Configuring AIDB v7

To use AIDB, add it to shared_preload_libraries, create the extensions in the database, and verify the installation.

Configure shared_preload_libraries

1. In the postgresql.conf file, add aidb to the shared_preload_libraries parameter:

   → WrapCopy

   shared_preload_libraries = 'aidb'

   Note

   If shared_preload_libraries already has other extensions listed, append aidb using a comma separator. The order doesn't matter.

2. Restart Postgres.

Create the extensions

1. Create the AIDB extension in your database:

   → WrapCopy

   CREATE EXTENSION aidb CASCADE;

   The CASCADE option automatically installs the required vector extension if it isn't already present.

   PGD users

   If you're running EDB Postgres Distributed (PGD), run the following after creating the extension to register AIDB catalog tables in the replication set:

   → WrapCopy

   SELECT aidb.bdr_setup();

2. If you plan to use external data sources such as S3-compatible object stores or local file system volumes, also install the Postgres File System (PGFS) extension:

   → WrapCopy

   CREATE EXTENSION pgfs;

   For more information, see PGFS documentation.

Enable VectorChord (optional)

If you installed VectorChord, create the extension in your database:

CREATE EXTENSION vectorchord;

To also enable hybrid search (BM25 + vector):

CREATE EXTENSION vectorchord_bm25;

VectorChord knowledge bases can then be configured at the knowledge base level — see Knowledge bases.

Proxy settings

If your environment routes outbound HTTP traffic through a proxy, set the HTTP_PROXY and HTTPS_PROXY environment variables in the Postgres environment file. On Ubuntu with community Postgres, this file is at /etc/postgresql/<version>/main/environment:

echo "HTTP_PROXY = 'http://<your-proxy-settings>/'" | sudo tee -a /etc/postgresql/16/main/environment
echo "HTTPS_PROXY = 'http://<your-proxy-settings>/'" | sudo tee -a /etc/postgresql/16/main/environment

Then restart Postgres for the changes to take effect:

sudo systemctl restart postgresql@16-main

Replace <your-proxy-settings> with your proxy address, and 16 with your Postgres version. Consult the documentation for your Postgres distribution for the exact location of the environment file.

Validate the installation

Confirm that the extensions are installed by running \dx in psql and looking for aidb, vector, pgfs (if installed), and vectorchord and vectorchord_bm25 (if those extensions were installed) in the output:

aidb=# \dx

                                     List of installed extensions
       Name            | Version |   Schema   |                        Description
-----------------------+---------+------------+------------------------------------------------------------
 aidb                  | 7.3.1   | aidb       | aidb: makes it easy to build AI applications with postgres
 pgfs                  | 1.0.6   | pgfs       | pgfs: enables access to filesystem-like storage locations
 vector                | 0.8.0   | public     | vector data type and ivfflat and hnsw access methods
 vectorchord           | 0.3.0   | public     | vectorchord: fast vector search for postgres
 vectorchord_bm25      | 0.1.0   | public     | vectorchord_bm25: bm25 full-text search for postgres