Vector Search Cheat Sheet

Last Updated: November 21, 2025

Embedding Models

Model Use case
OpenAI text-embedding-ada-002 Semantic similarity for text
Sentence Transformers Offline batch embedding
CLIP Image-to-text matching

Similarity Metrics

Metric Behavior
Cosine Angle between vectors (scale-invariant)
Dot product Retains scale; use for dense retrieval
Euclidean Good for hierarchical spaces

Query Flow

Encode the query, fetch candidates via ANN index, rerank with hybrid signals, and synthesize response.

💡 Pro Tip: Normalize vectors before comparison when mix of scales could distort cosine distance.
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