Cassandra / ScyllaDB

Connect to Cassandra and ScyllaDB clusters, browse keyspaces, and run CQL queries

Cassandra / ScyllaDB Connections

TablePro supports Apache Cassandra 3.0+ and ScyllaDB via the CQL native protocol. The driver requires the system_schema keyspace, introduced in Cassandra 3.0. Browse keyspaces and tables, inspect table structure, and run CQL in the editor.

Quick setup

Click New Connection, select Cassandra or ScyllaDB (both entries use the same driver), enter host, port, credentials, and keyspace, and connect. The plugin auto-installs from the registry, or use Settings > Plugins > Browse > Cassandra Driver.

Connection settings

Field	Default	Notes
Host	localhost	CQL contact point
Port	9042	CQL native port
Keyspace	-	Leave empty for local dev
Username	-	Only if authentication is enabled
Password	-

Connection URLs

cassandra://user:password@host:9042/keyspace
scylladb://user:password@host:9042/keyspace

cql:// and scylla:// work too. See Connection URL Reference.

Example configurations

Local: host localhost:9042, no auth Docker: cassandra:latest, user/pass cassandra:cassandra Remote: use SSH tunneling for production clusters

Amazon Keyspaces (IAM)

Set Authentication to an AWS IAM mode (Access Key, Profile, or SSO) to connect to Amazon Keyspaces with SigV4 signing instead of a password. Enter the AWS region and enable TLS, which Keyspaces requires (use the cassandra.{region}.amazonaws.com endpoint on port 9142). Profiles resolve from ~/.aws/config and ~/.aws/credentials, including credential_process, SSO, and assumed roles.

SSL/TLS: The Cassandra driver has no TLS fallback. Preferred behaves the same as Required (the SSL pane shows a warning). Use Verify CA with a CA certificate path for private PKI. For mutual TLS, set the client certificate and key paths; if the key is encrypted, enter its passphrase in the Key Passphrase field (stored in the Keychain). See SSL/TLS for details.

Features

Keyspace browsing: The sidebar lists keyspaces, and each keyspace lists its tables. Click a table to view its data.

Table structure: The structure view shows each column’s name, CQL type, and a primary key flag (set for both partition key and clustering columns), plus the table’s secondary indexes. Structure editing supports adding and dropping columns; make other schema changes in the CQL editor.

Data grid: Paginated, with type-aware formatting: uuid/timeuuid formatted, timestamps configurable, map/set/list/tuple as formatted collections, blob as hex.

Keyspace tables in the sidebar with the data grid

CQL editor

SELECT * FROM users WHERE user_id = 123e4567-e89b-12d3-a456-426614174000;

INSERT INTO users (user_id, name, email, created_at)
VALUES (uuid(), 'Alice', '[e-mail]', toTimestamp(now()));

UPDATE users USING TTL 86400
SET email = '[e-mail]'
WHERE user_id = 123e4567-e89b-12d3-a456-426614174000;

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS events (
    event_id timeuuid,
    user_id uuid,
    event_type text,
    payload text,
    PRIMARY KEY ((user_id), event_id)
) WITH CLUSTERING ORDER BY (event_id DESC);

CREATE INDEX ON users (email);

CQL notes

• No JOINs or subqueries: denormalize, or run sequential statements.
• Every SELECT needs the full partition key in WHERE, or ALLOW FILTERING (a cluster scan, slow in production).
• Lightweight transactions: conditional writes with IF, e.g. INSERT INTO users (...) IF NOT EXISTS;.
• TTL and writetime: USING TTL 3600; SELECT TTL(value), WRITETIME(value) FROM cache WHERE key = 'k1';.

Troubleshooting

Connection refused: Check Cassandra is running (nodetool status), verify port 9042 in cassandra.yaml, check rpc_address and listen_address.

Auth failed: Verify credentials, check authenticator: PasswordAuthenticator in cassandra.yaml. Default superuser: cassandra:cassandra.

Timeout: The driver uses a fixed 10 second connect timeout and 30 second request timeout. Neither is configurable, and the app-wide query timeout setting does not apply to Cassandra. Check host, port, firewall rules, and cloud IP allowlists.

Read timeout: Include the full partition key in WHERE, add a LIMIT, check cluster health with nodetool.

Limitations

• Materialized views, UDTs, UDFs, and UDAs do not appear in the sidebar. Query system_schema tables in the CQL editor instead.
• Table options (compaction, compression, gc_grace_seconds) and clustering order are not shown in the structure view.
• DataStax Astra DB is not supported: the driver cannot load a Secure Connect Bundle.
• Counter columns are read-only in the grid; update them in the editor.
• Multi-DC settings are not configurable.