Orchestrate semantic querying in Qdrant with Airflow

Qdrant is an open-source vector database and similarity search engine designed for AI applications.

In this tutorial, you'll use the Qdrant Airflow provider to write a DAG that generates embeddings in parallel and performs semantic retrieval based on user input.

Airflow provides useful operational and orchestration when running operations in Qdrant based on data events or building parallel tasks for generating vector embeddings. By using Airflow, you can set up monitoring and alerts for your pipelines for full observability.

Time to complete​

This tutorial takes approximately 30 minutes to complete.

Prerequisites​

• A running Qdrant instance. A free instance is available.
• The Astro CLI. See Install the Astro CLI.
• A HuggingFace token to generate embeddings.

Step 1: Set up the project​

1. Create a new Astro project:

   mkdir qdrant-airflow-tutorial && cd qdrant-airflow-tutorial
   astro dev init
   

2. To use Qdrant in Airflow, install the Qdrant Airflow provider by adding the following to your requirements.txt file:

   apache-airflow-providers-qdrant==1.1.0
   

Step 2: Configure credentials​

Add the following code to your .env file to create Airflow connections between Airflow and HuggingFace and Qdrant. Make sure to update the sample code with your HuggingFace access token and Qdrant instance details.

HUGGINGFACE_TOKEN="<YOUR_HUGGINGFACE_ACCESS_TOKEN>"
AIRFLOW_CONN_QDRANT_DEFAULT='{
    "conn_type": "qdrant",
    "host": "xyz-example.eu-central.aws.cloud.qdrant.io:6333",
    "password": "<YOUR_QDRANT_API_KEY>"
}'

Step 3: Add your data​

Paste the following sample data into a file called books.txt in your include directory.

1 | To Kill a Mockingbird (1960) | fiction | Harper Lee's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel explores racial injustice and moral growth through the eyes of young Scout Finch in the Deep South.
2 | Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (1997) | fantasy | J.K. Rowling's magical tale follows Harry Potter as he discovers his wizarding heritage and attends Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
3 | The Great Gatsby (1925) | fiction | F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic novel delves into the glitz, glamour, and moral decay of the Jazz Age through the eyes of narrator Nick Carraway and his enigmatic neighbour, Jay Gatsby.
4 | 1984 (1949) | dystopian | George Orwell's dystopian masterpiece paints a chilling picture of a totalitarian society where individuality is suppressed and the truth is manipulated by a powerful regime.
5 | The Catcher in the Rye (1951) | fiction | J.D. Salinger's iconic novel follows disillusioned teenager Holden Caulfield as he navigates the complexities of adulthood and society's expectations in post-World War II America.
6 | Pride and Prejudice (1813) | romance | Jane Austen's beloved novel revolves around the lively and independent Elizabeth Bennet as she navigates love, class, and societal expectations in Regency-era England.
7 | The Hobbit (1937) | fantasy | J.R.R. Tolkien's adventure follows Bilbo Baggins, a hobbit who embarks on a quest with a group of dwarves to reclaim their homeland from the dragon Smaug.
8 | The Lord of the Rings (1954-1955) | fantasy | J.R.R. Tolkien's epic fantasy trilogy follows the journey of Frodo Baggins to destroy the One Ring and defeat the Dark Lord Sauron in the land of Middle-earth.
9 | The Alchemist (1988) | fiction | Paulo Coelho's philosophical novel follows Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy, on a journey of self-discovery and spiritual awakening as he searches for a hidden treasure.
10 | The Da Vinci Code (2003) | mystery/thriller | Dan Brown's gripping thriller follows symbologist Robert Langdon as he unravels clues hidden in art and history while trying to solve a murder mystery with far-reaching implications.

Step 4: Create your DAG​

1. In your dags folder, create a file called books_recommend.py.

2. Copy the following Recommend books DAG code into the books_recommend.py file.

   Recommend books DAG

   import os
   import requests
   
   from airflow.decorators import dag, task
   from airflow.models.baseoperator import chain
   from airflow.models.param import Param
   from airflow.providers.qdrant.hooks.qdrant import QdrantHook
   from airflow.providers.qdrant.operators.qdrant import QdrantIngestOperator
   from pendulum import datetime
   from qdrant_client import models
   
   
   QDRANT_CONNECTION_ID = "qdrant_default"
   DATA_FILE_PATH = "include/books.txt"
   COLLECTION_NAME = "airflow_tutorial_collection"
   
   EMBEDDING_MODEL_ID = "sentence-transformers/all-MiniLM-L6-v2"
   EMBEDDING_DIMENSION = 384
   SIMILARITY_METRIC = models.Distance.COSINE
   
   
   def embed(text: str) -> list:
       HUGGINFACE_URL = f"https://api-inference.huggingface.co/pipeline/feature-extraction/{EMBEDDING_MODEL_ID}"
       response = requests.post(
           HUGGINFACE_URL,
           headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {os.getenv('HUGGINGFACE_TOKEN')}"},
           json={"inputs": [text], "options": {"wait_for_model": True}},
       )
       return response.json()[0]
   
   
   @dag(
       dag_id="books_recommend",
       start_date=datetime(2023, 10, 18),
       schedule=None,
       catchup=False,
       params={"preference": Param("Something suspenseful and thrilling.", type="string")},
   )
   def recommend_book():
       @task
       def import_books(text_file_path: str) -> list:
           data = []
           with open(text_file_path, "r") as f:
               for line in f:
                   _, title, genre, description = line.split("|")
                   data.append(
                       {
                           "title": title.strip(),
                           "genre": genre.strip(),
                           "description": description.strip(),
                       }
                   )
   
           return data
   
       @task
       def init_collection():
           hook = QdrantHook(conn_id=QDRANT_CONNECTION_ID)
   
           hook.conn.recreate_collection(
               COLLECTION_NAME,
               vectors_config=models.VectorParams(
                   size=EMBEDDING_DIMENSION, distance=SIMILARITY_METRIC
               ),
           )
   
       @task
       def embed_description(data: dict) -> list:
           return embed(data["description"])
   
       books = import_books(text_file_path=DATA_FILE_PATH)
       embeddings = embed_description.expand(data=books)
   
       qdrant_vector_ingest = QdrantIngestOperator(
           conn_id=QDRANT_CONNECTION_ID,
           task_id="qdrant_vector_ingest",
           collection_name=COLLECTION_NAME,
           payload=books,
           vectors=embeddings,
       )
   
       @task
       def embed_preference(**context) -> list:
           user_mood = context["params"]["preference"]
           response = embed(text=user_mood)
   
           return response
   
       @task
       def search_qdrant(
           preference_embedding: list,
       ) -> None:
           hook = QdrantHook(conn_id=QDRANT_CONNECTION_ID)
   
           result = hook.conn.search(
               collection_name=COLLECTION_NAME,
               query_vector=preference_embedding,
               limit=1,
               with_payload=True,
           )
   
           print("Book recommendation: " + result[0].payload["title"])
           print("Description: " + result[0].payload["description"])
   
       chain(
           init_collection(),
           qdrant_vector_ingest,
           search_qdrant(embed_preference()),
       )
   
   
   recommend_book()
   

This QDrant Demo DAG consists of six tasks that generate embeddings in parallel for the data corpus and perform semantic retrieval based on user input.

• import_books: This task reads a text file containing information about the books (such as title, genre, and description) and then returns the data as a list of dictionaries.

• init_collection: This task initializes a collection in the Qdrant database, where you store the vector representations of the book descriptions. The recreate_collection() function deletes a collection first if it already exists. Trying to create a collection that already exists throws an error.

• embed_description: This is a dynamic task that creates one mapped task instance for each book in the list. The task uses the embed function to generate vector embeddings for each description. To use a different embedding model, you can adjust the EMBEDDING_MODEL_ID and EMBEDDING_DIMENSION values.

• embed_user_preference: This task takes a user’s input and converts it into a vector using the same pre-trained model used for the book descriptions.

• qdrant_vector_ingest: This task ingests the book data into the Qdrant collection using the QdrantIngestOperator, associating each book description with its corresponding vector embeddings.

• search_qdrant: Finally, this task performs a search in the Qdrant database using the vectorized user preference. It finds the most relevant book in the collection based on vector similarity.

  

Step 5: Run your DAG​

1. Run astro dev start in your Astro project to start Airflow and open the Airflow UI at localhost:8080.

2. In the Airflow UI, run the books_recommend DAG by clicking the play button. You'll be asked for input about your book preference.

   

3. View the output of your search in the logs of the search_qdrant task.