memvid-sdk 2.0.159

Single-file AI memory system for Python. Store, search, and query documents with built-in RAG.

memvid-sdk

A single-file AI memory system for Python. Store documents, search with BM25 + vector ranking, and run RAG queries from a portable .mv2 file.

Built on Rust with PyO3 bindings. No database setup, no external services required.

Install

pip install memvid-sdk

For framework integrations:

pip install "memvid-sdk[langchain]"    # LangChain tools
pip install "memvid-sdk[llamaindex]"   # LlamaIndex query engine
pip install "memvid-sdk[openai]"       # OpenAI function schemas
pip install "memvid-sdk[full]"         # All integrations

Quick Start

from memvid_sdk import create

# Create a memory file
mv = create("notes.mv2")

# Store some documents
mv.put(
    title="Project Update",
    label="meeting",
    text="Discussed Q4 roadmap. Alice will handle the frontend refactor.",
    metadata={"date": "2024-01-15", "attendees": ["Alice", "Bob"]}
)

mv.put(
    title="Technical Decision",
    label="architecture",
    text="Decided to use PostgreSQL for the main database. Redis for caching.",
)

# Search by keyword
results = mv.find("database")
for hit in results["hits"]:
    print(f"{hit['title']}: {hit['snippet']}")

# Ask a question
answer = mv.ask("What database are we using?", model="openai:gpt-4o-mini")
print(answer["text"])

# Close the file
mv.seal()

Core API

Opening and Creating

from memvid_sdk import create, use

# Create a new memory file
mv = create("notes.mv2")

# Open an existing file
mv = use("basic", "notes.mv2", mode="open")

# Create or open (auto mode)
mv = use("basic", "notes.mv2", mode="auto")

# Open read-only
mv = use("basic", "notes.mv2", read_only=True)

# Context manager (auto-closes)
with use("basic", "notes.mv2") as mv:
    mv.put(title="Note", label="general", text="Content here")

Storing Documents

# Store text content
mv.put(
    title="Meeting Notes",
    label="meeting",
    text="Discussed the new API design.",
    metadata={"date": "2024-01-15", "priority": "high"},
    tags=["api", "design", "q1"]
)

# Store a file (PDF, DOCX, TXT, etc.)
mv.put(
    title="Q4 Report",
    label="reports",
    file="./documents/q4-report.pdf"
)

# Store with both text and file
mv.put(
    title="Contract Summary",
    label="legal",
    text="Key terms: 2-year agreement, auto-renewal clause.",
    file="./contracts/agreement.pdf"
)

Batch Ingestion

For large imports, put_many is significantly faster:

documents = [
    {"title": "Doc 1", "label": "notes", "text": "First document content..."},
    {"title": "Doc 2", "label": "notes", "text": "Second document content..."},
    # ... thousands more
]

frame_ids = mv.put_many(documents)
print(f"Added {len(frame_ids)} documents")

Searching

# Lexical search (BM25 ranking)
results = mv.find("machine learning", k=10)

for hit in results["hits"]:
    print(f"{hit['title']}: {hit['snippet']}")

Search parameters:

Parameter	Type	Description
k	int	Number of results (default: 5)
snippet_chars	int	Snippet length (default: 240)
mode	str	"lex", "sem", or "auto"
scope	str	Filter by URI prefix

Semantic Search

Semantic search requires embeddings. Generate them during ingestion:

# Using local embeddings (bge-small, nomic, etc.)
mv.put(
    title="Document",
    text="Content here...",
    enable_embedding=True,
    embedding_model="bge-small"
)

# Using OpenAI embeddings
mv.put(
    title="Document",
    text="Content here...",
    enable_embedding=True,
    embedding_model="openai-small"  # requires OPENAI_API_KEY
)

Then search semantically:

results = mv.find("neural networks", mode="sem")

Windows users: Local embedding models (bge-small, nomic, etc.) are not available on Windows due to ONNX runtime limitations. Use OpenAI embeddings instead by setting OPENAI_API_KEY.

Question Answering (RAG)

# Basic RAG query
answer = mv.ask("What did we decide about the database?")
print(answer["text"])

# With specific model
answer = mv.ask(
    "Summarize the meeting notes",
    model="openai:gpt-4o-mini",
    k=6  # number of documents to retrieve
)

# Get context only (no LLM synthesis)
context = mv.ask("What was discussed?", context_only=True)
print(context["context"])  # Retrieved document snippets

Timeline and Stats

# Get recent entries
entries = mv.timeline(limit=20)

# Get statistics
stats = mv.stats()
print(f"Documents: {stats['frame_count']}")
print(f"Size: {stats['size_bytes']} bytes")

Closing

Always close the memory when done:

mv.seal()

Or use a context manager for automatic cleanup.

ACL Helpers (Scoped Keys)

Use API-key scope helpers to avoid manually wiring tenant/role/group/subject:

from memvid_sdk import (
    get_acl_scope_from_api_key,
    acl_context_from_scope,
    acl_metadata_from_scope,
)

scope = get_acl_scope_from_api_key()
acl_context = acl_context_from_scope(scope)
metadata = acl_metadata_from_scope(scope)

mv.put(title="Doc", label="acl", text="...", metadata=metadata)
hits = mv.find("query", acl_context=acl_context, acl_enforcement_mode="enforce")

External Embeddings

For more control over embeddings, use external providers:

from memvid_sdk import create
from memvid_sdk.embeddings import OpenAIEmbeddings

# Create memory with vector index enabled
mv = create("knowledge.mv2", enable_vec=True, enable_lex=True)

# Initialize embedding provider
embedder = OpenAIEmbeddings(model="text-embedding-3-small")

# Prepare documents
documents = [
    {"title": "ML Basics", "label": "ai", "text": "Machine learning enables systems to learn from data."},
    {"title": "Deep Learning", "label": "ai", "text": "Deep learning uses neural networks with multiple layers."},
]

# Generate embeddings
texts = [doc["text"] for doc in documents]
embeddings = embedder.embed_documents(texts)

# Store documents with pre-computed embeddings
frame_ids = mv.put_many(documents, embeddings=embeddings)

# Search using external embeddings
query = "neural networks"
query_embedding = embedder.embed_query(query)
results = mv.find(query, k=3, query_embedding=query_embedding, mode="sem")

for hit in results["hits"]:
    print(f"{hit['title']}: {hit['score']:.3f}")

Built-in providers:

• OpenAIEmbeddings (requires OPENAI_API_KEY)
• CohereEmbeddings (requires COHERE_API_KEY)
• VoyageEmbeddings (requires VOYAGE_API_KEY)
• NvidiaEmbeddings (requires NVIDIA_API_KEY)
• GeminiEmbeddings (requires GOOGLE_API_KEY or GEMINI_API_KEY)
• MistralEmbeddings (requires MISTRAL_API_KEY)
• HuggingFaceEmbeddings (local, no API key)

Use the factory function for quick setup:

from memvid_sdk.embeddings import get_embedder

# Create any supported provider
embedder = get_embedder("openai")  # or "cohere", "voyage", "nvidia", "gemini", "mistral", "huggingface"

Framework Integrations

LangChain

mv = use("langchain", "notes.mv2")
tools = mv.tools  # List of StructuredTool instances

LlamaIndex

mv = use("llamaindex", "notes.mv2")
engine = mv.as_query_engine()
response = engine.query("What is the timeline?")

OpenAI Function Calling

mv = use("openai", "notes.mv2")
functions = mv.functions  # JSON schemas for tool_calls

CrewAI

mv = use("crewai", "notes.mv2")
tools = mv.tools  # CrewAI-compatible tools

Error Handling

Typed exceptions for programmatic handling:

from memvid_sdk import CapacityExceededError, LockedError, EmbeddingFailedError

try:
    mv.put(title="Doc", text="Content")
except CapacityExceededError:
    print("Storage capacity exceeded")
except LockedError:
    print("File is locked by another process")
except EmbeddingFailedError:
    print("Embedding generation failed")

Common exceptions:

Code	Exception	Description
MV001	CapacityExceededError	Storage capacity exceeded
MV007	LockedError	File locked by another process
MV010	FrameNotFoundError	Frame not found
MV013	FileNotFoundError	File not found
MV015	EmbeddingFailedError	Embedding failed

Environment Variables

Variable	Description
OPENAI_API_KEY	For OpenAI embeddings and LLM synthesis
OPENAI_BASE_URL	Custom OpenAI-compatible endpoint
NVIDIA_API_KEY	For NVIDIA NIM embeddings
MEMVID_MODELS_DIR	Local embedding model cache directory
MEMVID_API_KEY	For capacity beyond the free tier
MEMVID_OFFLINE	Set to 1 to disable network features

Platform Support

Platform	Architecture	Local Embeddings
macOS	ARM64 (Apple Silicon)	Yes
macOS	x64 (Intel)	Yes
Linux	x64 (glibc)	Yes
Windows	x64	No (use OpenAI)

Requirements

• Python 3.8 or later
• For local embeddings: macOS or Linux (Windows requires OpenAI)

More Information

• Documentation: https://docs.memvid.com
• GitHub: https://github.com/memvid/memvid
• Discord: https://discord.gg/2mynS7fcK7
• Website: https://memvid.com

License

Apache-2.0