CSV Import

Import CSV files into Arc via the REST API. Arc parses the file in-process, infers column types, partitions data by hour, and writes optimized Parquet files to storage through the same streaming ingestion pipeline used for Line Protocol writes.

Endpoint

POST /api/v1/import/csv

Headers

Query parameters

Basic example

curl -X POST "http://localhost:8000/api/v1/import/csv?measurement=sensors" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $ARC_TOKEN" \
  -H "X-Arc-Database: iot" \
  -F "file=@sensor_data.csv"

Example with options

# TSV file with epoch seconds and 2 metadata rows to skip
curl -X POST "http://localhost:8000/api/v1/import/csv?measurement=telemetry&time_column=ts&time_format=epoch_s&delimiter=%09&skip_rows=2" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $ARC_TOKEN" \
  -H "X-Arc-Database: satellites" \
  -F "file=@telemetry_export.tsv"

Response

{
  "status": "ok",
  "result": {
    "database": "iot",
    "measurement": "sensors",
    "rows_imported": 50000,
    "partitions_created": 3,
    "time_range_min": "2026-01-15T00:00:00Z",
    "time_range_max": "2026-01-15T02:30:00Z",
    "columns": ["time", "temperature", "humidity", "device_id"],
    "duration_ms": 245
  }
}

Notes

• The measurement parameter is required -- unlike Line Protocol import where measurements are embedded in the data.
• The time column is renamed to time in the output Parquet files.
• Data is automatically partitioned by hour for optimal query performance.
• Maximum file size: 500 MB.
• RBAC: write permissions are checked for the target measurement.
• Column types are inferred per column from the values: a column is BIGINT if every value parses as an integer, otherwise DOUBLE if every value parses as a number, otherwise BOOLEAN if every value is true/false, otherwise VARCHAR. Empty cells in a numeric/boolean column are stored as null.
• The time column accepts integer epochs, fractional epochs (e.g. 1609459200.123, sub-second precision preserved), or timestamp strings (RFC 3339, YYYY-MM-DD[ T]HH:MM:SS[.fff], or YYYY-MM-DD). With time_format empty, the unit of a numeric epoch is auto-detected by magnitude (s/ms/µs/ns).

Error responses