1. At a distributed database system including one or more processors and system memory, the distributed database system also including a plurality of database partitions in a federation, the federation configured to store a plurality of rows of data, each row of data identified by a federation key value, such that the federation stores data for a set of federation key values, each of the plurality of database partitions configured to physically store any rows of data having a federation key value within a specified portion of federation key values in the set, a method for scoping the context used to access a database partition, the method comprising: receiving a context to use when performing database access operations within the distributed database system, the context identifying a specified relevant portion of the federation, the context having been provided by a command which includes each of a federation name corresponding to a requested database federation of the distributed database system, a scope comprising a federation key value, and a filtering option; based on the received context, establishing a scoped connection to the distributed database system; receiving a database access operation that is associated with the context; and modifying the semantics of the database access operation in accordance with the associated context to direct application of the database access operation to the specified relevant portion of the federation; and sending the modified database access operation to the distributed database system through the scoped connection.