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Using the In-Memory connector (Preview)

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Warning

The Semantic Kernel Vector Store functionality is in preview, and improvements that require breaking changes may still occur in limited circumstances before release.

Overview

The In-Memory Vector Store connector is a Vector Store implementation provided by Semantic Kernel that uses no external database and stores data in memory. This Vector Store is useful for prototyping scenarios or where high-speed in-memory operations are required.

The connector has the following characteristics.

Feature Area Support
Collection maps to In-memory dictionary
Supported key property types Any type that can be compared
Supported data property types Any type
Supported vector property types ReadOnlyMemory<float>
Supported index types N/A
Supported distance functions N/A
Supports multiple vectors in a record Yes
IsFilterable supported? Yes
IsFullTextSearchable supported? Yes
StoragePropertyName supported? No, since storage is in-memory and data reuse is therefore not possible, custom naming is not applicable.

Getting started

Add the Semantic Kernel Core nuget package to your project.

dotnet add package Microsoft.SemanticKernel.Connectors.InMemory --prerelease

You can add the vector store to the dependency injection container available on the KernelBuilder or to the IServiceCollection dependency injection container using extension methods provided by Semantic Kernel.

using Microsoft.SemanticKernel;

// Using Kernel Builder.
var kernelBuilder = Kernel
    .CreateBuilder()
    .AddInMemoryVectorStore();

using Microsoft.SemanticKernel;

// Using IServiceCollection with ASP.NET Core.
var builder = WebApplication.CreateBuilder(args);
builder.Services.AddInMemoryVectorStore();

You can construct an InMemory Vector Store instance directly.

using Microsoft.SemanticKernel.Connectors.InMemory;

var vectorStore = new InMemoryVectorStore();

It is possible to construct a direct reference to a named collection.

using Microsoft.SemanticKernel.Connectors.InMemory;

var collection = new InMemoryVectorStoreRecordCollection<string, Hotel>("skhotels");

Coming soon

More info coming soon.

Coming soon

More info coming soon.