Enable Catalog on Bucket

Configuration

How to enable R2 Data Catalog and configure authentication.

Prerequisites

• Cloudflare account with R2 subscription
• R2 bucket created
• Access to Cloudflare dashboard or Wrangler CLI

Enable Catalog on Bucket

Choose one method:

Via Wrangler (Recommended)

npx wrangler r2 bucket catalog enable <BUCKET_NAME>

Output:

✅ Data Catalog enabled for bucket 'my-bucket'
   Catalog URI: https://<account-id>.r2.cloudflarestorage.com/iceberg/my-bucket
   Warehouse: my-bucket

Via Dashboard

1. Navigate to R2 → Select your bucket → Settings tab
2. Scroll to "R2 Data Catalog" section → Click Enable
3. Note the Catalog URI and Warehouse name shown

Result:

• Catalog URI: https://<account-id>.r2.cloudflarestorage.com/iceberg/<bucket-name>
• Warehouse: <bucket-name> (same as bucket name)

Via API (Programmatic)

curl -X POST \
  "https://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/accounts/<account-id>/r2/buckets/<bucket>/catalog" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <api-token>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json"

Response:

{
  "result": {
    "catalog_uri": "https://<account-id>.r2.cloudflarestorage.com/iceberg/<bucket>",
    "warehouse": "<bucket>"
  },
  "success": true
}

Check Catalog Status

npx wrangler r2 bucket catalog status <BUCKET_NAME>

Output:

Catalog Status: enabled
Catalog URI: https://<account-id>.r2.cloudflarestorage.com/iceberg/my-bucket
Warehouse: my-bucket

Disable Catalog (If Needed)

npx wrangler r2 bucket catalog disable <BUCKET_NAME>

⚠️ Warning: Disabling does NOT delete tables/data. Files remain in bucket. Metadata becomes inaccessible until re-enabled.

API Token Creation

R2 Data Catalog requires API token with both R2 Storage + R2 Data Catalog permissions.

Dashboard Method (Recommended)

1. Go to R2 → Manage R2 API Tokens → Create API Token
2. Select permission level:
   • Admin Read & Write - Full catalog + storage access (read/write)
   • Admin Read only - Read-only access (for query engines)
3. Copy token value immediately (shown only once)

Permission groups included:

• Workers R2 Data Catalog Write (or Read)
• Workers R2 Storage Bucket Item Write (or Read)

API Method (Programmatic)

Use Cloudflare API to create tokens programmatically. Required permissions:

• Workers R2 Data Catalog Write (or Read)
• Workers R2 Storage Bucket Item Write (or Read)

Client Configuration

PyIceberg

from pyiceberg.catalog.rest import RestCatalog

catalog = RestCatalog(
    name="my_catalog",
    warehouse="<bucket-name>",           # Same as bucket name
    uri="<catalog-uri>",                 # From enable command
    token="<api-token>",                 # From token creation
)

Full example with credentials:

import os
from pyiceberg.catalog.rest import RestCatalog

# Store credentials in environment variables
WAREHOUSE = os.getenv("R2_WAREHOUSE")      # e.g., "my-bucket"
CATALOG_URI = os.getenv("R2_CATALOG_URI")  # e.g., "https://abc123.r2.cloudflarestorage.com/iceberg/my-bucket"
TOKEN = os.getenv("R2_TOKEN")              # API token

catalog = RestCatalog(
    name="r2_catalog",
    warehouse=WAREHOUSE,
    uri=CATALOG_URI,
    token=TOKEN,
)

# Test connection
print(catalog.list_namespaces())

Spark / Trino / DuckDB

See patterns.md for integration examples with other query engines.

Connection String Format

For quick reference:

Catalog URI:  https://<account-id>.r2.cloudflarestorage.com/iceberg/<bucket>
Warehouse:    <bucket-name>
Token:        <r2-api-token>

Where to find values:

Security Best Practices

1. Store tokens securely - Use environment variables or secret managers, never hardcode
2. Use least privilege - Read-only tokens for query engines, write tokens only where needed
3. Rotate tokens regularly - Create new tokens, test, then revoke old ones
4. One token per application - Easier to track and revoke if compromised
5. Monitor token usage - Check R2 analytics for unexpected patterns
6. Bucket-scoped tokens - Create tokens per bucket, not account-wide

Environment Variables Pattern

# .env (never commit)
R2_CATALOG_URI=https://<account-id>.r2.cloudflarestorage.com/iceberg/<bucket>
R2_WAREHOUSE=<bucket-name>
R2_TOKEN=<api-token>

import os
from pyiceberg.catalog.rest import RestCatalog

catalog = RestCatalog(
    name="r2",
    uri=os.getenv("R2_CATALOG_URI"),
    warehouse=os.getenv("R2_WAREHOUSE"),
    token=os.getenv("R2_TOKEN"),
)

Troubleshooting

See gotchas.md for detailed troubleshooting.