High-performance vector similarity search engine for RAG and semantic search. Use when building production RAG systems requiring fast nearest neighbor search, hybrid search with filtering, or scalable vector storage with Rust-powered performance.
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High-performance vector database written in Rust for production RAG and semantic search.
Use Qdrant when:
Key features:
Use alternatives instead:
# Python client
pip install qdrant-client
# Docker (recommended for development)
docker run -p 6333:6333 -p 6334:6334 qdrant/qdrant
# Docker with persistent storage
docker run -p 6333:6333 -p 6334:6334 \
-v $(pwd)/qdrant_storage:/qdrant/storage \
qdrant/qdrant
from qdrant_client import QdrantClient
from qdrant_client.models import Distance, VectorParams, PointStruct
# Connect to Qdrant
client = QdrantClient(host="localhost", port=6333)
# Create collection
client.create_collection(
collection_name="documents",
vectors_config=VectorParams(size=384, distance=Distance.COSINE)
)
# Insert vectors with payload
client.upsert(
collection_name="documents",
points=[
PointStruct(
id=1,
vector=[0.1, 0.2, ...], # 384-dim vector
payload={"title": "Doc 1", "category": "tech"}
),
PointStruct(
id=2,
vector=[0.3, 0.4, ...],
payload={"title": "Doc 2", "category": "science"}
)
]
)
# Search with filtering
results = client.search(
collection_name="documents",
query_vector=[0.15, 0.25, ...],
query_filter={
"must": [{"key": "category", "match": {"value": "tech"}}]
},
limit=10
)
for point in results:
print(f"ID: {point.id}, Score: {point.score}, Payload: {point.payload}")
from qdrant_client.models import PointStruct
# Point = ID + Vector(s) + Payload
point = PointStruct(
id=123, # Integer or UUID string
vector=[0.1, 0.2, 0.3, ...], # Dense vector
payload={ # Arbitrary JSON metadata
"title": "Document title",
"category": "tech",
"timestamp": 1699900000,
"tags": ["python", "ml"]
}
)
# Batch upsert (recommended)
client.upsert(
collection_name="documents",
points=[point1, point2, point3],
wait=True # Wait for indexing
)
from qdrant_client.models import VectorParams, Distance, HnswConfigDiff
# Create with HNSW configuration
client.create_collection(
collection_name="documents",
vectors_config=VectorParams(
size=384, # Vector dimensions
distance=Distance.COSINE # COSINE, EUCLID, DOT, MANHATTAN
),
hnsw_config=HnswConfigDiff(
m=16, # Connections per node (default 16)
ef_construct=100, # Build-time accuracy (default 100)
full_scan_threshold=10000 # Switch to brute force below this
),
on_disk_payload=True # Store payload on disk
)
# Collection info
info = client.get_collection("documents")
print(f"Points: {info.points_count}, Vectors: {info.vectors_count}")
| Metric | Use Case | Range |
|---|---|---|
COSINE | Text embeddings, normalized vectors | 0 to 2 |
EUCLID | Spatial data, image features | 0 to ∞ |
DOT | Recommendations, unnormalized | -∞ to ∞ |
MANHATTAN | Sparse features, discrete data | 0 to ∞ |
# Simple nearest neighbor search
results = client.search(
collection_name="documents",
query_vector=[0.1, 0.2, ...],
limit=10,
with_payload=True,
with_vectors=False # Don't return vectors (faster)
)
from qdrant_client.models import Filter, FieldCondition, MatchValue, Range
# Complex filtering
results = client.search(
collection_name="documents",
query_vector=query_embedding,
query_filter=Filter(
must=[
FieldCondition(key="category", match=MatchValue(value="tech")),
FieldCondition(key="timestamp", range=Range(gte=1699000000))
],
must_not=[
FieldCondition(key="status", match=MatchValue(value="archived"))
]
),
limit=10
)
# Shorthand filter syntax
results = client.search(
collection_name="documents",
query_vector=query_embedding,
query_filter={
"must": [
{"key": "category", "match": {"value": "tech"}},
{"key": "price", "range": {"gte": 10, "lte": 100}}
]
},
limit=10
)
from qdrant_client.models import SearchRequest
# Multiple queries in one request
results = client.search_batch(
collection_name="documents",
requests=[
SearchRequest(vector=[0.1, ...], limit=5),
SearchRequest(vector=[0.2, ...], limit=5, filter={"must": [...]}),
SearchRequest(vector=[0.3, ...], limit=10)
]
)
from sentence_transformers import SentenceTransformer
from qdrant_client import QdrantClient
from qdrant_client.models import VectorParams, Distance, PointStruct
# Initialize
encoder = SentenceTransformer("all-MiniLM-L6-v2")
client = QdrantClient(host="localhost", port=6333)
# Create collection
client.create_collection(
collection_name="knowledge_base",
vectors_config=VectorParams(size=384, distance=Distance.COSINE)
)
# Index documents
documents = [
{"id": 1, "text": "Python is a programming language", "source": "wiki"},
{"id": 2, "text": "Machine learning uses algorithms", "source": "textbook"},
]
points = [
PointStruct(
id=doc["id"],
vector=encoder.encode(doc["text"]).tolist(),
payload={"text": doc["text"], "source": doc["source"]}
)
for doc in documents
]
client.upsert(collection_name="knowledge_base", points=points)
# RAG retrieval
def retrieve(query: str, top_k: int = 5) -> list[dict]:
query_vector = encoder.encode(query).tolist()
results = client.search(
collection_name="knowledge_base",
query_vector=query_vector,
limit=top_k
)
return [{"text": r.payload["text"], "score": r.score} for r in results]
# Use in RAG pipeline
context = retrieve("What is Python?")
prompt = f"Context: {context}\n\nQuestion: What is Python?"
from langchain_community.vectorstores import Qdrant
from langchain_community.embeddings import HuggingFaceEmbeddings
embeddings = HuggingFaceEmbeddings(model_name="all-MiniLM-L6-v2")
vectorstore = Qdrant.from_documents(documents, embeddings, url="http://localhost:6333", collection_name="docs")
retriever = vectorstore.as_retriever(search_kwargs={"k": 5})
from llama_index.vector_stores.qdrant import QdrantVectorStore
from llama_index.core import VectorStoreIndex, StorageContext
vector_store = QdrantVectorStore(client=client, collection_name="llama_docs")
storage_context = StorageContext.from_defaults(vector_store=vector_store)
index = VectorStoreIndex.from_documents(documents, storage_context=storage_context)
query_engine = index.as_query_engine()
from qdrant_client.models import VectorParams, Distance
# Collection with multiple vector types
client.create_collection(
collection_name="hybrid_search",
vectors_config={
"dense": VectorParams(size=384, distance=Distance.COSINE),
"sparse": VectorParams(size=30000, distance=Distance.DOT)
}
)
# Insert with named vectors
client.upsert(
collection_name="hybrid_search",
points=[
PointStruct(
id=1,
vector={
"dense": dense_embedding,
"sparse": sparse_embedding
},
payload={"text": "document text"}
)
]
)
# Search specific vector
results = client.search(
collection_name="hybrid_search",
query_vector=("dense", query_dense), # Specify which vector
limit=10
)
from qdrant_client.models import SparseVectorParams, SparseIndexParams, SparseVector
# Collection with sparse vectors
client.create_collection(
collection_name="sparse_search",
vectors_config={},
sparse_vectors_config={"text": SparseVectorParams(index=SparseIndexParams(on_disk=False))}
)
# Insert sparse vector
client.upsert(
collection_name="sparse_search",
points=[PointStruct(id=1, vector={"text": SparseVector(indices=[1, 5, 100], values=[0.5, 0.8, 0.2])}, payload={"text": "document"})]
)
from qdrant_client.models import ScalarQuantization, ScalarQuantizationConfig, ScalarType
# Scalar quantization (4x memory reduction)
client.create_collection(
collection_name="quantized",
vectors_config=VectorParams(size=384, distance=Distance.COSINE),
quantization_config=ScalarQuantization(
scalar=ScalarQuantizationConfig(
type=ScalarType.INT8,
quantile=0.99, # Clip outliers
always_ram=True # Keep quantized in RAM
)
)
)
# Search with rescoring
results = client.search(
collection_name="quantized",
query_vector=query,
search_params={"quantization": {"rescore": True}}, # Rescore top results
limit=10
)
from qdrant_client.models import PayloadSchemaType
# Create payload index for faster filtering
client.create_payload_index(
collection_name="documents",
field_name="category",
field_schema=PayloadSchemaType.KEYWORD
)
client.create_payload_index(
collection_name="documents",
field_name="timestamp",
field_schema=PayloadSchemaType.INTEGER
)
# Index types: KEYWORD, INTEGER, FLOAT, GEO, TEXT (full-text), BOOL
from qdrant_client import QdrantClient
# Connect to Qdrant Cloud
client = QdrantClient(
url="https://your-cluster.cloud.qdrant.io",
api_key="your-api-key"
)
# Optimize for search speed (higher recall)
client.update_collection(
collection_name="documents",
hnsw_config=HnswConfigDiff(ef_construct=200, m=32)
)
# Optimize for indexing speed (bulk loads)
client.update_collection(
collection_name="documents",
optimizer_config={"indexing_threshold": 20000}
)
on_disk_payload for large payloadsSlow search with filters:
# Create payload index for filtered fields
client.create_payload_index(
collection_name="docs",
field_name="category",
field_schema=PayloadSchemaType.KEYWORD
)
Out of memory:
# Enable quantization and on-disk storage
client.create_collection(
collection_name="large_collection",
vectors_config=VectorParams(size=384, distance=Distance.COSINE),
quantization_config=ScalarQuantization(...),
on_disk_payload=True
)
Connection issues:
# Use timeout and retry
client = QdrantClient(
host="localhost",
port=6333,
timeout=30,
prefer_grpc=True # gRPC for better performance
)
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Create or update AgentSkills. Use when designing, structuring, or packaging skills with scripts, references, and assets.
Create or update AgentSkills. Use when designing, structuring, or packaging skills with scripts, references, and assets.
Set up and use 1Password CLI (op). Use when installing the CLI, enabling desktop app integration, signing in (single or multi-account), or reading/injecting/running secrets via op.
CLI to manage emails via IMAP/SMTP. Use `himalaya` to list, read, write, reply, forward, search, and organize emails from the terminal. Supports multiple accounts and message composition with MML (MIME Meta Language).