Qdrant Advanced
Production-ready Qdrant vector database operations for AI agents. Complete toolkit for semantic search, document ingestion, collection management, backups, and migrations.
Quick Start
# Set environment variables
export QDRANT_HOST="localhost"
export QDRANT_PORT="6333"
export OPENAI_API_KEY="sk-..."
# List collections
bash manage.sh list
# Create a collection
bash manage.sh create my_collection 1536 cosine
# Ingest a document
bash ingest.sh /path/to/document.txt my_collection paragraph
# Search
bash search.sh "my search query" my_collection 5
Scripts Overview
| Script | Purpose | Key Features |
|---|---|---|
search.sh | Semantic search | Multi-collection, filters, score thresholds |
ingest.sh | Document ingestion | Contextual chunking, batch upload, progress |
manage.sh | Collection management | Create, delete, list, info, optimize |
backup.sh | Snapshots | Full collection snapshots, restore, list |
migrate.sh | Migrations | Collection-to-collection, embedding model upgrades |
Environment Variables
| Variable | Required | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
QDRANT_HOST | No | localhost | Qdrant server hostname |
QDRANT_PORT | No | 6333 | Qdrant server port |
OPENAI_API_KEY | Yes* | - | OpenAI API key for embeddings |
QDRANT_API_KEY | No | - | Qdrant API key (if auth enabled) |
*Required for ingest and search operations
Detailed Usage
Semantic Search
bash search.sh <query> <collection> [limit] [filter_json]
Examples:
# Basic search
bash search.sh "machine learning tutorials" my_docs 10
# With metadata filter
bash search.sh "deployment guide" my_docs 5 '{"must": [{"key": "category", "match": {"value": "devops"}}]}'
# Score threshold
bash search.sh "error handling" my_docs 10 "" 0.8
Output:
{
"results": [
{
"id": "doc-001",
"score": 0.92,
"text": "When handling errors in production...",
"metadata": {"source": "docs/error-handling.md"}
}
]
}
Document Ingestion
bash ingest.sh <file_path> <collection> [chunk_strategy] [metadata_json]
Chunk Strategies:
| Strategy | Description | Best For |
|---|---|---|
paragraph | Split by paragraphs (\n\n) | Articles, docs |
sentence | Split by sentences | Short content |
fixed | Fixed 1000 char chunks | Code, logs |
semantic | Semantic boundaries | Long documents |
Examples:
# Ingest with paragraph chunking
bash ingest.sh article.md my_collection paragraph
# With custom metadata
bash ingest.sh api.md my_collection paragraph '{"category": "api", "version": "2.0"}'
# Ingest multiple files
for f in docs/*.md; do
bash ingest.sh "$f" my_collection paragraph
done
Collection Management
bash manage.sh <command> [args...]
Commands:
| Command | Arguments | Description |
|---|---|---|
list | - | List all collections |
create | name dim distance | Create new collection |
delete | name | Delete collection |
info | name | Get collection info |
optimize | name | Optimize collection |
Examples:
bash manage.sh list
bash manage.sh create my_vectors 1536 cosine
bash manage.sh create my_vectors 768 euclid
bash manage.sh info my_vectors
bash manage.sh optimize my_vectors
bash manage.sh delete my_vectors
Backup & Restore
bash backup.sh <command> [args...]
Commands:
| Command | Arguments | Description |
|---|---|---|
snapshot | collection [snapshot_name] | Create snapshot |
restore | collection snapshot_name | Restore from snapshot |
list | collection | List snapshots |
delete | collection snapshot_name | Delete snapshot |
Examples:
# Create snapshot
bash backup.sh snapshot my_collection
bash backup.sh snapshot my_collection backup_2026_02_10
# List snapshots
bash backup.sh list my_collection
# Restore
bash backup.sh restore my_collection backup_2026_02_10
# Delete old snapshot
bash backup.sh delete my_collection old_backup
Migration
bash migrate.sh <source_collection> <target_collection> [options]
Migration Types:
- Copy Collection: Same embedding model, different name
- Model Upgrade: Upgrade to new embedding model (re-embeds)
- Filter Migration: Migrate subset with filter
Examples:
# Simple copy
bash migrate.sh old_collection new_collection
# With model upgrade (re-embeds all content)
bash migrate.sh old_collection new_collection --upgrade-model
# Filtered migration
bash migrate.sh old_collection new_collection --filter '{"category": "public"}'
# Batch size for large collections
bash migrate.sh old_collection new_collection --batch-size 50
Chunking Deep Dive
The ingest script provides intelligent chunking to preserve context:
Paragraph Chunking
- Splits on double newlines
- Preserves paragraph structure
- Adds overlap of 2 sentences between chunks
- Best for: Articles, documentation, blogs
Sentence Chunking
- Splits on sentence boundaries
- Minimal overlap
- Best for: Short content, tweets, quotes
Fixed Chunking
- Fixed 1000 character chunks
- 200 character overlap
- Best for: Code files, logs, unstructured text
Semantic Chunking
- Uses paragraph + header detection
- Preserves document structure
- Best for: Long documents with headers
API Reference
All scripts use Qdrant REST API:
GET /collections # List collections
PUT /collections/{name} # Create collection
DELETE /collections/{name} # Delete collection
GET /collections/{name} # Collection info
POST /collections/{name}/points/search # Search
PUT /collections/{name}/points # Upsert points
POST /snapshots # Create snapshot
GET /collections/{name}/snapshots # List snapshots
Full docs: https://qdrant.tech/documentation/
Performance Tips
- Batch uploads: ingest.sh automatically batches uploads (default 100)
- Optimize after bulk insert:
bash manage.sh optimize my_collection - Use filters: Narrow search scope with metadata filters
- Set score thresholds: Filter low-quality matches
- Index metadata: Add payload indexes for faster filtering
Troubleshooting
"Connection refused"
- Check Qdrant is running:
curl http://$QDRANT_HOST:$QDRANT_PORT/healthz - Verify host/port environment variables
"Collection not found"
- List collections:
bash manage.sh list - Check collection name spelling
"No search results"
- Verify documents were ingested:
bash manage.sh info my_collection - Check vector dimensions match (e.g., 1536 for text-embedding-3-small)
- Try lowering score threshold
Embedding errors
- Verify OPENAI_API_KEY is set
- Check API key has quota available
- Verify network access to OpenAI API
Snapshot fails
- Check disk space available
- Verify Qdrant has snapshot permissions
- For large collections, try during low-traffic periods
Requirements
- Qdrant server v1.0+
- curl, python3, bash
- OpenAI API key (for embeddings)
- Network access to Qdrant and OpenAI
See Also
- Qdrant Docs: https://qdrant.tech/documentation/
- OpenAI Embeddings: https://platform.openai.com/docs/guides/embeddings
- Vector Search Guide: https://qdrant.tech/documentation/concepts/search/