README.md

In brickster: R Toolkit for 'Databricks'

brickster

Overview

{brickster} is the R toolkit for Databricks, it includes:

• Wrappers for Databricks API's (e.g. db_cluster_list, db_volume_read)

• Browser workspace assets via RStudio Connections Pane (open_workspace())

• {DBI} + {dbplyr} backend (no more ODBC installs!)

• Interactive Databricks REPL

Quick Start

library(brickster)

# only requires `DATABRICKS_HOST` if using OAuth U2M
# first request will open browser window to login
Sys.setenv(DATABRICKS_HOST = "https://<workspace-prefix>.cloud.databricks.com")

# open RStudio/Positron connection pane to view Databricks resources
open_workspace()

# list all SQL warehouses
warehouses <- db_sql_warehouse_list()

Refer to the "Connect to a Databricks Workspace" article for more details on getting authentication configured.

Usage

{DBI} Backend

library(brickster)
library(DBI)

# Connect to Databricks using DBI (assumes you followed quickstart to authenticate)
con <- dbConnect(
  DatabricksSQL(),
  warehouse_id = "<warehouse-id>"
)

# Standard {DBI} operations
tables <- dbListTables(con)
dbGetQuery(con, "SELECT * FROM samples.nyctaxi.trips LIMIT 5")

# Use with {dbplyr} for {dplyr} syntax
library(dplyr)
library(dbplyr)

nyc_taxi <- tbl(con, I("samples.nyctaxi.trips"))

result <- nyc_taxi |>
  filter(year(tpep_pickup_datetime) == 2016) |>
  group_by(pickup_zip) |>
  summarise(
    trip_count = n(),
    avg_fare = mean(fare_amount, na.rm = TRUE),
    avg_distance = mean(trip_distance, na.rm = TRUE)
  ) |>
  collect()

Download & Upload to Volume

library(readr)
library(brickster)

# upload `data.csv` to a volume
local_file <- tempfile(fileext = ".csv")
write_csv(x = iris, file = local_file)
db_volume_write(
  path = "/Volumes/<catalog>/<schema>/<volume>/data.csv",
  file = local_file
)

# read `data.csv` from a volume and write to a file
downloaded_file <- tempfile(fileext = ".csv")
file <- db_volume_read(
  path = "/Volumes/<catalog>/<schema>/<volume>/data.csv",
  destination = downloaded_file
)
volume_csv <- read_csv(downloaded_file)

Databricks REPL

Run commands against an existing interactive Databricks cluster, read this article for more details.

library(brickster)

# commands after this will run on the interactive cluster
# read the vignette for more details
db_repl(cluster_id = "<interactive_cluster_id>")

Installation

install.packages("brickster")

Development Version

# install.packages("pak")
pak::pak("databrickslabs/brickster")

API Coverage

{brickster} is very deliberate with choosing what API's are wrapped. {brickster} isn't intended to replace IaC tooling (e.g. Terraform) or to be used for account/workspace administration.

| API | Available | Version | |----------------------------------|-------------------|-------------------| | DBFS | Yes | 2.0 | | Secrets | Yes | 2.0 | | Repos | Yes | 2.0 | | mlflow Model Registry | Yes | 2.0 | | Clusters | Yes | 2.0 | | Libraries | Yes | 2.0 | | Workspace | Yes | 2.0 | | Endpoints | Yes | 2.0 | | Query History | Yes | 2.0 | | Jobs | Yes | 2.1 | | Volumes (Files) | Yes | 2.0 | | SQL Statement Execution | Yes | 2.0 | | REST 1.2 Commands | Partially | 1.2 | | Unity Catalog - Tables | Yes | 2.1 | | Unity Catalog - Volumes | Yes | 2.1 | | Unity Catalog | Partially | 2.1 |

brickster documentation built on Sept. 9, 2025, 5:33 p.m.