slug: unity-oss title: “Unity Catalog OSS (Iceberg REST, read-only)” description: “Connect SQE to Unity Catalog OSS over its Iceberg REST adapter and browse the catalog. Unity OSS’s Iceberg REST is read-only at this version, so this quickstart enumerates namespaces and tables rather than running DML.”

Unity Catalog OSS (Iceberg REST, read-only)

Unity Catalog OSS exposes an Iceberg REST adapter, so SQE connects to it through the same rest catalog code path it uses for Polaris and Nessie. This quickstart connects SQE to Unity and browses the catalog: it lists namespaces and tables.

Be clear-eyed about the current limitation: Unity OSS’s Iceberg REST adapter is read-only at this version. Create, drop, and commit are not supported, and the bundled table is not served as a loadable Iceberg table, so SELECT does not work either. This quickstart exists to show the connection works and to document the boundary. For full read and write against an Iceberg REST catalog, use the Polaris or Nessie quickstarts.

How it works

• Unity Catalog OSS runs with its Iceberg REST adapter enabled. It ships a bundled demo table (unity.default.marksheet_uniform).
• SQE connects using the same polaris_url config key, pointing at Unity’s Iceberg REST mount. Auth is the anonymous dev-mode provider (Unity OSS runs without authentication).
• run.sh enumerates schemas and tables, then attempts a SELECT and captures the failure to document the read-only boundary.

What it demonstrates

• SQE connecting to Unity Catalog OSS over its Iceberg REST surface.
• Catalog enumeration: SHOW SCHEMAS and SHOW TABLES return the Unity namespace and bundled table.
• The read boundary: a SELECT on the bundled table is denied by Unity OSS (not a SQE limitation — SQE’s REST path is the same one that does full read/write against Polaris and Nessie).

Status: validated (2026-06-06).

Run it

Full config, docker compose, queries, and captured output are in the repo:

→ quickstart/unity-oss/

cd quickstart/unity-oss
cp .env.example .env
./run.sh