langchain4j-vector-stores-configuration

SKILL.md

LangChain4J Vector Stores Configuration

Configure vector stores for Retrieval-Augmented Generation applications with LangChain4J.

Overview

LangChain4J provides a unified abstraction for vector stores (PostgreSQL/pgvector, Pinecone, MongoDB Atlas, Milvus, Neo4j) with builder-based configuration, metadata filtering, and hybrid search support.

When to Use

Configuring vector stores for semantic search and RAG applications

Setting up embedding storage with metadata filtering and hybrid search

Optimizing vector database performance for production AI workloads

Instructions

Set Up Basic Vector Store

Configure an embedding store for vector operations:
@Bean
public EmbeddingStore<TextSegment> embeddingStore() {
    return PgVectorEmbeddingStore.builder()
        .host("localhost")
        .port(5432)
        .database("vectordb")
        .user("username")
        .password("password")
        .table("embeddings")
        .dimension(1536) // OpenAI embedding dimension
        .createTable(true)
        .useIndex(true)
        .build();
}

Validation Workflow

Follow this workflow to ensure correct vector store setup:

Configure: Build the embedding store with required dimensions and connection parameters

Test connection: Verify store connectivity with a health check before ingesting data

Validate dimensions: Confirm embedding model dimensions match store configuration

Ingest test data: Add a small batch of test documents to verify ingestion works

Run test query: Execute a sample semantic search to confirm retrieval accuracy

Proceed to production: Only after all steps pass, proceed with full data ingestion

Configure Multiple Vector Stores

Use different stores for different use cases:

@Configuration
public class MultiVectorStoreConfiguration {

    @Bean
    @Qualifier("documentsStore")
    public EmbeddingStore<TextSegment> documentsEmbeddingStore() {
        return PgVectorEmbeddingStore.builder()
            .table("document_embeddings")
            .dimension(1536)
            .build();
    }

    @Bean
    @Qualifier("chatHistoryStore")
    public EmbeddingStore<TextSegment> chatHistoryEmbeddingStore() {
        return MongoDbEmbeddingStore.builder()
            .collectionName("chat_embeddings")
            .build();
    }
}

Implement Document Ingestion

Use EmbeddingStoreIngestor for automated document processing:

@Bean
public EmbeddingStoreIngestor embeddingStoreIngestor(
        EmbeddingStore<TextSegment> embeddingStore,
        EmbeddingModel embeddingModel) {

    return EmbeddingStoreIngestor.builder()
        .documentSplitter(DocumentSplitters.recursive(
            300,  // maxSegmentSizeInTokens
            20,   // maxOverlapSizeInTokens
            new OpenAiTokenizer(GPT_3_5_TURBO)
        ))
        .embeddingModel(embeddingModel)
        .embeddingStore(embeddingStore)
        .build();
}

Set Up Metadata Filtering

Configure metadata-based filtering capabilities:

// MongoDB with metadata field mapping
IndexMapping indexMapping = IndexMapping.builder()
    .dimension(1536)
    .metadataFieldNames(Set.of("category", "source", "created_date", "author"))
    .build();

// Search with metadata filters
EmbeddingSearchRequest request = EmbeddingSearchRequest.builder()
    .queryEmbedding(queryEmbedding)
    .maxResults(10)
    .filter(and(
        metadataKey("category").isEqualTo("technical_docs"),
        metadataKey("created_date").isGreaterThan(LocalDate.now().minusMonths(6))
    ))
    .build();

Configure Production Settings

Implement connection pooling and monitoring:

@Bean
public EmbeddingStore<TextSegment> optimizedPgVectorStore() {
    HikariConfig hikariConfig = new HikariConfig();
    hikariConfig.setJdbcUrl("jdbc:postgresql://localhost:5432/vectordb");
    hikariConfig.setUsername("username");
    hikariConfig.setPassword("password");
    hikariConfig.setMaximumPoolSize(20);
    hikariConfig.setMinimumIdle(5);
    hikariConfig.setConnectionTimeout(30000);

    DataSource dataSource = new HikariDataSource(hikariConfig);

    return PgVectorEmbeddingStore.builder()
        .dataSource(dataSource)
        .table("embeddings")
        .dimension(1536)
        .useIndex(true)
        .build();
}

Implement Health Checks

Monitor vector store connectivity:

@Component
public class VectorStoreHealthIndicator implements HealthIndicator {

    private final EmbeddingStore<TextSegment> embeddingStore;

    @Override
    public Health health() {
        try {
            embeddingStore.search(EmbeddingSearchRequest.builder()
                .queryEmbedding(new Embedding(Collections.nCopies(1536, 0.0f)))
                .maxResults(1)
                .build());

            return Health.up()
                .withDetail("store", embeddingStore.getClass().getSimpleName())
                .build();
        } catch (Exception e) {
            return Health.down()
                .withDetail("error", e.getMessage())
                .build();
        }
    }
}

Examples

Basic RAG Application Setup

@Configuration
public class SimpleRagConfig {

    @Bean
    public EmbeddingStore<TextSegment> embeddingStore() {
        return PgVectorEmbeddingStore.builder()
            .host("localhost")
            .database("rag_db")
            .table("documents")
            .dimension(1536)
            .build();
    }

    @Bean
    public ChatLanguageModel chatModel() {
        return OpenAiChatModel.withApiKey(System.getenv("OPENAI_API_KEY"));
    }
}

Semantic Search Service

@Service
public class SemanticSearchService {

    private final EmbeddingStore<TextSegment> store;
    private final EmbeddingModel embeddingModel;

    public List<String> search(String query, int maxResults) {
        Embedding queryEmbedding = embeddingModel.embed(query).content();

        EmbeddingSearchRequest request = EmbeddingSearchRequest.builder()
            .queryEmbedding(queryEmbedding)
            .maxResults(maxResults)
            .minScore(0.75)
            .build();

        return store.search(request).matches().stream()
            .map(match -> match.embedded().text())
            .toList();
    }
}

Production Setup with Monitoring

@Configuration
public class ProductionVectorStoreConfig {

    @Bean
    public EmbeddingStore<TextSegment> vectorStore(
            @Value("${vector.store.host}") String host,
            MeterRegistry meterRegistry) {

        EmbeddingStore<TextSegment> store = PgVectorEmbeddingStore.builder()
            .host(host)
            .database("production_vectors")
            .useIndex(true)
            .indexListSize(200)
            .build();

        return new MonitoredEmbeddingStore<>(store, meterRegistry);
    }
}

Best Practices

Choose the Right Vector Store

For Development:

Use InMemoryEmbeddingStore for local development and testing

Fast setup, no external dependencies

Data lost on application restart

For Production:

PostgreSQL + pgvector: Excellent for existing PostgreSQL environments

Pinecone: Managed service, good for rapid prototyping

MongoDB Atlas: Good integration with existing MongoDB applications

Milvus/Zilliz: High performance for large-scale deployments

Configure Appropriate Index Types

Choose index types based on performance requirements:

// For high recall requirements
.indexType(IndexType.FLAT)  // Exact search, slower but accurate

// For balanced performance
.indexType(IndexType.IVF_FLAT)  // Good balance of speed and accuracy

// For high-speed approximate search
.indexType(IndexType.HNSW)  // Fastest, slightly less accurate

Optimize Vector Dimensions

Match embedding dimensions to your model:

// OpenAI text-embedding-3-small
.dimension(1536)

// OpenAI text-embedding-3-large
.dimension(3072)

// Sentence Transformers
.dimension(384)  // all-MiniLM-L6-v2
.dimension(768)  // all-mpnet-base-v2

Implement Batch Operations

Use batch operations for better performance:

@Service
public class BatchEmbeddingService {

    private static final int BATCH_SIZE = 100;

    public void addDocumentsBatch(List<Document> documents) {
        for (List<Document> batch : Lists.partition(documents, BATCH_SIZE)) {
            List<TextSegment> segments = batch.stream()
                .map(doc -> TextSegment.from(doc.text(), doc.metadata()))
                .collect(Collectors.toList());

            List<Embedding> embeddings = embeddingModel.embedAll(segments)
                .content();

            embeddingStore.addAll(embeddings, segments);
        }
    }
}

Secure Configuration

Protect sensitive configuration:

// Use environment variables
@Value("${vector.store.api.key:#{null}}")
private String apiKey;

// Validate configuration
@PostConstruct
public void validateConfiguration() {
    if (StringUtils.isBlank(apiKey)) {
        throw new IllegalStateException("Vector store API key must be configured");
    }
}

References

For comprehensive documentation and advanced configurations, see:

API Reference - Complete API documentation

Examples - Production-ready examples

Constraints and Warnings

Vector dimensions must match the embedding model; mismatched dimensions will cause errors.

Large vector collections require proper indexing configuration for acceptable search performance.

Embedding generation can be expensive; implement batching and caching strategies.

Different vector stores have different distance metric support; verify compatibility.

Connection pooling is critical for production deployments to prevent connection exhaustion.

Metadata filtering capabilities vary between vector store implementations.

Vector stores consume significant memory; monitor resource usage in production.

Migration between vector store providers may require re-embedding all documents.

Batch operations are more efficient than single-document operations.

Always validate configuration during application startup to fail fast.