External Collection

Prerequisites

1. CLI installed, logged in, and cluster context set (see setup skill).
2. The target collection must already exist as an external collection (created with an externalSource / externalSpec schema in the collection skill). Plain in-place collections do not have refresh jobs.
3. The cluster must be running a kite-coordinator build that exposes /v2/vectordb/jobs/external_collection/* (PR #5735 or later). On older data planes the API returns 404 -- in that case ask the user to upgrade the cluster.

Commands Reference

The external-collection resource has a single operation, refresh, with three actions: trigger, describe, and list. All three are data-plane calls and inherit the database from the current context unless overridden with --database.

Trigger a refresh job

zilliz external-collection refresh trigger --name <collection-name>
# Optional:
#   --database <db-name>          Override the context database
#   --external-source <src>       Override the external source registered on the collection
#   --external-spec <spec>        Override the external spec registered on the collection

trigger returns the new jobId. Use it with refresh describe to poll status. The override flags are intentionally rare -- normally the source and spec are pinned at collection-create time, and a plain refresh trigger --name <name> is enough.

Describe a refresh job

zilliz external-collection refresh describe --job-id <id>

Returns the job's state, progress, and (on failure) the error message.

List refresh jobs

zilliz external-collection refresh list
# Optional:
#   --name <collection-name>      Filter to one external collection
#   --database <db-name>          Override the context database

Without filters, list returns recent refresh jobs scoped to the current database. Pair with --query to extract a single field, e.g.:

zilliz external-collection refresh list --name my_external_coll \
  --query 'data[?state==`Pending` || state==`Running`].jobId'

Guidance

• An external collection is a collection whose rows live in an external source (e.g. a Vector Lake table). The collection's metadata, indexes, and schema are in Milvus, but the data is pulled in on demand. The refresh job is what synchronises that external data into the collection so subsequent queries see fresh rows.
• Refresh jobs are asynchronous. After trigger, poll with describe until the job reaches a terminal state. Do not assume completion just because trigger returned successfully -- that only means the job was accepted.
• If trigger fails with "collection not found" or "not an external collection", verify with zilliz collection describe --name <name> that the collection actually has an externalSource field. If it does not, this is a normal in-place collection and refresh does not apply -- nothing needs to be done.
• When describe reports a failed job, surface the error message to the user verbatim. It usually points at a credentials, network, or schema mismatch in the external source rather than a Milvus bug.
• Avoid scheduling overlapping refresh jobs against the same collection -- check list --name <name> for an already-running job before triggering a new one.
• A trigger on a large external table can run for minutes. Do not hold a chat session open polling every few seconds -- give the user the jobId and explain how to come back and check describe later.
• For related operations on the same collection (create, drop, load, query) defer to the collection skill. This skill only covers the refresh lifecycle.