Store vector embeddings

Required database extension

Use the vector extension, version 0.5.0.google-1 or later, which includes pgvector functions and operators, to store generated embeddings as vector values. This is a version of pgvector that Google has extended with optimizations specific to AlloyDB.

CREATE EXTENSION IF NOT EXISTS vector;

Store generated embeddings

Ensure that you have already created a table in your AlloyDB database.

To store vector embeddings, do the following:

1. Create a vector[] column in your table to store your embeddings:

   ALTER TABLE TABLE ADD COLUMN EMBEDDING_COLUMN vector(DIMENSIONS);
   

   Replace the following:

   • TABLE: the table name

   • EMBEDDING_COLUMN: the name of the new embedding column

   • DIMENSIONS: the number of dimensions that the model supports.

     For example, if you are using one of the textembedding-geckoEnglish models—for example, textembedding-gecko@003 with Vertex AI, specify 768.

2. Copy the vectors to the vector column. The following example assumes your embeddings are available in a CSV file:

   COPY TABLE (EMBEDDING_COLUMN) FROM 'PATH_TO_VECTOR_CSV (FORMAT CSV);
   

   Replace the following:

   • PATH_TO_VECTOR_CSV: the full path of where you have stored your CSV file.

After you store the embeddings, you can use the vector extension or the alloydb_scann extension to create indexes for faster query performance.

What's next

• Create indexes and query vectors
• An example embedding workflow