.. toctree::
  :maxdepth: 2
  :hidden:

  releases
  client-intro
  client
  cluster
  instance
  instance-api
  table
  table-api
  column-family
  row
  row-data
  row-filters
  data-api

API requests are sent to the Google Cloud Bigtable API via RPC over HTTP/2. In order to support this, we'll rely on gRPC. We are working with the gRPC team to rapidly make the install story more user-friendly.

Get started by learning about the :class:`Client <google.cloud.bigtable.client.Client>` on the :doc:`client-intro` page.

In the hierarchy of API concepts

• a :class:`Client <google.cloud.bigtable.client.Client>` owns an :class:`Instance <google.cloud.bigtable.instance.Instance>`
• an :class:`Instance <google.cloud.bigtable.instance.Instance>` owns a :class:`Table <google.cloud.bigtable.table.Table>`
• a :class:`Table <google.cloud.bigtable.table.Table>` owns a :class:`ColumnFamily <google.cloud.bigtable.column_family.ColumnFamily>`
• a :class:`Table <google.cloud.bigtable.table.Table>` owns a :class:`Row <google.cloud.bigtable.row.Row>` (and all the cells in the row)