skills/partition/SKILL.md

---
name: partition
description: Use when the user wants to create, list, load, release, or drop partitions in a Milvus collection.
---

## Prerequisites

1. CLI installed, a usable data-plane credential configured, and cluster context set (see setup skill).
2. Target collection must exist (see collection skill).

## Commands Reference

All partition commands accept an optional `--database <db-name>` flag. If omitted, the database from the current context is used.

### Create a Partition

```bash
zilliz partition create --collection <collection-name> --partition <partition-name>
# Optional: --database <database-name>
```

### List Partitions

```bash
zilliz partition list --collection <collection-name>
# Optional: --database <database-name>
```

### Drop a Partition

```bash
zilliz partition drop --collection <collection-name> --partition <partition-name-to-drop>
# Optional: --database <database-name>
```

### Check if a Partition Exists

```bash
zilliz partition has --collection <collection-name> --partition <partition-name>
# Optional: --database <database-name>
```

### Get Statistics

```bash
zilliz partition get-stats --collection <collection-name> --partition <partition-name>
# Optional: --database <database-name>
```

### Load a Partition

```bash
zilliz partition load --collection <collection-name> --names '["partition1", "partition2"]'
# Optional: --database <database-name>
```

### Release a Partition

```bash
zilliz partition release --collection <collection-name> --names '["partition1", "partition2"]'
# Optional: --database <database-name>
```

## Guidance

- Every collection has a default `_default` partition.
- Partitions allow organizing data for more targeted searches.
- A partition must be loaded before it can be searched.
- Before dropping a partition, confirm with the user -- all data in it will be deleted.
- Use partition stats to check row counts per partition.
- For filter expression syntax used in vector operations on partitions, see the vector skill.