You can qualify the keyspace name with the desired tablet type using the @ suffix. This can be specified as part of the connection as the database name, or can be changed on the fly through the USE command.

For example, ks@primary will select ks as the default keyspace with all queries being sent to the primary. ks@replica will load balance requests across all REPLICA tablets, and ks@rdonly will choose RDONLY.

You can also specify the database name as @primary, @replica etc., which means that no default keyspace is specified, but that the requests are for the specified tablet type.

If no tablet type is specified, then VTGate chooses its default, which can be overridden with the --default_tablet_type command line argument.