Similarity Search Patterns
Seth HobsonCommunityCreated by Seth Hobson
- Skill
- Guidelines
- Data and AI
- MIT
- No issues found
AutoGineer summary
Written by AutoGineer from the skill’s own files, not by the author
This skill provides a structured approach to implementing similarity search, covering essential distance metrics, index types, and architectural patterns. It includes practical templates for integrating with vector database providers, offering guidance on how to select appropriate indexing strategies, manage search parameters, and implement hybrid search techniques to balance recall and latency.
What it does
- Explains core distance metrics like Cosine, Euclidean, Dot Product, and Manhattan.
- Compares index types including Flat, HNSW, and IVF+PQ based on search characteristics.
- Provides code templates for vector database operations such as upsert, search, and deletion.
- Demonstrates how to implement search with reranking using cross-encoders.
- Outlines best practices for parameter tuning and filtering search spaces.
When to use it
- When building semantic search or recommendation engines.
- When implementing retrieval steps for RAG systems.
- When choosing between different vector indexing strategies.
- When integrating vector database operations into an application.
Advantages
- Provides clear comparisons of indexing methods for different data scales.
- Includes reusable code templates for common vector database workflows.
- Offers actionable guidance on balancing search quality and system resources.
- Covers both foundational concepts and practical implementation patterns.
Usage examples
- “How do I choose the right index type for my vector database?”
- The skill provides a comparison table showing that Flat indexes are best for small data, HNSW for medium-to-large, and IVF+PQ for very large datasets.
- “Show me how to implement a search with reranking.”
- The skill provides a code template demonstrating how to over-fetch results from a vector index and then refine them using a cross-encoder model.
Install
Download the skill as a ZIP:
https://mp-staging.autogineer.com/agent-skills/wshobson/similarity-search-patterns/downloadUnzip it into the cross-client skills folder of your project:
mkdir -p .agents/skills && unzip similarity-search-patterns.zip -d .agents/skills
Documentation by Seth Hobson
Similarity Search Patterns
Patterns for implementing efficient similarity search in production systems.
When to Use This Skill
Building semantic search systems
Implementing RAG retrieval
Creating recommendation engines
Optimizing search latency
Scaling to millions of vectors
Combining semantic and keyword search
Core Concepts
1. Distance Metrics
| Metric | Formula | Best For | | ------------------ | ------------------ | --------------------- | --- | -------------- | | Cosine | 1 - (A·B)/(‖A‖‖B‖) | Normalized embeddings | | Euclidean (L2) | √Σ(a-b)² | Raw embeddings | | Dot Product | A·B | Magnitude matters | | Manhattan (L1) | Σ | a-b | | Sparse vectors |
2. Index Types
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Index Types │
├─────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────────┤
│ Flat │ HNSW │ IVF+PQ │
│ (Exact) │ (Graph-based) │ (Quantized) │
├─────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────────┤
│ O(n) search │ O(log n) │ O(√n) │
│ 100% recall │ ~95-99% │ ~90-95% │
│ Small data │ Medium-Large │ Very Large │
└─────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────────┘Templates and detailed worked examples
Full template library and detailed worked examples live in references/details.md. Read that file when you need the concrete templates.
Best Practices
Do's
Use appropriate index - HNSW for most cases
Tune parameters - ef_search, nprobe for recall/speed
Implement hybrid search - Combine with keyword search
Monitor recall - Measure search quality
Pre-filter when possible - Reduce search space
Don'ts
Don't skip evaluation - Measure before optimizing
Don't over-index - Start with flat, scale up
Don't ignore latency - P99 matters for UX
Don't forget costs - Vector storage adds up
Files
- ATTRIBUTION.mdAdded by AutoGineer1016 B
- LICENSELicence file added by AutoGineer1.0 KiB
- SKILL.md2.7 KiB
- references/details.md15.0 KiB
references/details.md
similarity-search-patterns — templates and worked examples
Templates
Template 1: Pinecone Implementation
from pinecone import Pinecone, ServerlessSpec
from typing import List, Dict, Optional
import hashlib
class PineconeVectorStore:
def __init__(
self,
api_key: str,
index_name: str,
dimension: int = 1536,
metric: str = "cosine"
):
self.pc = Pinecone(api_key=api_key)
# Create index if not exists
if index_name not in self.pc.list_indexes().names():
self.pc.create_index(
name=index_name,
dimension=dimension,
metric=metric,
spec=ServerlessSpec(cloud="aws", region="us-east-1")
)
self.index = self.pc.Index(index_name)
def upsert(
self,
vectors: List[Dict],
namespace: str = ""
) -> int:
"""
Upsert vectors.
vectors: [{"id": str, "values": List[float], "metadata": dict}]
"""
# Batch upsert
batch_size = 100
total = 0
for i in range(0, len(vectors), batch_size):
batch = vectors[i:i + batch_size]
self.index.upsert(vectors=batch, namespace=namespace)
total += len(batch)
return total
def search(
self,
query_vector: List[float],
top_k: int = 10,
namespace: str = "",
filter: Optional[Dict] = None,
include_metadata: bool = True
) -> List[Dict]:
"""Search for similar vectors."""
results = self.index.query(
vector=query_vector,
top_k=top_k,
namespace=namespace,
filter=filter,
include_metadata=include_metadata
)
return [
{
"id": match.id,
"score": match.score,
"metadata": match.metadata
}
for match in results.matches
]
def search_with_rerank(
self,
query: str,
query_vector: List[float],
top_k: int = 10,
rerank_top_n: int = 50,
namespace: str = ""
) -> List[Dict]:
"""Search and rerank results."""
# Over-fetch for reranking
initial_results = self.search(
query_vector,
top_k=rerank_top_n,
namespace=namespace
)
# Rerank with cross-encoder or LLM
reranked = self._rerank(query, initial_results)
return reranked[:top_k]
def _rerank(self, query: str, results: List[Dict]) -> List[Dict]:
"""Rerank results using cross-encoder."""
from sentence_transformers import CrossEncoder
model = CrossEncoder('cross-encoder/ms-marco-MiniLM-L-6-v2')
pairs = [(query, r["metadata"]["text"]) for r in results]
scores = model.predict(pairs)
for result, score in zip(results, scores):
result["rerank_score"] = float(score)
return sorted(results, key=lambda x: x["rerank_score"], reverse=True)
def delete(self, ids: List[str], namespace: str = ""):
"""Delete vectors by ID."""
self.index.delete(ids=ids, namespace=namespace)
def delete_by_filter(self, filter: Dict, namespace: str = ""):
"""Delete vectors matching filter."""
self.index.delete(filter=filter, namespace=namespace)Template 2: Qdrant Implementation
from qdrant_client import QdrantClient
from qdrant_client.http import models
from typing import List, Dict, Optional
class QdrantVectorStore:
def __init__(
self,
url: str = "localhost",
port: int = 6333,
collection_name: str = "documents",
vector_size: int = 1536
):
self.client = QdrantClient(url=url, port=port)
self.collection_name = collection_name
# Create collection if not exists
collections = self.client.get_collections().collections
if collection_name not in [c.name for c in collections]:
self.client.create_collection(
collection_name=collection_name,
vectors_config=models.VectorParams(
size=vector_size,
distance=models.Distance.COSINE
),
# Optional: enable quantization for memory efficiency
quantization_config=models.ScalarQuantization(
scalar=models.ScalarQuantizationConfig(
type=models.ScalarType.INT8,
quantile=0.99,
always_ram=True
)
)
)
def upsert(self, points: List[Dict]) -> int:
"""
Upsert points.
points: [{"id": str/int, "vector": List[float], "payload": dict}]
"""
qdrant_points = [
models.PointStruct(
id=p["id"],
vector=p["vector"],
payload=p.get("payload", {})
)
for p in points
]
self.client.upsert(
collection_name=self.collection_name,
points=qdrant_points
)
return len(points)
def search(
self,
query_vector: List[float],
limit: int = 10,
filter: Optional[models.Filter] = None,
score_threshold: Optional[float] = None
) -> List[Dict]:
"""Search for similar vectors."""
results = self.client.search(
collection_name=self.collection_name,
query_vector=query_vector,
limit=limit,
query_filter=filter,
score_threshold=score_threshold
)
return [
{
"id": r.id,
"score": r.score,
"payload": r.payload
}
for r in results
]
def search_with_filter(
self,
query_vector: List[float],
must_conditions: List[Dict] = None,
should_conditions: List[Dict] = None,
must_not_conditions: List[Dict] = None,
limit: int = 10
) -> List[Dict]:
"""Search with complex filters."""
conditions = []
if must_conditions:
conditions.extend([
models.FieldCondition(
key=c["key"],
match=models.MatchValue(value=c["value"])
)
for c in must_conditions
])
filter = models.Filter(must=conditions) if conditions else None
return self.search(query_vector, limit=limit, filter=filter)
def search_with_sparse(
self,
dense_vector: List[float],
sparse_vector: Dict[int, float],
limit: int = 10,
dense_weight: float = 0.7
) -> List[Dict]:
"""Hybrid search with dense and sparse vectors."""
# Requires collection with named vectors
results = self.client.search(
collection_name=self.collection_name,
query_vector=models.NamedVector(
name="dense",
vector=dense_vector
),
limit=limit
)
return [{"id": r.id, "score": r.score, "payload": r.payload} for r in results]Template 3: pgvector with PostgreSQL
import asyncpg
from typing import List, Dict, Optional
import numpy as np
class PgVectorStore:
def __init__(self, connection_string: str):
self.connection_string = connection_string
async def init(self):
"""Initialize connection pool and extension."""
self.pool = await asyncpg.create_pool(self.connection_string)
async with self.pool.acquire() as conn:
# Enable extension
await conn.execute("CREATE EXTENSION IF NOT EXISTS vector")
# Create table
await conn.execute("""
CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS documents (
id TEXT PRIMARY KEY,
content TEXT,
metadata JSONB,
embedding vector(1536)
)
""")
# Create index (HNSW for better performance)
await conn.execute("""
CREATE INDEX IF NOT EXISTS documents_embedding_idx
ON documents
USING hnsw (embedding vector_cosine_ops)
WITH (m = 16, ef_construction = 64)
""")
async def upsert(self, documents: List[Dict]):
"""Upsert documents with embeddings."""
async with self.pool.acquire() as conn:
await conn.executemany(
"""
INSERT INTO documents (id, content, metadata, embedding)
VALUES ($1, $2, $3, $4)
ON CONFLICT (id) DO UPDATE SET
content = EXCLUDED.content,
metadata = EXCLUDED.metadata,
embedding = EXCLUDED.embedding
""",
[
(
doc["id"],
doc["content"],
doc.get("metadata", {}),
np.array(doc["embedding"]).tolist()
)
for doc in documents
]
)
async def search(
self,
query_embedding: List[float],
limit: int = 10,
filter_metadata: Optional[Dict] = None
) -> List[Dict]:
"""Search for similar documents."""
query = """
SELECT id, content, metadata,
1 - (embedding <=> $1::vector) as similarity
FROM documents
"""
params = [query_embedding]
if filter_metadata:
conditions = []
for key, value in filter_metadata.items():
params.append(value)
conditions.append(f"metadata->>'{key}' = ${len(params)}")
query += " WHERE " + " AND ".join(conditions)
query += f" ORDER BY embedding <=> $1::vector LIMIT ${len(params) + 1}"
params.append(limit)
async with self.pool.acquire() as conn:
rows = await conn.fetch(query, *params)
return [
{
"id": row["id"],
"content": row["content"],
"metadata": row["metadata"],
"score": row["similarity"]
}
for row in rows
]
async def hybrid_search(
self,
query_embedding: List[float],
query_text: str,
limit: int = 10,
vector_weight: float = 0.5
) -> List[Dict]:
"""Hybrid search combining vector and full-text."""
async with self.pool.acquire() as conn:
rows = await conn.fetch(
"""
WITH vector_results AS (
SELECT id, content, metadata,
1 - (embedding <=> $1::vector) as vector_score
FROM documents
ORDER BY embedding <=> $1::vector
LIMIT $3 * 2
),
text_results AS (
SELECT id, content, metadata,
ts_rank(to_tsvector('english', content),
plainto_tsquery('english', $2)) as text_score
FROM documents
WHERE to_tsvector('english', content) @@ plainto_tsquery('english', $2)
LIMIT $3 * 2
)
SELECT
COALESCE(v.id, t.id) as id,
COALESCE(v.content, t.content) as content,
COALESCE(v.metadata, t.metadata) as metadata,
COALESCE(v.vector_score, 0) * $4 +
COALESCE(t.text_score, 0) * (1 - $4) as combined_score
FROM vector_results v
FULL OUTER JOIN text_results t ON v.id = t.id
ORDER BY combined_score DESC
LIMIT $3
""",
query_embedding, query_text, limit, vector_weight
)
return [dict(row) for row in rows]Template 4: Weaviate Implementation
import weaviate
from weaviate.util import generate_uuid5
from typing import List, Dict, Optional
class WeaviateVectorStore:
def __init__(
self,
url: str = "http://localhost:8080",
class_name: str = "Document"
):
self.client = weaviate.Client(url=url)
self.class_name = class_name
self._ensure_schema()
def _ensure_schema(self):
"""Create schema if not exists."""
schema = {
"class": self.class_name,
"vectorizer": "none", # We provide vectors
"properties": [
{"name": "content", "dataType": ["text"]},
{"name": "source", "dataType": ["string"]},
{"name": "chunk_id", "dataType": ["int"]}
]
}
if not self.client.schema.exists(self.class_name):
self.client.schema.create_class(schema)
def upsert(self, documents: List[Dict]):
"""Batch upsert documents."""
with self.client.batch as batch:
batch.batch_size = 100
for doc in documents:
batch.add_data_object(
data_object={
"content": doc["content"],
"source": doc.get("source", ""),
"chunk_id": doc.get("chunk_id", 0)
},
class_name=self.class_name,
uuid=generate_uuid5(doc["id"]),
vector=doc["embedding"]
)
def search(
self,
query_vector: List[float],
limit: int = 10,
where_filter: Optional[Dict] = None
) -> List[Dict]:
"""Vector search."""
query = (
self.client.query
.get(self.class_name, ["content", "source", "chunk_id"])
.with_near_vector({"vector": query_vector})
.with_limit(limit)
.with_additional(["distance", "id"])
)
if where_filter:
query = query.with_where(where_filter)
results = query.do()
return [
{
"id": item["_additional"]["id"],
"content": item["content"],
"source": item["source"],
"score": 1 - item["_additional"]["distance"]
}
for item in results["data"]["Get"][self.class_name]
]
def hybrid_search(
self,
query: str,
query_vector: List[float],
limit: int = 10,
alpha: float = 0.5 # 0 = keyword, 1 = vector
) -> List[Dict]:
"""Hybrid search combining BM25 and vector."""
results = (
self.client.query
.get(self.class_name, ["content", "source"])
.with_hybrid(query=query, vector=query_vector, alpha=alpha)
.with_limit(limit)
.with_additional(["score"])
.do()
)
return [
{
"content": item["content"],
"source": item["source"],
"score": item["_additional"]["score"]
}
for item in results["data"]["Get"][self.class_name]
]Requirements and compatibility
Works with: Claude Code, Claude apps, OpenAI Codex, GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Gemini CLI, Kiro, OpenCode, Goose, Amp, Roo Code, JetBrains Junie, Factory Droid, Devin (ex-Windsurf), Mistral Vibe, OpenHands, Letta
“Works with” means the tool reads the open Agent Skills format; a skill written for one tool may use features others lack.
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Attribution and licence
- Created by
- Seth Hobson
- Publisher
- Seth Hobson (Community)
- Source
- wshobson/agents · plugins/llm-application-dev/skills/similarity-search-patterns · commit 4bde316
- Licence
- MIT License (redistribution allowed)
- LICENSE (added by AutoGineer from LICENSE)
- ATTRIBUTION.md (written by AutoGineer)
- Synced
AutoGineer is not affiliated with or endorsed by Seth Hobson.
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