Delta Lake Community Sync: IcebergCompatV3 in delta-kernel-rs

In this community sync from May 7, 2026, we dive into the ongoing development and architecture of IcebergCompatV3 within delta-kernel-rs (Tracking Issue #2492). IcebergCompatV3 is a crucial writer feature designed to constrain how a Delta table is written so that it can be seamlessly translated into an Apache Iceberg V3 table. This sync covers the core requirements, motivation, and technical constraints required to ensure full table compatibility without needing full translation layer overhead. 🔗 Resources: • delta-kernel-rs on GitHub: https://github.com/delta-io/delta-kernel-rs • Delta Kernel Overview: https://delta.io/blog/delta-kernel/ 📌 Timestamps: 0:00 - Introduction & Community Sync Kickoff 0:30 - Background and Motivation for IcebergCompatV3 01:45 - Feature Requirements: Column Mapping & Row Tracking 03:15 - Materialized Row IDs & Commit Versions (Field IDs 2147483546 & 2147483539) 05:00 - Mapping Nested Fields & 32-bit Integer Field IDs 07:15 - Table Version Constraints (Deactivating IcebergCompatV1 & V2) 08:45 - Materializing Partition Column Values in Parquet Data Files 10:30 - Stats & numRecords Requirements for AddFile Commits 12:00 - Handling Timestamp Columns (int64 vs int96) 13:45 - RESTRICT / REPLACE TABLE Constraints on Partition Column Names 16:00 - Open Q&A and Community Feedback #DeltaLake #DeltaKernel #delta-kernel-rs #Rust #OpenSource #DataEngineering #Lakehouse #OpenLakehouse