---
layout: default
title: Semantic search
nav_order: 35
has_children: false
redirect_from:
  - /search-plugins/neural-text-search/
---

# Semantic search

Semantic search considers the context and intent of a query. In OpenSearch, semantic search is facilitated by neural search with text embedding models. Semantic search creates a dense vector (a list of floats) and ingests data into a k-NN index. 

**PREREQUISITE**<br>
Before using semantic search, you must set up a text embedding model. For more information, see [Choosing a model]({{site.url}}{{site.baseurl}}/ml-commons-plugin/integrating-ml-models/#choosing-a-model).
{: .note}

## Using semantic search

To use semantic search, follow these steps:

1. [Create an ingest pipeline](#step-1-create-an-ingest-pipeline).
1. [Create an index for ingestion](#step-2-create-an-index-for-ingestion).
1. [Ingest documents into the index](#step-3-ingest-documents-into-the-index).
1. [Search the index using neural search](#step-4-search-the-index-using-neural-search).

## Step 1: Create an ingest pipeline

To generate vector embeddings, you need to create an [ingest pipeline]({{site.url}}{{site.baseurl}}/api-reference/ingest-apis/index/) that contains a [`text_embedding` processor]({{site.url}}{{site.baseurl}}/api-reference/ingest-apis/processors/text-embedding/), which will convert the text in a document field to vector embeddings. The processor's `field_map` determines the input fields from which to generate vector embeddings and the output fields in which to store the embeddings.

The following example request creates an ingest pipeline where the text from `passage_text` will be converted into text embeddings and the embeddings will be stored in `passage_embedding`:

```json
PUT /_ingest/pipeline/nlp-ingest-pipeline
{
  "description": "A text embedding pipeline",
  "processors": [
    {
      "text_embedding": {
        "model_id": "bQ1J8ooBpBj3wT4HVUsb",
        "field_map": {
          "passage_text": "passage_embedding"
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}
```
{% include copy-curl.html %}

## Step 2: Create an index for ingestion

In order to use the text embedding processor defined in your pipeline, create a k-NN index, adding the pipeline created in the previous step as the default pipeline. Ensure that the fields defined in the `field_map` are mapped as correct types. Continuing with the example, the `passage_embedding` field must be mapped as a k-NN vector with a dimension that matches the model dimension. Similarly, the `passage_text` field should be mapped as `text`.

The following example request creates a k-NN index that is set up with a default ingest pipeline:

```json
PUT /my-nlp-index
{
  "settings": {
    "index.knn": true,
    "default_pipeline": "nlp-ingest-pipeline"
  },
  "mappings": {
    "properties": {
      "id": {
        "type": "text"
      },
      "passage_embedding": {
        "type": "knn_vector",
        "dimension": 768,
        "method": {
          "engine": "lucene",
          "space_type": "l2",
          "name": "hnsw",
          "parameters": {}
        }
      },
      "passage_text": {
        "type": "text"
      }
    }
  }
}
```
{% include copy-curl.html %}

For more information about creating a k-NN index and its supported methods, see [k-NN index]({{site.url}}{{site.baseurl}}/search-plugins/knn/knn-index/).

## Step 3: Ingest documents into the index

To ingest documents into the index created in the previous step, send the following requests:

```json
PUT /my-nlp-index/_doc/1
{
  "passage_text": "Hello world",
  "id": "s1"
}
```
{% include copy-curl.html %}

```json
PUT /my-nlp-index/_doc/2
{
  "passage_text": "Hi planet",
  "id": "s2"
}
```
{% include copy-curl.html %}

Before the document is ingested into the index, the ingest pipeline runs the `text_embedding` processor on the document, generating text embeddings for the `passage_text` field. The indexed document includes the `passage_text` field, which contains the original text, and the `passage_embedding` field, which contains the vector embeddings. 

## Step 4: Search the index using neural search

To perform vector search on your index, use the `neural` query clause either in the [k-NN plugin API]({{site.url}}{{site.baseurl}}/search-plugins/knn/api/#search-model) or [Query DSL]({{site.url}}{{site.baseurl}}/opensearch/query-dsl/index/) queries. You can refine the results by using a [k-NN search filter]({{site.url}}{{site.baseurl}}/search-plugins/knn/filter-search-knn/).

The following example request uses a Boolean query to combine a filter clause and two query clauses---a neural query and a `match` query. The `script_score` query assigns custom weights to the query clauses:

```json
GET /my-nlp-index/_search
{
  "_source": {
    "excludes": [
      "passage_embedding"
    ]
  },
  "query": {
    "bool": {
      "filter": {
         "wildcard":  { "id": "*1" }
      },
      "should": [
        {
          "script_score": {
            "query": {
              "neural": {
                "passage_embedding": {
                  "query_text": "Hi world",
                  "model_id": "bQ1J8ooBpBj3wT4HVUsb",
                  "k": 100
                }
              }
            },
            "script": {
              "source": "_score * 1.5"
            }
          }
        },
        {
          "script_score": {
            "query": {
              "match": {
                "passage_text": "Hi world"
              }
            },
            "script": {
              "source": "_score * 1.7"
            }
          }
        }
      ]
    }
  }
}
```
{% include copy-curl.html %}

The response contains the matching document:

```json
{
  "took" : 36,
  "timed_out" : false,
  "_shards" : {
    "total" : 1,
    "successful" : 1,
    "skipped" : 0,
    "failed" : 0
  },
  "hits" : {
    "total" : {
      "value" : 1,
      "relation" : "eq"
    },
    "max_score" : 1.2251667,
    "hits" : [
      {
        "_index" : "my-nlp-index",
        "_id" : "1",
        "_score" : 1.2251667,
        "_source" : {
          "passage_text" : "Hello world",
          "id" : "s1"
        }
      }
    ]
  }
}
```

## Setting a default model on an index or field

A [`neural`]({{site.url}}{{site.baseurl}}/query-dsl/specialized/neural/) query requires a model ID for generating vector embeddings. To eliminate passing the model ID with each neural query request, you can set a default model on a k-NN index or a field. 

First, create a [search pipeline]({{site.url}}{{site.baseurl}}/search-plugins/search-pipelines/index/) with a [`neural_query_enricher`]({{site.url}}{{site.baseurl}}/search-plugins/search-pipelines/neural-query-enricher/) request processor. To set a default model for an index, provide the model ID in the `default_model_id` parameter. To set a default model for a specific field, provide the field name and the corresponding model ID in the `neural_field_default_id` map. If you provide both `default_model_id` and `neural_field_default_id`, `neural_field_default_id` takes precedence:

```json
PUT /_search/pipeline/default_model_pipeline 
{
  "request_processors": [
    {
      "neural_query_enricher" : {
        "default_model_id": "bQ1J8ooBpBj3wT4HVUsb",
        "neural_field_default_id": {
           "my_field_1": "uZj0qYoBMtvQlfhaYeud",
           "my_field_2": "upj0qYoBMtvQlfhaZOuM"
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}
```
{% include copy-curl.html %}

Then set the default model for your index:

```json
PUT /my-nlp-index/_settings
{
  "index.search.default_pipeline" : "default_model_pipeline"
}
```
{% include copy-curl.html %}

You can now omit the model ID when searching:

```json
GET /my-nlp-index/_search
{
  "_source": {
    "excludes": [
      "passage_embedding"
    ]
  },
  "query": {
    "neural": {
      "passage_embedding": {
        "query_text": "Hi world",
        "k": 100
      }
    }
  }
}
```
{% include copy-curl.html %}

The response contains both documents:

```json
{
  "took" : 41,
  "timed_out" : false,
  "_shards" : {
    "total" : 1,
    "successful" : 1,
    "skipped" : 0,
    "failed" : 0
  },
  "hits" : {
    "total" : {
      "value" : 2,
      "relation" : "eq"
    },
    "max_score" : 1.22762,
    "hits" : [
      {
        "_index" : "my-nlp-index",
        "_id" : "2",
        "_score" : 1.22762,
        "_source" : {
          "passage_text" : "Hi planet",
          "id" : "s2"
        }
      },
      {
        "_index" : "my-nlp-index",
        "_id" : "1",
        "_score" : 1.2251667,
        "_source" : {
          "passage_text" : "Hello world",
          "id" : "s1"
        }
      }
    ]
  }
}
```