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A knowledge base is an advanced system that organizes information based on semantic meaning rather than simple keyword matching. It integrates embedding models, reranking models, and vector stores to enable context-aware data retrieval. By performing semantic reasoning across multiple data points, a knowledge base delivers deeper insights and more accurate responses, making it a powerful tool for intelligent data access.
Learn more about features of knowledge bases available via SQL API.
Before diving into the syntax, here is a quick walkthrough showing how knowledge bases work in MindsDB. We start by creating a knowledge base and inserting data. Next we can run semantic search queries with metadata filtering.
1

Create a knowledge base

Use the create() function to create a knowledge base, specifying all its components.
server = mindsdb_sdk.connect()
project = server.get_project()

my_kb = project.knowledge_bases.create(
    'my_kb',
    embedding_model={'provider': 'openai', 'model_name': 'text-embedding-3-small', 'api_key': 'sk-...'},
    reranking_model={'provider': 'openai', 'model_name': 'gpt-4o', 'api_key': 'sk-...'},
    storage=server.databases.my_vector_db.tables.my_table,
    metadata_columns=['product'],
    content_columns=['notes'],
    id_column='order_id'
)
2

Insert data into the knowledge base

In this example, we use a simple dataset containing customer notes for product orders which will be inserted into the knowledge base.
+----------+-----------------------+------------------------+
| order_id | product               | notes                  |
+----------+-----------------------+------------------------+
| A1B      | Wireless Mouse        | Request color: black   |
| 3XZ      | Bluetooth Speaker     | Gift wrap requested    |
| Q7P      | Aluminum Laptop Stand | Prefer aluminum finish |
+----------+-----------------------+------------------------+
Use the insert_query() function to ingest data into the knowledge base from a query.
my_kb.insert_query(
    server.databases.sample_data.tables.orders
)
3

Run semantic search on the knowledge base

Query the knowledge base using semantic search.
results = my_kb.find('color')

print(results.fetch())
This query returns:
+-----+----------------------+-------------------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-----------------------+--------------------+--------------------+
| id  | chunk_id             | chunk_content           | metadata                                                                                                                                                                                            | product               | distance           | relevance          |
+-----+----------------------+-------------------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-----------------------+--------------------+--------------------+
| A1B | A1B_notes:1of1:0to20 | Request color: black    | {"chunk_index":0,"content_column":"notes","end_char":20,"original_doc_id":"A1B_notes","original_row_id":"A1B","product":"Wireless Mouse","source":"TextChunkingPreprocessor","start_char":0}        | Wireless Mouse        | 0.5743341242061104 | 0.5093188026135379 |
| Q7P | Q7P_notes:1of1:0to22 | Prefer aluminum finish  | {"chunk_index":0,"content_column":"notes","end_char":22,"original_doc_id":"Q7P_notes","original_row_id":"Q7P","product":"Aluminum Laptop Stand","source":"TextChunkingPreprocessor","start_char":0} | Aluminum Laptop Stand | 0.7744703514692067 | 0.2502580835880018 |
| 3XZ | 3XZ_notes:1of1:0to19 | Gift wrap requested     | {"chunk_index":0,"content_column":"notes","end_char":19,"original_doc_id":"3XZ_notes","original_row_id":"3XZ","product":"Bluetooth Speaker","source":"TextChunkingPreprocessor","start_char":0}     | Bluetooth Speaker     | 0.8010851611432231 | 0.2500003885558766 |
+-----+----------------------+-------------------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-----------------------+--------------------+--------------------+
4

Get the most relevant search results

Query the knowledge base using semantic search and define the relevance parameter to receive only the best matching data for your use case.
results = project.query(
    '''
    SELECT *
    FROM my_kb
    WHERE content = 'color'
    AND relevance >= 0.2502;
    '''
)

print(results.fetch())
This query returns:
+-----+----------------------+-------------------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-----------------------+--------------------+--------------------+
| id  | chunk_id             | chunk_content           | metadata                                                                                                                                                                                            | product               | distance           | relevance          |
+-----+----------------------+-------------------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-----------------------+--------------------+--------------------+
| A1B | A1B_notes:1of1:0to20 | Request color: black    | {"chunk_index":0,"content_column":"notes","end_char":20,"original_doc_id":"A1B_notes","original_row_id":"A1B","product":"Wireless Mouse","source":"TextChunkingPreprocessor","start_char":0}        | Wireless Mouse        | 0.5743341242061104 | 0.5093188026135379 |
| Q7P | Q7P_notes:1of1:0to22 | Prefer aluminum finish  | {"chunk_index":0,"content_column":"notes","end_char":22,"original_doc_id":"Q7P_notes","original_row_id":"Q7P","product":"Aluminum Laptop Stand","source":"TextChunkingPreprocessor","start_char":0} | Aluminum Laptop Stand | 0.7744703514692067 | 0.2502580835880018 |
+-----+----------------------+-------------------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-----------------------+--------------------+--------------------+
5

Filter results by metadata

Add metadata filtering to focus your search.
results = project.query(
    '''
    SELECT *
    FROM my_kb
    WHERE product = 'Wireless Mouse'
    AND content = 'color'
    AND relevance >= 0.2502;
    '''
)

print(results.fetch())
This query returns:
+-----+----------------------+------------------------+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+----------------+--------------------+-------------------+
| id  | chunk_id             | chunk_content          | metadata                                                                                                                                                                                     | product        | distance           | relevance         |
+-----+----------------------+------------------------+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+----------------+--------------------+-------------------+
| A1B | A1B_notes:1of1:0to20 | Request color: black   | {"chunk_index":0,"content_column":"notes","end_char":20,"original_doc_id":"A1B_notes","original_row_id":"A1B","product":"Wireless Mouse","source":"TextChunkingPreprocessor","start_char":0} | Wireless Mouse | 0.5743341242061104 | 0.504396172197583 |
+-----+----------------------+------------------------+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+----------------+--------------------+-------------------+