Vector Index

A vector index is the data structure that organizes embedding vectors so that nearest-neighbor queries can be executed efficiently. Flat indexes scan every vector exhaustively for maximum accuracy; ANN indexes such as HNSW and IVF trade a small recall penalty for orders-of-magnitude faster search. Index construction parameters — number of clusters, graph connectivity, and search-beam width — control the recall-vs-latency curve and must be tuned for each deployment's requirements.