Following the discussion on GitHub,  starting a dev thread on credential
vending behavior in Apache Polaris catalog federation.

https://github.com/apache/polaris/discussions/4929

I am evaluating catalog federation behavior in a data lakehouse setup using
Apache Iceberg with Apache Polaris.

Architecture:

   - One central enterprise catalog
   - Multiple BU (Business Unit) level child catalogs federated into the
   central catalog

Expected flow (based on my understanding):

   - Client queries an Iceberg table through the central catalog
   - Central catalog forwards the request to the appropriate BU catalog
   after RBAC validation
   - BU catalog returns table metadata and vended credentials
   - Central catalog returns the BU catalog’s metadata and the same vended
   credentials back to the client

Actual behavior observed:

   - BU catalog does return metadata + vended credentials
   - Central catalog drops/ignores the BU-provided vended credentials
   - Central catalog generates new vended credentials and sends that to the
   client instead

Question:

What is the intended credential vending model for catalog federation?

- Should the central catalog propagate the vended credentials returned by
the child catalog to the client (credential pass-through)?

Or

- Should the central catalog always generate and return its own vended
credentials, regardless of whether the child catalog has already vended
credentials?

I'm interested in understanding the intended design philosophy for
federation and whether supporting vended credential pass-through is
something the community believes should be part of Polaris.

-- 
Thanks & Regards,
Rajesh Bulleddula

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