Milvus Embedded Group By - Design Document

Version: 1.0 Date: 2026-01-30 Author: Milvus Development Team Status: Draft

1. Overview

1.1 Background

Current Milvus Search Group By only supports single-field grouping. This document describes the design for Embedded Group By, which introduces:

Nested Grouping: Multi-level hierarchical grouping (category → brand → ...)
Per-Group Metrics: Aggregate statistics (count/max/min/avg/sum) at each group level
Structured Results: Tree-shaped JSON response avoiding data duplication

1.2 Design Principles

Segcore: Only extend for multi-field flat group by (no nesting, no metrics awareness)
Reduce: Reuse existing reducers (flat composite key merge)
EmbeddedGroupOperator: New proxy-side operator handles nesting and metrics

2. Architecture

2.1 Data Flow

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                         Proxy (Pre-Processing)                            │
│  1. Parse embedded_group_by                                               │
│  2. Flatten to multi-field group_by_field_ids                            │
│  3. Ensure metric fields in output_fields                                 │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                                    ↓
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                              QueryNode                                    │
│  Segcore: PhySearchGroupByNode (extended for multi-field)                │
│    - Group by [category, brand] as flat composite key                    │
│  Reduce: Existing flat reduce by composite key                           │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                                    ↓
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                         Proxy (Reduce)                                    │
│  MilvusAggReducer: Merge results from shards by composite key (flat)     │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                                    ↓
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                    Proxy (EmbeddedGroupOperator)                          │
│  1. Build nested tree from flat composite keys                           │
│  2. Compute metrics at each level (bottom-up)                            │
│  3. Apply size limits (prune tree)                                       │
│  4. Format nested JSON response                                          │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                                    ↓
                                 Client

2.2 Layer Responsibilities

Layer	Responsibility	Nesting Aware?	Metrics Aware?
Segcore	Multi-field flat group by	No	No
QueryNode Reduce	Merge by composite key	No	No
Proxy Reduce	Merge by composite key	No	No
EmbeddedGroupOperator	Tree + metrics + pruning	Yes	Yes

3. API Design

3.1 Request

python

results = client.search(
    collection_name="products",
    data=[query_vector],
    limit=5,  # documents per leaf group
    embedded_group_by={
        "field": "category",
        "size": 10,
        "metrics": [{"type": "count"}, {"type": "avg", "field": "price"}],
        "sub_group_by": {
            "field": "brand",
            "size": 5,
            "metrics": [{"type": "count"}, {"type": "max", "field": "rating"}]
        }
    }
)

3.2 Response

json

{
    "groups": [
        {
            "key": "electronics",
            "doc_count": 100,
            "metrics": {"count": 100, "avg_price": 549.99},
            "sub_groups": [
                {
                    "key": "Apple",
                    "doc_count": 45,
                    "metrics": {"count": 45, "max_rating": 4.9},
                    "documents": [{"id": 123, "distance": 0.15}, ...]
                }
            ]
        }
    ]
}

3.3 Constraints

Maximum nesting depth: 3 levels
Maximum size per level: 1000
Supported metrics: count, sum, avg, min, max

4. Segcore: Multi-Field Group By

4.1 Key Change

Extend PhySearchGroupByNode to support grouping by multiple fields using a CompositeGroupKey.

4.2 CompositeGroupKey

Property	Description
Structure	`vector<GroupByValueType>` - one value per field
Hash	FNV-1a combining hash of each value
Equality	Element-wise comparison

4.3 Grouping Logic

Iterate vector search results via iterator
For each result, read values for all group-by fields → build CompositeGroupKey
Use unordered_map<CompositeGroupKey, entries> for grouping
Each composite group keeps at most group_size results
Early termination when all groups are full

4.4 SearchResult Extension

Add composite_group_by_values_ field to store one CompositeGroupKey per result.

5. Reduce: Composite Key Merge

5.1 Logic

Reduce operates on flat composite keys - no tree awareness.

Use priority queue (min-heap by distance)
Track count per composite key: map<CompositeGroupKey, count>
Accept result if count[key] < group_size
Merge results from multiple segments/shards

5.2 Reuse

QueryNode: Extend existing SearchGroupByReduce for composite keys
Proxy: Extend existing MilvusAggReducer for composite keys

6. EmbeddedGroupOperator

6.1 Purpose

Post-reduction operator that transforms flat results into nested structure with metrics.

6.2 Execution Steps

Step	Input	Output
1. Build Tree	Flat composite keys	Nested GroupNode tree
2. Compute Metrics	Document field values	Metrics at each node
3. Prune Tree	Size limits per level	Trimmed tree
4. Format Response	GroupNode tree	Nested JSON

6.3 Tree Building

Transform flat (category, brand) composite keys into nested structure:

Flat: [("electronics", "Apple"), ("electronics", "Samsung"), ("books", "Penguin")]
         ↓
Tree:
  ├─ electronics
  │    ├─ Apple → [documents]
  │    └─ Samsung → [documents]
  └─ books
       └─ Penguin → [documents]

6.4 Metrics Computation

Strategy: Bottom-up computation from leaf to root.

Node Type	Computation
Leaf	Compute from documents (e.g., avg = sum of prices / count)
Non-leaf	Roll up from children (e.g., count = sum of child counts)

Roll-up rules:

Metric	Roll-Up
count	Sum of child counts
sum	Sum of child sums
avg	(Sum of child sums) / (Sum of child counts)
min	Min of child mins
max	Max of child maxes

6.5 Tree Pruning

At each level, keep only top size groups (sorted by doc_count descending).

7. Proto Changes

7.1 SearchInfo (Segcore)

protobuf

message SearchInfo {
    // Existing single-field (backward compatible)
    optional int64 group_by_field_id = 8;

    // New: multi-field flat group by
    repeated int64 group_by_field_ids = 15;
}

7.2 SearchResultData

protobuf

message CompositeGroupByValue {
    repeated GenericValue values = 1;
}

message SearchResultData {
    // New: composite keys for multi-field group by
    repeated CompositeGroupByValue composite_group_by_values = 20;
}

8. Key Design Decisions

8.1 Why Proxy-Side Metrics?

Option	Pros	Cons
Segcore metrics	Less data transfer	More segcore complexity
Proxy metrics	Simple segcore, reuse agg infra	Transfer field values

Decision: Proxy-side. Result set is limited, transfer overhead acceptable.

8.2 Why Flat Reduce + Post Transform?

Option	Pros	Cons
Tree reduce at each layer	Incremental	Complex, new reduce logic
Flat reduce + transform	Reuse existing reduce	Proxy does more work

Decision: Flat reduce. Reuses existing infrastructure, complexity isolated in one operator.

8.3 Backward Compatibility

Single-field group_by_field API unchanged
embedded_group_by is new parameter, mutually exclusive with group_by_field

9. File Changes

New Files

File	Purpose
`internal/proxy/embedded_group_operator.go`	Tree building, metrics, pruning

Modified Files

File	Change
`internal/core/src/common/Types.h`	Add `CompositeGroupKey`
`internal/core/src/common/QueryResult.h`	Add `composite_group_by_values_`
`internal/core/src/exec/operator/SearchGroupByNode.cpp`	Multi-field support
`internal/core/src/segcore/reduce/GroupReduce.cpp`	Composite key reduce
`internal/proxy/search_util.go`	Parse `embedded_group_by`
`internal/proxy/task_search.go`	Integrate EmbeddedGroupOperator
`pkg/proto/plan.proto`	Add `group_by_field_ids`, `CompositeGroupByValue`

10. Implementation Phases

Phase 1: Multi-Field Group By (Segcore)

CompositeGroupKey type and hash
Extend PhySearchGroupByNode
Extend reduce for composite keys
Proto changes

Phase 2: EmbeddedGroupOperator (Proxy)

Parse embedded_group_by parameter
Tree building from flat results
Metrics computation (bottom-up)
Tree pruning

Phase 3: Integration & Testing

End-to-end integration
PyMilvus client support
Unit and integration tests

11. Summary

┌─────────────┐     ┌──────────────────┐     ┌─────────────────────────┐
│   Segcore   │ --> │  Existing Reduce │ --> │  EmbeddedGroupOperator  │
│ Multi-field │     │  (flat composite │     │  - Build tree           │
│ flat group  │     │   key merge)     │     │  - Compute metrics      │
│ by          │     │                  │     │  - Prune & format       │
└─────────────┘     └──────────────────┘     └─────────────────────────┘

Key Points:

Segcore only handles flat multi-field grouping
Reduce reuses existing infrastructure with composite keys
EmbeddedGroupOperator handles all nesting and metrics logic at proxy

Document End