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+# API Scope
+
+This document describes the scope of the Vitess APIs, and how they map to
+traditional concepts like database and tables.
+
+## Introduction
+
+Vitess is exposed as a single database by clients, but can be composed of any
+arbitrary number of databases, some of them possibly sharded with large numbers
+of shards. It is not obvious to map this system with clients that expect only a
+single database.
+
+## Shard Names and Key Ranges
+
+For unsharded keyspaces, or custom sharded keyspaces, the shard names have
+traditionally been numbers e.g. `0`. (It is important to note that Vitess *does
+not* interpret these shard names, including name `0`, as range-based shard.)
+
+For keyspaces that are sharded by keyrange, we use the range as the shard
+name. For instance `40-80` contains all records whose sharding key is between
+0x40..... and 0x80....
+
+The conventions Vitess follow is:
+
+* if a single shard should be targeted, the shard name should be used. This
+  allows single-shard keyspaces and custom sharded keyspaces to be accessed.
+
+* if a subset of the data should be targeted, and we are using ranged-based
+  sharding, then a key range should be used. Vitess is then responsible for
+  mapping the keyrange to a list of shards, and for any aggregation.
+
+## Execute API
+
+The main entry point of a Vitess cluster is the 'Execute' call (or StreamExecute
+for streaming queries). It takes a keyspace, a tablet type, and a query. The
+VSchema helps Vitess route the query to the right shard and tablet type. This is
+the most transparent way of accessing Vitess. Keyspace is the database, and
+inside the query, a table is referenced either just by name, or by
+`keyspace.name`.
+
+We are adding a `shard` parameter to this entry point. It will work as follows:
+
+* TODO(sougou) document this.
+
+We want to add support for DBA statements:
+
+* DDL statements in the short term will be sent to all shards of a
+  keyspace. Note for complex schema changes, using Schema Swap is recommended.
+  Longer term, we want to instead trigger a workflow that will use the best
+  strategy for the schema change.
+
+* Read-only statements (like `describe table`) will be sent to the first shard
+  of the keyspace. This somewhat assumes the schema is consistent across all
+  shards, which may or may not be true. Guaranteeing schema consistency across
+  shards is however out of scope for this.
+
+* Read-only statements that return table statistics (like data size, number of
+  rows, ...) will need to be scattered and aggregated across all shards. The
+  first version of the API won't support this.
+
+We also want to add support for routing sequence queries through this Execute
+query (right now only the VSchema engine can use a sequence).
+
+Then, we also want to support changing the VSchema via SQL-like statements, like
+`ALTER TABLE ADD VINDEX()`.
+
+## Client Connectors
+
+Client connectors (like JDBC) usually have a connection string that describes
+the connection. It usually includes the keyspace and the tablet type, and uses
+the Execute API.
+
+## MySQL Server Protocol API
+
+vtgate now exposes an API endpoint that implements the regular MySQL server
+protocol. All calls are forwarded to the Execute API. The database provided on
+the connection is used as the keyspace, if any. The tablet type is also Master
+for now.
+
+## Update Stream and Message Stream
+
+These APIs are meant to target a keyspace and optionally a subset of its shards.
+
+* The keyspace is provided in the API.
+
+* To specify the shard, two options are provided:
+
+  * a shard name, to target an individual shard by name.
+  
+  * a key range, to target a subset of shards in a way that will survive a
+    resharding event.
+
+Note the current implementation for these services only supports a key range
+that exactly maps to one shard. We want to make that better and support
+aggregating multiple shards in a keyrange.