681 tutorials · free to read

A working handbook for data and software engineering.

Hands-on tutorials by Alex Merced on Apache Iceberg, the data lakehouse, pipelines, agentic AI, and the languages and tools that hold it all together.

Browse by topic

All topics

Latest tutorials

Page 1 of 114
  1. 01Apache Arrow Flight and ADBC, and Why Database Connectivity Finally Went ColumnarCross-posted. This article’s canonical home is iceberglakehouse.com. A data scientist runs a query against a warehouse. The engine finishes…
  2. 02Budgeting for Agentic Analytics When Every Question Costs Something DifferentBudgeting for agentic analytics when every question costs something different: token economics, query economics, instrumentation, and the cost controls that actually return.
  3. 03The Five Layers of an Agentic Lakehouse and Where the MCP Server SitsThe five layers of an agentic lakehouse and where the MCP server sits: storage, catalog, semantic layer, MCP gateway, and agent surface, plus identity, session isolation, and budgets.
  4. 04Autonomous Table Optimization When Your Query Workload Stops Being PredictableAutonomous table optimization when query workloads stop being predictable: observing file layout and query patterns, scoring compaction work, adaptive sort order, and cost discipline.
  5. 05Building Apache Iceberg Lakehouses That Run Without an Internet ConnectionHow to build an Apache Iceberg lakehouse that runs fully offline: storage, catalog, compute, cross-zone transfer, compliance, and the failure modes that bite.
  6. 06Wiring Analytical Queries to Transactional APIs in Closed-Loop Decision AgentsWiring analytical queries to transactional APIs in closed-loop decision agents: conditional writes, sagas with compensations, decision records, and blast radius controls.