vector-inspector 0.6.2

A comprehensive desktop application for visualizing, querying, and managing vector database data

Release Notes (0.6.2) — 2026-03-28

UI

• Status bar now shows real-time feedback for key actions, including result counts and elapsed time (e.g. "Search complete – 28 results in 0.43s", "Data loaded – 1,000 items in 1.20s", "Clustering complete – 5 clusters in 2.10s", "Visualization complete – 500 points in 3.51s").
• All status bar messages are now routed through a centralised StatusReporter service so every message is recorded in a bounded in-memory activity log (up to 100 entries) — foundation for a future user-visible Activity Log.
• New: Status bar message duration is now user-configurable in Preferences → General → "Status Bar → Message duration" (0 = Permanent, 1–30 s).
• change: Default status bar message duration is now 0 (Permanent) by default — status messages stay visible until dismissed unless the user changes the preference.
• fix: Refresh Collections (F5 / menu) now runs in a background thread — the UI no longer freezes on slow or remote connections, and reports elapsed time on success.
• fix: "Check for Update" (Help menu) now runs in a background thread with a status bar progress message.
• fix: Add Item and Delete Items in the Data tab now run in background threads with a loading indicator and status bar completion messages (e.g. "Item added complete – 1 item in 0.12s").
• feat: Connection success now reports elapsed time in the status bar (e.g. "Connected complete – 42 collections in 0.95s").
• feat: Backup and Restore operations now report elapsed time in the status bar on completion.

Internal

• Added StatusReporter service (services/status_reporter.py) with report() / report_action() APIs, a StatusLogEntry dataclass, configurable log size, and a status_updated Qt signal.
• AppState now owns a status_reporter instance accessible from any view via app_state.status_reporter.
• StatusReporter._default_timeout_ms is now mutable so the user preference is applied at runtime without restarting.
• Default status timeout updated to 0 ms (permanent) so important system messages remain visible by default.
• connection_completed signal extended to carry duration_ms (float) so the main window can display connection latency.
• 29 new unit tests cover message formatting, log trimming, signal emission, and reporter isolation.

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Vector Inspector

The ultimate toolkit for vector databases - a comprehensive desktop app to inspect, query, and visualize your embeddings across Chroma, Qdrant, Weaviate, Pinecone, LanceDB, pgvector and more.

Similar to SQL viewers (DBeaver/TablePlus) but built for vector databases, Vector Inspector offers an intuitive GUI for exploring embeddings, metadata, similarity search, and CRUD across multiple providers.

Quick Demo: See Vector Inspector in action!

Overview

Vector Inspector bridges the gap between vector databases and user-friendly data exploration tools. While vector databases are powerful for semantic search and AI applications, they often lack the intuitive inspection and management tools that traditional SQL databases have. This project aims to provide that missing layer.

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Homepage

https://vector-inspector.divinedevops.com

🟦 Installation

Quick Install (recommended)

These installers work on macOS, Linux, and Windows (PowerShell or Git Bash).

macOS & Linux

curl -fsSL https://vector-inspector.divinedevops.com/install.sh | bash

Windows (PowerShell)

powershell -c "iwr https://vector-inspector.divinedevops.com/install.ps1 -UseBasicParsing | iex"

Windows (Git Bash)

curl -fsSL https://vector-inspector.divinedevops.com/install.sh | bash

These scripts:

• install Vector Inspector
• create a desktop shortcut
• launch the app immediately

This is the easiest and most reliable way to get started.

From PyPI

pip install vector-inspector
vector-inspector

From a Downloaded Wheel or Tarball (e.g., GitHub Release)

Download the .whl or .tar.gz file from the GitHub Releases page, then install with:

pip install <your-filename.whl>
# or
pip install <your-filename.tar.gz>

After installation, run the application with:

vector-inspector

Note: pip install does not create a desktop shortcut.
Use the bootstrap installer for the full experience.

From Source

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/anthonypdawson/vector-inspector.git
cd vector-inspector

# Install dependencies using PDM
pdm install

# Launch application
scripts/run.sh     # Linux/macOS
scripts/run.bat    # Windows

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🟩 Running Vector Inspector

vector-inspector

Note: The Quick Install script launches the app automatically. If you installed via pip or from source, use the command above. This opens the full desktop application.

Optional LLM runtime (llama-cpp-python)

llama-cpp-python is optional and only needed for the in-process LLM provider (llama-cpp).

• Install via PDM optional-dependency group (developer / recommended):

pdm install -G llm

• Platform-specific pip install (end users / PyPI):

Windows (pre-built CPU wheel index):

pip install llama-cpp-python --prefer-binary \
  --extra-index-url https://abetlen.github.io/llama-cpp-python/whl/cpu

Linux / macOS (official wheels / source build):

pip install llama-cpp-python

CUDA / GPU wheels (pick matching CUDA version):

pip install llama-cpp-python --prefer-binary \
  --extra-index-url https://abetlen.github.io/llama-cpp-python/whl/cu121

• Scripts included in this repo:
  • scripts/install-llm-windows.ps1 — PowerShell helper for Windows
  • scripts/install-llm-unix.sh — bash helper for Linux/macOS

Notes:

• If you cannot build native wheels on Windows, use the Windows pre-built index above.
• Vector Studio users can use Settings → LLM → "Download default model" to automatically download the default Phi-3-mini GGUF model into the local cache. This button is disabled in the free Vector Inspector tier.
• Free-tier users should download a GGUF model manually (or use the scripts above) and set the path in Settings → LLM, or configure Ollama (local server) or an OpenAI-compatible API instead.

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Table of Contents

• Key Features
• Architecture
• Use Cases
• Feature Access
• Roadmap
• Configuration
• Development Setup
• Contributing
• License
• Acknowledgments

Key Features

Note: Some features listed below may be not started or currently in progress.

1. Multi-Provider Support

• Connect to vector databases:
  • ChromaDB (persistent local storage)
  • Qdrant (remote server or embedded local)
  • Pinecone (cloud-hosted)
  • Milvus (remote server or Milvus Lite) (Only on MacOs/Linux, experimental) - In Progress
  • LanceDB (persistent local storage) — requires lancedb>=0.27.0, pyarrow>=14.0.0
  • PgVector/PostgreSQL (remote server)
  • Weaviate (Local/Remote + WCD/Cloud)
• Unified interface regardless of backend provider
• Automatically saves last connection configuration
• Secure API key storage for cloud providers

2. Data Visualization

• Metadata Explorer: Browse and filter vector entries by metadata fields
• Vector Dimensionality Reduction: Visualize high-dimensional vectors in 2D/3D using:
  • t-SNE
  • UMAP
  • PCA
• Cluster Visualization: Color-code vectors by metadata categories or clustering results
• Interactive Plots: Zoom, pan, and select vectors for detailed inspection
• Data Distribution Charts: Histograms and statistics for metadata fields

3. Search & Query Interface

• Similarity Search:
  • Text-to-vector search (with embedding model integration)
  • Vector-to-vector search
  • Find similar items to selected entries
  • Adjustable top-k results and similarity thresholds
• Metadata Filtering:
  • SQL-like query builder for metadata
  • Combine vector similarity with metadata filters
  • Advanced filtering: ranges, IN clauses, pattern matching
• Hybrid Search: Combine semantic search with keyword search
• Query History: Save and reuse frequent queries

4. Data Management

• Browse Collections/Indexes: View all available collections with statistics
• CRUD Operations:
  • View individual vectors and their metadata
  • Add new vectors (with auto-embedding options)
  • Update metadata fields
  • Delete vectors (single or batch)
• Bulk Import/Export:
  • Import from CSV, JSON, Parquet
  • Export query results to various formats
  • Backup and restore collections
• Schema Inspector: View collection configuration, vector dimensions, metadata schema

5. SQL-Like Experience

• Query Console: Write queries in a familiar SQL-like syntax (where supported)
• Results Grid:
  • Sortable, filterable table view
  • Pagination for large result sets
  • Column customization
• Data Inspector: Click any row to see full details including raw vector
• Query Execution Plans: Understand how queries are executed
• Auto-completion: Intelligent suggestions for collection names, fields, and operations

6. Advanced Features

• Embedding Model Integration:
  • Use OpenAI, Cohere, HuggingFace models for text-to-vector conversion
  • Local model support (sentence-transformers)
  • Custom model integration
• Vector Analysis:
  • Compute similarity matrices
  • Identify outliers and anomalies
  • Cluster analysis with k-means, DBSCAN
• Embedding Inspector:
  • For similar collections or items, automatically identify which vector dimensions (activations) most contribute to the similarity
  • Map key activations to interpretable concepts (e.g., 'humor', 'sadness', 'anger') using metadata or labels
  • Generate human-readable explanations for why items are similar
• Performance Monitoring:
  • Query latency tracking
  • Index performance metrics
  • Connection health monitoring

Architecture

Vector Inspector is built with PySide6 (Qt for Python) for the GUI, providing a native desktop experience. The backend uses Python with support for multiple vector database providers through a unified interface.

For detailed architecture information, see docs/architecture.md.

Use Cases

1. AI/ML Development: Inspect embeddings generated during model development
2. RAG System Debugging: Verify what documents are being retrieved
3. Data Quality Assurance: Identify poorly embedded or outlier vectors
4. Production Monitoring: Check vector database health and data consistency
5. Data Migration: Transfer data between vector database providers
6. Education: Learn and experiment with vector databases interactively

Feature Access

Vector Inspector follows a user-friendly monetization model:

• All vector database providers are free — Try the full app with any database
• Core workflows remain free — Connect, browse, search, visualize, and manage your data
• Pro adds power tools — Advanced analytics, enterprise formats, workflow automation, and collaboration

Nothing currently in Free will ever move to Pro. See FEATURES.md for a detailed comparison.

Roadmap

Current Status: ✅ Phase 2 Complete

See ROADMAP.md for the complete development roadmap and planned features.

Configuration

Paths are resolved relative to the project root (where pyproject.toml is). For example, entering ./data/chroma_db will use the absolute path resolved from the project root.

The application automatically saves your last connection configuration to ~/.vector-inspector/settings.json. The next time you launch the application, it will attempt to reconnect using the last saved settings.

Example settings structure:

{
  "last_connection": {
    "provider": "chromadb",
    "connection_type": "persistent",
    "path": "./data/chroma_db"
  }
}

Development Setup

# Install PDM if you haven't already
pip install pdm

# Install dependencies with development tools (PDM will create venv automatically)
pdm install -d

# Run tests
pdm run pytest

# Run application in development mode
./run.sh     # Linux/macOS
./run.bat    # Windows

# Or use Python module directly from src directory:
cd src
pdm run python -m vector_inspector

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Areas where help is needed:

• Additional vector database provider integrations
• UI/UX improvements
• Performance optimizations
• Documentation
• Test coverage

Please see CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

License

MIT License - See LICENSE file for details.

Acknowledgments

This project draws inspiration from:

• DBeaver (SQL database viewer)
• MongoDB Compass (NoSQL database GUI)
• Pinecone Console
• Various vector database management tools

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See CHANGELOG.md for the latest status and what's new in each release.

See GETTING_STARTED.md for usage instructions and IMPLEMENTATION_SUMMARY.md for technical details.

Contact: Anthony Dawson