Skip to main content
Version: 2.0

Indexing API Definition

The first step in using Vectara is to index a set of related documents or content into a corpus. Indexing a document enables you to make data available for search and retrieval more efficiently. The Indexing API lets you add documents that are either in a typical structured format, or in a format that explicitly specifies each document part that becomes a search result.

Our indexing capability transforms this structured data into a format that enables the data to become easily searchable in just a few seconds. We also support a variety of data formats by allowing you to specify multiple document attributes and metadata. You can also specify whether to stream the result or receive a complete response.

tip
  • Check out our interactive API Reference that shows the full Index REST definition and lets you experiment with this endpoint to index documents from your browser.

Index Document Request and Response​

To index a document, send a POST request to /v2/corpora/:corpus_key/documents, where corpus_key is the unique identifier for the corpus where you want to add the document. The request body contains a CreateDocumentRequest object that represents the document to be indexed. This object has a type parameter that determines the format of the document as core or structured.

Depending on the document type, there are required properties and any optional metadata or custom_dimensions (Pro or Enterprise only).

The response includes a status message and a StorageQuota message indicating how much quota was consumed. An ALREADY_EXISTS status code indicates how much quota would have been consumed.

  • core - Specifies a document structure that closely corresponds to Vectara's internal document data model, containing an id, metadata, and an array of document_parts which contain their own text, metadata, context, and custom_dimensions.
  • structured - Specifies a document structure with layout features such as title, description, metadata, custom_dimensions, and an array of sections. These sections each have an id, title, text, metadata, and nested sections.
note

The storage quota object returns the number of characters consumed and the number of metadata characters consumed. The total quota consumed is simply the sum of both values.

Structured document chunking​

By default, Vectara uses sentence-based chunking, where each chunk typically contains one complete sentence. This strategy works well but can lead to higher retrieval latency because of the increased number of chunks. Alternatively, you can use character-based chunking to make the chunks larger.

Set the type to max_chars_chunking_strategy and define the max_chars_per_chunk value to create larger chunks containing 3-7 sentences (512 to 1024). This approach balances retrieval speed and contextual integrity.

tip

If not set, the platform defaults to sentence-based chunking, where each chunk contains one full sentence. For more details, see Document chunking.

Core Document Object Definition​

A core document object has a unique id, metadata, and an array of document_parts which contain their own text, metadata, context, and custom_dimensions.

The document_parts object defines the actual text items that you want to index. The document part is the atomic unit of Vectara. Every part is added to the index, and when search results are returned, each result is a document part.

The text field defines the text and should generally be a sentence. It should not be shorter, but may be longer, up to the length of an entire paragraph, although performance may suffer.

The metadata is returned with the document part in search query results. For example, it can contain information that links the item to records in other systems.

The context defines the context of the text. It may include any additional textual information that helps in disambiguating the meaning. For instance, it may include the preceding or following paragraphs, the chapter title, or the document title.

The custom_dimensions allows you to specify additional factors that can be used at query time to control the ranking of results. The dimensions must be defined ahead of time for the corpus, or else they'll be ignored.

Structured Document Object Definition​

A structured document object encapsulates the information about the data that you want to index. A document in Vectara is very flexible because it represent a short tweet or book with thousands of pages. This object has a document_id which must be unique among all the documents in the same corpus. The document may optionally speciify a title, description, and metadata. The core of the document is also structured in sections that can include unique identifiers, titles, strings, metadata, and so on.

The custom_dimensions (Pro and Enterprise only) field provides default values for the corresponding section fields, should they fail to define them explicitly. Most importantly, section defines the actual textual matter. Documents can also have multiple sections.

Section within a Document​

A section represents an organizational subunit within a document. Its definition is recursive, since a section can be composed of further sections.

The actual textual content, which is at least a single sentence, but might span several paragraphs or more, is stored in text. Like a document, it may optionally specify a title, which semantically corresponds to a section header or chapter title.

Sections provide flexibility, and it's possible that a section specifies a title, but relegates the text to subsections. For instance, consider the following simple document excerpt from Wikipedia:

History​

First inhabitants​

Settled by successive waves of arrivals during at least the last 13,000 years,[41] California was one of the most culturally and linguistically diverse areas in pre-Columbian North America. Various estimates of the native population range from 100,000 to 300,000.[42] The indigenous peoples of California included more than 70 distinct ethnic groups of Native Americans, ranging from large, settled populations living on the coast to groups in the interior. California groups also were diverse in their political organization with bands, tribes, villages, and on the resource-rich coasts, large chiefdoms, such as the Chumash, Pomo and Salinan. Trade, intermarriage and military alliances fostered many social and economic relationships among the diverse groups.

Spanish rule​

The first Europeans to explore the California coast were the members of a Spanish sailing expedition led by Portuguese captain Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo; they entered San Diego Bay on September 28, 1542, and reached at least as far north as San Miguel Island. Privateer and explorer Francis Drake explored and claimed an undefined portion of the California coast in 1579, landing north of the future city of San Francisco. The first Asians to set foot on what would be the United States occurred in 1587, when Filipino sailors arrived in Spanish ships at Morro Bay. Sebastián Vizcaíno explored and mapped the coast of California in 1602 for New Spain, sailing as far north as Cape Mendocino.

This could be represented as a top-level section titled "History" and no text. It would contain two sections, "First inhabitants" and "Spanish rule" that both specify text.

The part metadata, held in metadata_json, is returned in search query results. It can contain, for example, information that links the item to records in other systems.

For Pro and Enterprise users, the custom_dimensions allows you to specify additional factors that can be used at query time to control the ranking of results. The custom dimensions must be defined ahead of time for the corpus, or else they'll be ignored.

REST 2.0 URL​

Indexing REST Endpoint​

Vectara exposes a REST endpoint at the following URL to add a document into a corpus: https://api.vectara.io/v2/corpora/:corpus_key/documents

The API Reference shows the full Indexing REST definition.

Standard Indexing gRPC Example​

You can find the full Standard Indexing gRPC definition at indexing.proto.

For IndexDocumentRequest, the reply does not block. The information in the request is not necessarily available in the index when the RPC returns. In most cases, it becomes available within a second.

The full definition also shows the Document format, and a Section within the document, including metadata about the section.

Core Document gRPC Example​

You can find the full core document, also known as the Low-level Indexing gRPC definition at indexing_core.proto.

A request to add data into a corpus consists of three key pieces of information: the customer ID, the corpus ID, and the data itself, represented as a CoreDocument message.

The reply from the server consists of nothing yet. Note that the reply does not block. In other words, the information in the request is not yet available in the index when the RPC returns.

The full definition also shows the CoreDocument container format, which has metadata about the document, and parts within the document as CoreDocumentPart.

Custom Dimensions Use Cases (Pro or Enterprise only)​

Custom dimensions are a powerful Vectara capability that enable you to attach numeric factors to every item in the index, which affect its final ranking during searches. Some example use cases include:

  1. Define the authoritativeness of the content.

    For example, content with 100 upvotes can be ranked higher than content with no upvotes and 10 downvotes.

  2. Indicate the source of the content.

    If there are N sources, this is usually done by defining N custom dimensions, and treating them as boolean 0-1 fields. This allows weighting results based on source, or even excluding certain sources altogether.

    For example, content from a government FAQ would be rated higher than content from a user forum.

  3. Define the geography in which content is relevant.

  4. Indicate the publication date which makes it easy to weight more recent results higher.

For more information on how to use custom dimensions, refer to the Custom Dimensions Usage Documentation