OpenAI Generative AI with Weaviate

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Weaviate's integration with OpenAI's APIs allows you to access their models' capabilities directly from Weaviate.

Configure a Weaviate collection to use an OpenAI generative AI model, and Weaviate will perform retrieval augmented generation (RAG) using the specified model and your OpenAI API key.

More specifically, Weaviate will perform a search, retrieve the most relevant objects, and then pass them to the OpenAI generative model to generate outputs.

Requirements

Weaviate configuration

Your Weaviate instance must be configured with the OpenAI generative AI integration (generative-openai) module.

For Weaviate Cloud (WCD) users

This integration is enabled by default on Weaviate Cloud (WCD) serverless instances.

For self-hosted users

• Check the cluster metadata to verify if the module is enabled.
• Follow the how-to configure modules guide to enable the module in Weaviate.

API credentials

You must provide a valid OpenAI API key to Weaviate for this integration. Go to OpenAI to sign up and obtain an API key.

Provide the API key to Weaviate using one of the following methods:

• Set the OPENAI_APIKEY environment variable that is available to Weaviate.
• Provide the API key at runtime, as shown in the examples below.

Python API v4

import weaviate
from weaviate.classes.init import Auth
import os

# Recommended: save sensitive data as environment variables
openai_key = os.getenv("OPENAI_APIKEY")
headers = {
    "X-OpenAI-Api-Key": openai_key,
}

client = weaviate.connect_to_weaviate_cloud(
    cluster_url=weaviate_url,                       # `weaviate_url`: your Weaviate URL
    auth_credentials=Auth.api_key(weaviate_key),      # `weaviate_key`: your Weaviate API key
    headers=headers
)

# Work with Weaviate

client.close()

  API docs

JS/TS API v3

import weaviate from 'weaviate-client'

const openaiApiKey = process.env.OPENAI_APIKEY || '';  // Replace with your inference API key

const client = await weaviate.connectToWeaviateCloud(
  'WEAVIATE_INSTANCE_URL',  // Replace with your instance URL
  {
    authCredentials: new weaviate.ApiKey('WEAVIATE_INSTANCE_APIKEY'),
    headers: {
      'X-OpenAI-Api-Key': openaiApiKey,
    }
  }
)

// Work with Weaviate

client.close()

  API docs

Configure collection

Generative model integration mutability

A collection's generative model integration configuration is mutable from v1.25.23, v1.26.8 and v1.27.1. See this section for details on how to update the collection configuration.

Configure a Weaviate index as follows to use an OpenAI generative AI model:

Python API v4

from weaviate.classes.config import Configure

client.collections.create(
    "DemoCollection",
    generative_config=Configure.Generative.openai()
    # Additional parameters not shown
)

  API docs

JS/TS API v3

await client.collections.create({
  name: 'DemoCollection',
  generative: weaviate.configure.generative.openAI(),
  // Additional parameters not shown
});
// END GenerativeOpenAICustomModel

// Clean up
await client.collections.delete('DemoCollection');

await client.collections.create({
  name: 'DemoCollection',
  generative: weaviate.configure.generative.openAI({
    model: 'gpt-4-1106-preview',
  }),
  // Additional parameters not shown
});
// END GenerativeOpenAICustomModel

// Clean up
await client.collections.delete('DemoCollection');

// START FullGenerativeOpenAI
await client.collections.create({
  name: 'DemoCollection',
  generative: weaviate.configure.generative.openAI({
    // // These parameters are optional
    // model: 'gpt-4',
    // frequencyPenaltyProperty: 0,
    // maxTokensProperty: 500,
    // presencePenaltyProperty: 0,
    // temperatureProperty: 0.7,
    // topPProperty: 0.7,
  }),
  // Additional parameters not shown
});
// END FullGenerativeOpenAI

// Clean up
await client.collections.delete('DemoCollection');

// START FullGenerativeKubeAI
await client.collections.create({
  name: 'DemoCollection',
  generative: weaviate.configure.generative.openAI({
    // Setting the model and base_url is required
    model: 'gpt-3.5-turbo',
    baseURL: 'http://kubeai/openai',
    // These parameters are optional
    // frequencyPenaltyProperty: 0,
    // maxTokensProperty: 500,
    // presencePenaltyProperty: 0,
    // temperatureProperty: 0.7,
    // topPProperty: 0.7,
  }),
  // Additional parameters not shown
});
// END FullGenerativeKubeAI

// Clean up
await client.collections.delete('DemoCollection');

// START BasicGenerativeAzureOpenAI
await client.collections.create({
  name: 'DemoCollection',
  generative: weaviate.configure.generative.azureOpenAI({
    resourceName: '<azure-resource-name>',
    deploymentId: '<azure-deployment-id>',
  }),
  // Additional parameters not shown
});
// END BasicGenerativeAzureOpenAI

// Clean up
await client.collections.delete('DemoCollection');

// START FullGenerativeAzureOpenAI
await client.collections.create({
  name: 'DemoCollection',
  generative: weaviate.configure.generative.azureOpenAI({
    resourceName: '<azure-resource-name>',
    deploymentId: '<azure-deployment-id>',
    // // These parameters are optional
    // frequencyPenaltyProperty: 0,
    // maxTokensProperty: 500,
    // presencePenaltyProperty: 0,
    // temperatureProperty: 0.7,
    // topPProperty: 0.7,
  }),
  // Additional parameters not shown
});
// END FullGenerativeAzureOpenAI

// START BasicGenerativeOllama
await client.collections.create({
  name: 'DemoCollection',
  generative: weaviate.configure.generative.ollama({
    apiEndpoint: 'http://host.docker.internal:11434',  // If using Docker, use this to contact your local Ollama instance
    model: 'llama3',  // The model to use, e.g. 'phi3', or 'mistral', 'command-r-plus', 'gemma'
  }),
  // Additional parameters not shown
});
// END BasicGenerativeOllama

// Clean up
await client.collections.delete('DemoCollection');

// START FullGenerativeOllama
await client.collections.create({
  name: 'DemoCollection',
  generative: weaviate.configure.generative.ollama({
    apiEndpoint: 'http://host.docker.internal:11434',  // If using Docker, use this to contact your local Ollama instance
    model: 'llama3',  // The model to use, e.g. 'phi3', or 'mistral', 'command-r-plus', 'gemma'
  }),
  // Additional parameters not shown
});
// END FullGenerativeOllama

// Clean up
await client.collections.delete('DemoCollection');

// START SinglePromptExample  // START GroupedTaskExample
let myCollection = client.collections.get('DemoCollection');
// START SinglePromptExample  // END GroupedTaskExample

const singlePromptResults = await myCollection.generate.nearText(
  ['A holiday film'],
  {
    singlePrompt: `Translate this into French: {title}`,
  },
  {
    limit: 2,
  }
);

for (const obj of singlePromptResults.objects) {
  console.log(obj.properties['title']);
  console.log(`Generated output: ${obj.generated}`);  // Note that the generated output is per object
}
// END SinglePromptExample

// START GroupedTaskExample
const groupedTaskResults = await myCollection.generate.nearText(
  ['A holiday film'],
  {
    groupedTask: `Write a fun tweet to promote readers to check out these films.`,
  },
  {
    limit: 2,
  }
);

console.log(`Generated output: ${groupedTaskResults.generated}`);  // Note that the generated output is per query
for (const obj of groupedTaskResults.objects) {
  console.log(obj.properties['title']);
}
// END GroupedTaskExample

client.close();

  API docs

Select a model

You can specify one of the available models for Weaviate to use, as shown in the following configuration example:

Python API v4

from weaviate.classes.config import Configure

client.collections.create(
    "DemoCollection",
    generative_config=Configure.Generative.openai(
        model="gpt-4-1106-preview"
    )
    # Additional parameters not shown
)

  API docs

JS/TS API v3

  API docs

You can specify one of the available models for Weaviate to use. The default model is used if no model is specified.

Generative parameters

Configure the following generative parameters to customize the model behavior.

Python API v4

from weaviate.classes.config import Configure

client.collections.create(
    "DemoCollection",
    generative_config=Configure.Generative.openai(
        # # These parameters are optional
        # model="gpt-4",
        # frequency_penalty=0,
        # max_tokens=500,
        # presence_penalty=0,
        # temperature=0.7,
        # top_p=0.7,
        # base_url="<custom_openai_url>"
    )
    # Additional parameters not shown
)

  API docs

JS/TS API v3

await client.collections.create({
  name: 'DemoCollection',
  generative: weaviate.configure.generative.openAI({
    // // These parameters are optional
    // model: 'gpt-4',
    // frequencyPenaltyProperty: 0,
    // maxTokensProperty: 500,
    // presencePenaltyProperty: 0,
    // temperatureProperty: 0.7,
    // topPProperty: 0.7,
  }),
  // Additional parameters not shown
});

  API docs

For further details on model parameters, see the OpenAI API documentation.

Retrieval augmented generation

After configuring the generative AI integration, perform RAG operations, either with the single prompt or grouped task method.

Single prompt

To generate text for each object in the search results, use the single prompt method.

The example below generates outputs for each of the n search results, where n is specified by the limit parameter.

When creating a single prompt query, use braces {} to interpolate the object properties you want Weaviate to pass on to the language model. For example, to pass on the object's title property, include {title} in the query.

Python API v4

collection = client.collections.get("DemoCollection")

response = collection.generate.near_text(
    query="A holiday film",  # The model provider integration will automatically vectorize the query
    single_prompt="Translate this into French: {title}",
    limit=2
)

for obj in response.objects:
    print(obj.properties["title"])
    print(f"Generated output: {obj.generated}")  # Note that the generated output is per object

  API docs

JS/TS API v3

let myCollection = client.collections.get('DemoCollection');

const singlePromptResults = await myCollection.generate.nearText(
  ['A holiday film'],
  {
    singlePrompt: `Translate this into French: {title}`,
  },
  {
    limit: 2,
  }
);

for (const obj of singlePromptResults.objects) {
  console.log(obj.properties['title']);
  console.log(`Generated output: ${obj.generated}`);  // Note that the generated output is per object
}

  API docs

Grouped task

To generate one text for the entire set of search results, use the grouped task method.

In other words, when you have n search results, the generative model generates one output for the entire group.

Python API v4

collection = client.collections.get("DemoCollection")

response = collection.generate.near_text(
    query="A holiday film",  # The model provider integration will automatically vectorize the query
    grouped_task="Write a fun tweet to promote readers to check out these films.",
    limit=2
)

print(f"Generated output: {response.generated}")  # Note that the generated output is per query
for obj in response.objects:
    print(obj.properties["title"])

  API docs

JS/TS API v3

let myCollection = client.collections.get('DemoCollection');
const groupedTaskResults = await myCollection.generate.nearText(
  ['A holiday film'],
  {
    groupedTask: `Write a fun tweet to promote readers to check out these films.`,
  },
  {
    limit: 2,
  }
);

console.log(`Generated output: ${groupedTaskResults.generated}`);  // Note that the generated output is per query
for (const obj of groupedTaskResults.objects) {
  console.log(obj.properties['title']);
}

  API docs

References

Available models

• gpt-3.5-turbo (default)
• gpt-3.5-turbo-16k
• gpt-3.5-turbo-1106
• gpt-4
• gpt-4-1106-preview
• gpt-4-32k
• gpt-4o
• gpt-4o-mini (Added in v1.26.7)

Older models

The following models are available, but not recommended:

• davinci 002
• davinci 003

Further resources

Other integrations

• OpenAI embedding models + Weaviate.

Code examples

Once the integrations are configured at the collection, the data management and search operations in Weaviate work identically to any other collection. See the following model-agnostic examples:

• The how-to: manage data guides show how to perform data operations (i.e. create, update, delete).
• The how-to: search guides show how to perform search operations (i.e. vector, keyword, hybrid) as well as retrieval augmented generation.

References

• OpenAI Chat API documentation

Questions and feedback

If you have any questions or feedback, let us know in the user forum.

• Technical questions
• Documentation feedback