Weaviate

Set up a Weaviate Instance

Weaviate is an open-source vector search engine designed to scale seamlessly into billions of data objects. This implementation supports hybrid search out-of-the-box (meaning it will perform better for keyword searches).

You can run Weaviate in 4 ways:

• SaaS – with Weaviate Cloud Services (WCS).

  WCS is a fully managed service that takes care of hosting, scaling, and updating your Weaviate instance. You can try it out for free with a sandbox that lasts for 30 days.

  To set up a SaaS Weaviate instance with WCS:

  1. Navigate to Weaviate Cloud Console.
  2. Register or sign in to your WCS account.
  3. Create a new cluster with the following settings:
     • Name – a unique name for your cluster. The name will become part of the URL used to access this instance.
     • Subscription Tier – Sandbox for a free trial, or contact [email protected] for other options.
     • Weaviate Version - The latest version by default.
     • OIDC Authentication – Enabled by default. This requires a username and password to access your instance.
  4. Wait for a few minutes until your cluster is ready. You will see a green tick ✔️ when it's done. Copy your cluster URL.

• Hybrid SaaS

  If you need to keep your data on-premise for security or compliance reasons, Weaviate also offers a Hybrid SaaS option: Weaviate runs within your cloud instances, but the cluster is managed remotely by Weaviate. This gives you the benefits of a managed service without sending data to an external party.

  The Weaviate Hybrid SaaS is a custom solution. If you are interested in this option, please reach out to [email protected].

• Self-hosted – with a Docker container

  To set up a Weaviate instance with Docker:

  1. Install Docker on your local machine if it is not already installed.

  2. Install the Docker Compose Plugin

  3. Download a docker-compose.yml file with this curl command:

     Copy

     curl -o docker-compose.yml "https://configuration.weaviate.io/v2/docker-compose/docker-compose.yml?modules=standalone&runtime=docker-compose&weaviate_version=v1.18.0"
     

     Alternatively, you can use Weaviate's docker compose configuration tool to generate your own docker-compose.yml file.

  4. Run docker compose up -d to spin up a Weaviate instance.

     To shut it down, run docker compose down.

• Self-hosted – with a Kubernetes cluster

  To configure a self-hosted instance with Kubernetes, follow Weaviate's documentation.

Configure Weaviate Environment Variables

You need to set some environment variables to connect to your Weaviate instance.

Retrieval App Environment Variables

Name	Required	Description
DATASTORE	Yes	Datastore name. Set this to weaviate
BEARER_TOKEN	Yes	Your secret token (not the Weaviate one)
OPENAI_API_KEY	Yes	Your OpenAI API key

Weaviate Datastore Environment Variables

Name	Required	Description	Default
WEAVIATE_URL	Optional	Your weaviate instance's url/WCS endpoint	http://localhost:8080
WEAVIATE_CLASS	Optional	Your chosen Weaviate class/collection name to store your documents	OpenAIDocument

Weaviate Auth Environment Variables

If using WCS instances, set the following environment variables:

Name	Required	Description
WEAVIATE_API_KEY	Yes	Your API key WCS

Learn more about accessing your WCS API key.