This is a good question for the Python driver mailing list <https://groups.google.com/a/lists.datastax.com/forum/#!forum/python-driver-user>. (changing recipients on this message)
To answer your question: this is happening because there is no connection setup for the cqlengine mapper. When using cqlengine, you must setup the connection before querying or using management functions: http://datastax.github.io/python-driver/object_mapper.html#getting-started http://datastax.github.io/python-driver/api/cassandra/cqlengine/connection.html That said, this condition could be handled better. I've created a ticket to improve the error message in these circumstances: https://datastax-oss.atlassian.net/browse/PYTHON-451 Regards, Adam Holmberg
