
WHERE tenant = 'tenant-alpha'
  AND doc_get_text(doc, '$.category') = 'returns'
LIMIT 20;

Supported document projection and predicate helper families include:

Helper family	Predicate use
`doc_get_text`, `doc_get_int`, `doc_get_bigint`, `doc_get_number`	Equality, `IN`, and bounded ranges when a matching queryable selector exists.
`doc_get_boolean` / `doc_get_bool`	Equality and `IN`.
`doc_get_vector`	`ORDER BY doc_get_vector(...) ANN OF ...` with a queryable vector selector.
`doc_path_state`, `doc_is_null`, `doc_contains_path`	Explicit value/null/missing/mismatch/path-existence state checks.
`doc_jsonpath_match`, `doc_contains`	Bounded fixed-shape JSONPath and exact-containment subsets.

Document mutation functions

Document mutations are UPDATE assignment helpers, not SELECT helpers.

UPDATE app.events
SET doc = DOC_SET(doc, '$.priority', 'critical', true)
WHERE tenant = 'tenant-alpha' AND id = 'e1';

UPDATE app.events
SET doc = DOC_DELETE(doc, '$.deprecated')
WHERE tenant = 'tenant-alpha' AND id = 'e1';

UPDATE app.events
SET doc = DOC_MERGE_PATCH(doc, fromJson('{"category":"returns","tags":["vip"]}'))
WHERE tenant = 'tenant-alpha' AND id = 'e1';

UPDATE app.events
SET doc = DOC_INC(doc, '$.retry_count', 1)
WHERE tenant = 'tenant-alpha' AND id = 'e1';

UPDATE app.events
SET doc = DOC_ARRAY_APPEND(doc, '$.tags', 'urgent')
WHERE tenant = 'tenant-alpha' AND id = 'e1';

UPDATE app.events
SET doc = DOC_ARRAY_REMOVE(doc, '$.tags', 'stale')
WHERE tenant = 'tenant-alpha' AND id = 'e1';

Transactions and batches

BEGIN TRANSACTION;

INSERT INTO app.events (tenant, id, status, created_at, body)
VALUES ('tenant-alpha', 'e2', 'open', 1700000100, 'inside txn');

UPDATE app.events
SET status = 'review'
WHERE tenant = 'tenant-alpha' AND id = 'e2';

COMMIT;

BEGIN BATCH
  INSERT INTO app.events (tenant, id, status, created_at, body)
  VALUES ('tenant-alpha', 'e3', 'open', 1700000200, 'batch one');

  INSERT INTO app.events (tenant, id, status, created_at, body)
  VALUES ('tenant-alpha', 'e4', 'open', 1700000300, 'batch two');
APPLY BATCH;

CQL diagnostics

EXPLAIN (FORMAT JSON) ADMIT
SELECT id, body
FROM app.events
WHERE tenant = 'tenant-alpha'
  AND body MATCH 'refund policy'
LIMIT 10;

ADVISE ACCESS PATH FOR
SELECT id, body
FROM app.events
WHERE tenant = 'tenant-alpha'
  AND body MATCH 'refund policy'
LIMIT 10;