So basically an analyze_settings pragma? So you could do either... analyze (samples=25, fast) main.sometable; ...to make it explicit for that one call, or do... pragma analyze_settings = '(samples=25, fast)'; analyze main.sometable; --uses pragma settings if set analyze (samples=1000) main.sometable; -- explicit use overrides pragma ...to make it stick for all future non-explicit analyze calls in that connection. (By the way, my vote is for the options in parenthesis like in Postgres)