Retriever

`retriever_init`

Signature

async def retriever_init(
    model_name_or_path: str,
    backend_configs: Dict[str, Any],
    batch_size: int,
    corpus_path: str,
    gpu_ids: Optional[object] = None,
    is_multimodal: bool = False,
    backend: str = "sentence_transformers",
    index_backend: str = "faiss",
    index_backend_configs: Optional[Dict[str, Any]] = None,
    is_demo: bool = False,
    collection_name: str = "",
) -> None

Function

Initializes retrieval service.
Embedding Backend (backend): Responsible for converting text/images into vectors (Infinity, SentenceTransformers, OpenAI, BM25).
Index Backend (index_backend): Responsible for vector storage and retrieval (FAISS, Milvus).
Demo Mode: If is_demo=True, forces OpenAI + Milvus configuration, ignoring some parameters.

`retriever_embed`

Signature

async def retriever_embed(
    embedding_path: Optional[str] = None,
    overwrite: bool = False,
    is_multimodal: bool = False,
) -> None

Function

(Non-Demo Mode) Batches calculation of vector representations of corpus and saves as .npy file.
Only applies to Dense Retriever backend (BM25 not supported).

`retriever_index`

Signature

async def retriever_index(
    embedding_path: str,
    overwrite: bool = False,
    collection_name: str = "",
    corpus_path: str = ""
) -> None

Function

Builds retrieval index.
FAISS: Reads embedding_path (.npy) to build local index file.
Milvus / Demo: Reads corpus_path (.jsonl), generates vectors and inserts into specified collection_name.

`retriever_search`

Signature

async def retriever_search(
    query_list: List[str],
    top_k: int = 5,
    query_instruction: str = "",
    collection_name: str = "",
) -> Dict[str, List[List[str]]]

Function

Retrieves single or multiple queries.
Automatically handles query vectorization (adds query_instruction) and finds Top-K in specified collection_name (for Milvus) or default index.

Output Format (JSON)

{"ret_psg": [["passage 1", "passage 2"], ["..." ]]}

`retriever_batch_search`

Signature

async def retriever_batch_search(
    batch_query_list: List[List[str]],
    top_k: int = 5,
    query_instruction: str = "",
    collection_name: str = "",
) -> Dict[str, List[List[List[str]]]]

Function

Batch version of retriever_search, accepts nested list input.

Output Format (JSON)

{"ret_psg_ls": [[["psg 1-1"], ["psg 1-2"]], [["psg 2-1"]]]}

`bm25_index`

Signature

async def bm25_index(
    overwrite: bool = False,
) -> None

Function

When backend="bm25", builds BM25 sparse index and saves it.

`bm25_search`

Signature

async def bm25_search(
    query_list: List[str],
    top_k: int = 5,
) -> Dict[str, List[List[str]]]

Function

Keyword retrieval based on BM25 algorithm.

Output Format (JSON)

{"ret_psg": [["passage 1", "passage 2"], ["..." ]]}

`retriever_deploy_search`

Signature

async def retriever_deploy_search(
    retriever_url: str,
    query_list: List[str],
    top_k: int = 5,
    query_instruction: str = "",
) -> Dict[str, List[List[str]]]

Function

As a client, calls remote retrieval service deployed at retriever_url for query.

Output Format (JSON)

{"ret_psg": [["passage 1", "passage 2"], ["..." ]]}

`retriever_exa_search`

Signature

async def retriever_exa_search(
    query_list: List[str],
    top_k: Optional[int] | None = 5,
    retrieve_thread_num: Optional[int] | None = 1,
) -> Dict[str, List[List[str]]]

Function

Calls Exa Web retrieval (requires EXA_API_KEY).

Output Format (JSON)

{"ret_psg": [["snippet 1", "snippet 2"], ["..." ]]}

`retriever_tavily_search`

Signature

async def retriever_tavily_search(
    query_list: List[str],
    top_k: Optional[int] | None = 5,
    retrieve_thread_num: Optional[int] | None = 1,
) -> Dict[str, List[List[str]]]

Function

Calls Tavily Web retrieval (requires TAVILY_API_KEY).

Output Format (JSON)

{"ret_psg": [["snippet 1", "snippet 2"], ["..." ]]}

`retriever_zhipuai_search`

Signature

async def retriever_zhipuai_search(
    query_list: List[str],
    top_k: Optional[int] | None = 5,
    retrieve_thread_num: Optional[int] | None = 1,
) -> Dict[str, List[List[str]]]

Function

Calls ZhipuAI web_search (requires ZHIPUAI_API_KEY).

Output Format (JSON)

{"ret_psg": [["snippet 1", "snippet 2"], ["..." ]]}

Configuration

servers/retriever/parameter.yaml

model_name_or_path: openbmb/MiniCPM-Embedding-Light
corpus_path: data/corpus_example.jsonl
embedding_path: embedding/embedding.npy
collection_name: wiki

# Embedding Backend Configuration
backend: sentence_transformers # options: infinity, sentence_transformers, openai, bm25
backend_configs:
  infinity:
    bettertransformer: false
    pooling_method: auto
    model_warmup: false
    trust_remote_code: true
  sentence_transformers:
    trust_remote_code: true
    sentence_transformers_encode:
      normalize_embeddings: false
      encode_chunk_size: 256
      q_prompt_name: query
      psg_prompt_name: document
      psg_task: null
      q_task: null
  openai:
    model_name: text-embedding-3-small
    base_url: "https://api.openai.com/v1"
    api_key: "abc"
  bm25:
    lang: en
    save_path: index/bm25

# Index Backend Configuration
index_backend: faiss # options: faiss, milvus
index_backend_configs:
  faiss:
    index_use_gpu: True
    index_chunk_size: 10000
    index_path: index/index.index
  milvus:
    uri: index/milvus_demo.db # Local file for Lite, or http://host:port
    token: null
    id_field_name: id
    vector_field_name: vector
    text_field_name: contents
    index_params:
      index_type: AUTOINDEX
      metric_type: IP

batch_size: 16
top_k: 5
gpu_ids: "1"
query_instruction: ""
is_multimodal: false
overwrite: false
retrieve_thread_num: 1
retriever_url: "http://127.0.0.1:64501"
is_demo: false

Parameter Description:

Parameter	Type	Description
`model_name_or_path`	str	Retrieval model path or name (e.g., HuggingFace model ID)
`corpus_path`	str	Input corpus JSONL file path
`embedding_path`	str	Vector file save path (`.npy`)
`collection_name`	str	Milvus collection name
`backend`	str	Select retrieval backend: `infinity`, `sentence_transformers`, `openai`, `bm25`
`index_backend`	str	Index backend: `faiss`, `milvus`
`backend_configs`	dict	Parameter configuration for each backend (see table below)
`index_backend_configs`	dict	Parameter configuration for each index backend (see table below)
`batch_size`	int	Batch size for vector generation or retrieval
`top_k`	int	Number of returned candidate passages
`gpu_ids`	str	Specify visible GPU devices, e.g., `"0,1"`
`query_instruction`	str	Query prefix (used by instruction-tuning models)
`is_multimodal`	bool	Whether to enable multimodal embedding (e.g., image)
`overwrite`	bool	Whether to overwrite if embedding or index file already exists
`retrieve_thread_num`	int	Concurrent thread number for external Web retrieval (Exa/Tavily/Zhipu)
`retriever_url`	str	URL of deployed retriever server
`is_demo`	bool	Demo mode switch (forces OpenAI+Milvus, simplified configuration)

backend_configs Sub-items:

Backend	Parameter	Type	Description
infinity	`bettertransformer`	bool	Whether to enable efficient inference optimization
	`pooling_method`	str	Pooling method (e.g., `auto`, `mean`)
	`model_warmup`	bool	Whether to preload model into VRAM
	`trust_remote_code`	bool	Whether to trust remote code (Applicable to custom models)
sentence_transformers	`trust_remote_code`	bool	Whether to trust remote model code
	`sentence_transformers_encode`	dict	Encoding detailed parameters, see table below
openai	`model_name`	str	OpenAI model name (e.g., `text-embedding-3-small`)
	`base_url`	str	API base address
	`api_key`	str	OpenAI API Key
bm25	`lang`	str	Language (determines stop words and tokenizer)
	`save_path`	str	Save directory for BM25 sparse index

sentence_transformers_encode Parameters:

Parameter	Type	Description
`normalize_embeddings`	bool	Whether to normalize vectors
`encode_chunk_size`	int	Encoding chunk size (avoid VRAM overflow)
`q_prompt_name`	str	Query template name
`psg_prompt_name`	str	Passage template name
`q_task`	str	Task description (for cases where specific models need to specify Task)
`psg_task`	str	Task description (for cases where specific models need to specify Task)

index_backend_configs Parameters:

Backend	Parameter	Type	Description
faiss	index_use_gpu	bool	Whether to use GPU for building and retrieving index
	index_chunk_size	int	Batch size when building index
	index_path	str	Save path for FAISS index file (.index)
milvus	uri	str	Milvus connection address (Local file path enables Milvus Lite)
	token	str	Auth Token (if needed)
	id_field_name	str	Primary key field name (default id)
	vector_field_name	str	Vector field name (default vector)
	text_field_name	str	Text content field name (default contents)
	id_max_length	int	Maximum length of string primary key
	text_max_length	int	Maximum length of text field (truncated if exceeded)
	metric_type	str	Distance metric type (e.g., IP inner product, L2 Euclidean distance)
	index_params	Dict	Index construction parameters (e.g., index_type: AUTOINDEX)
	search_params	Dict	Retrieval parameters (e.g., nprobe etc.)
	index_chunk_size	int	Batch size when inserting data

Tools

CLI

`retriever_init`

`retriever_embed`

`retriever_index`

`retriever_search`

`retriever_batch_search`

`bm25_index`

`bm25_search`

`retriever_deploy_search`

`retriever_exa_search`

`retriever_tavily_search`

`retriever_zhipuai_search`

Configuration

​retriever_init

​retriever_embed

​retriever_index

​retriever_search

​retriever_batch_search

​bm25_index

​bm25_search

​retriever_deploy_search

​retriever_exa_search

​retriever_tavily_search

​retriever_zhipuai_search

​Configuration

`retriever_init`

`retriever_embed`

`retriever_index`

`retriever_search`

`retriever_batch_search`

`bm25_index`

`bm25_search`

`retriever_deploy_search`

`retriever_exa_search`

`retriever_tavily_search`

`retriever_zhipuai_search`

Configuration