---
title: "Azure AI Search"
id: integrations-azure_ai_search
description: "Azure AI Search integration for Haystack"
slug: "/integrations-azure_ai_search"
---
## haystack_integrations.components.retrievers.azure_ai_search.embedding_retriever
### AzureAISearchEmbeddingRetriever
Retrieves documents from the AzureAISearchDocumentStore using a vector similarity metric.
Must be connected to the AzureAISearchDocumentStore to run.
#### __init__
```python
__init__(
*,
document_store: AzureAISearchDocumentStore,
filters: dict[str, Any] | None = None,
top_k: int = 10,
filter_policy: str | FilterPolicy = FilterPolicy.REPLACE,
**kwargs: Any
) -> None
```
Create the AzureAISearchEmbeddingRetriever component.
**Parameters:**
- **document_store** (AzureAISearchDocumentStore) – An instance of AzureAISearchDocumentStore to use with the Retriever.
- **filters** (dict\[str, Any\] | None) – Filters applied when fetching documents from the Document Store.
- **top_k** (int) – Maximum number of documents to return.
- **filter_policy** (str | FilterPolicy) – Policy to determine how filters are applied.
- **kwargs** (Any) – Additional keyword arguments to pass to the Azure AI's search endpoint.
Some of the supported parameters:
- `query_type`: A string indicating the type of query to perform. Possible values are
'simple','full' and 'semantic'.
- `semantic_configuration_name`: The name of semantic configuration to be used when
processing semantic queries.
For more information on parameters, see the
[official Azure AI Search documentation](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/search/).
#### to_dict
```python
to_dict() -> dict[str, Any]
```
Serializes the component to a dictionary.
**Returns:**
- dict\[str, Any\] – Dictionary with serialized data.
#### from_dict
```python
from_dict(data: dict[str, Any]) -> AzureAISearchEmbeddingRetriever
```
Deserializes the component from a dictionary.
**Parameters:**
- **data** (dict\[str, Any\]) – Dictionary to deserialize from.
**Returns:**
- AzureAISearchEmbeddingRetriever – Deserialized component.
#### run
```python
run(
query_embedding: list[float],
filters: dict[str, Any] | None = None,
top_k: int | None = None,
) -> dict[str, list[Document]]
```
Retrieve documents from the AzureAISearchDocumentStore.
**Parameters:**
- **query_embedding** (list\[float\]) – A list of floats representing the query embedding.
- **filters** (dict\[str, Any\] | None) – Filters applied to the retrieved Documents. The way runtime filters are applied depends on
the `filter_policy` chosen at retriever initialization. See `__init__` method docstring for more
details.
- **top_k** (int | None) – The maximum number of documents to retrieve.
**Returns:**
- dict\[str, list\[Document\]\] – Dictionary with the following keys:
- `documents`: A list of documents retrieved from the AzureAISearchDocumentStore.
## haystack_integrations.document_stores.azure_ai_search.document_store
### AzureAISearchDocumentStore
Document store using [Azure AI Search](https://azure.microsoft.com/products/ai-services/ai-search/) as the backend.
#### __init__
```python
__init__(
*,
api_key: Secret = Secret.from_env_var(
"AZURE_AI_SEARCH_API_KEY", strict=False
),
azure_endpoint: Secret = Secret.from_env_var(
"AZURE_AI_SEARCH_ENDPOINT", strict=True
),
index_name: str = "default",
embedding_dimension: int = 768,
metadata_fields: dict[str, SearchField | type] | None = None,
vector_search_configuration: VectorSearch | None = None,
include_search_metadata: bool = False,
azure_token_credential: TokenCredential | None = None,
**index_creation_kwargs: Any
) -> None
```
Creates a new instance of AzureAISearchDocumentStore.
**Parameters:**
- **azure_endpoint** (Secret) – The URL endpoint of an Azure AI Search service.
- **api_key** (Secret) – The API key to use for authentication.
- **index_name** (str) – Name of index in Azure AI Search, if it doesn't exist it will be created.
- **embedding_dimension** (int) – Dimension of the embeddings.
- **metadata_fields** (dict\[str, SearchField | type\] | None) – A dictionary mapping metadata field names to their corresponding field definitions.
Each field can be defined either as:
- A SearchField object to specify detailed field configuration like type, searchability, and filterability
- A Python type (`str`, `bool`, `int`, `float`, or `datetime`) to create a simple filterable field
These fields are automatically added when creating the search index.
Example:
```python
metadata_fields={
"Title": SearchField(
name="Title",
type="Edm.String",
searchable=True,
filterable=True
),
"Pages": int
}
```
- **vector_search_configuration** (VectorSearch | None) – Configuration option related to vector search.
Default configuration uses the HNSW algorithm with cosine similarity to handle vector searches.
- **include_search_metadata** (bool) – Whether to include Azure AI Search metadata fields
in the returned documents. When set to True, the `meta` field of the returned
documents will contain the @search.score, @search.reranker_score, @search.highlights,
@search.captions, and other fields returned by Azure AI Search.
- **azure_token_credential** (TokenCredential | None) – An Azure `TokenCredential` instance used to authenticate requests.
When provided, this takes priority over `api_key`.
- **index_creation_kwargs** (Any) – Optional keyword parameters to be passed to `SearchIndex` class
during index creation. Some of the supported parameters:
\- `semantic_search`: Defines semantic configuration of the search index. This parameter is needed
to enable semantic search capabilities in index.
\- `similarity`: The type of similarity algorithm to be used when scoring and ranking the documents
matching a search query. The similarity algorithm can only be defined at index creation time and
cannot be modified on existing indexes.
For more information on parameters, see the [official Azure AI Search documentation](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/search/).
#### client
```python
client: SearchClient
```
Return the Azure SearchClient, creating the index if it does not exist.
#### to_dict
```python
to_dict() -> dict[str, Any]
```
Serializes the component to a dictionary.
**Returns:**
- dict\[str, Any\] – Dictionary with serialized data.
#### from_dict
```python
from_dict(data: dict[str, Any]) -> AzureAISearchDocumentStore
```
Deserializes the component from a dictionary.
**Parameters:**
- **data** (dict\[str, Any\]) – Dictionary to deserialize from.
**Returns:**
- AzureAISearchDocumentStore – Deserialized component.
#### count_documents
```python
count_documents() -> int
```
Returns how many documents are present in the search index.
**Returns:**
- int – list of retrieved documents.
#### count_documents_by_filter
```python
count_documents_by_filter(filters: dict[str, Any]) -> int
```
Returns the count of documents that match the provided filters.
**Parameters:**
- **filters** (dict\[str, Any\]) – The filters to apply to the document list.
For filter syntax, see [Haystack metadata filtering](https://docs.haystack.deepset.ai/docs/metadata-filtering)
**Returns:**
- int – The number of documents that match the filters.
#### count_unique_metadata_by_filter
```python
count_unique_metadata_by_filter(
filters: dict[str, Any], metadata_fields: list[str]
) -> dict[str, int]
```
Counts unique values for each specified metadata field in documents matching the filters.
**Parameters:**
- **filters** (dict\[str, Any\]) – The filters to apply to select documents.
- **metadata_fields** (list\[str\]) – List of field names to count unique values for.
**Returns:**
- dict\[str, int\] – Dictionary mapping field names to counts of unique values.
#### get_metadata_fields_info
```python
get_metadata_fields_info() -> dict[str, dict[str, str]]
```
Returns the information about metadata fields in the index.
**Returns:**
- dict\[str, dict\[str, str\]\] – Dictionary mapping field names to type information.
#### get_metadata_field_min_max
```python
get_metadata_field_min_max(metadata_field: str) -> dict[str, Any]
```
Returns the minimum and maximum values for the given metadata field.
**Parameters:**
- **metadata_field** (str) – The metadata field to get the minimum and maximum values for.
**Returns:**
- dict\[str, Any\] – A dictionary with the keys "min" and "max".
#### get_metadata_field_unique_values
```python
get_metadata_field_unique_values(
metadata_field: str,
search_term: str | None = None,
from_: int = 0,
size: int = 10,
) -> tuple[list[str], int]
```
Retrieves unique values for a metadata field with optional search and pagination.
**Parameters:**
- **metadata_field** (str) – The metadata field to get unique values for.
- **search_term** (str | None) – Optional search term to filter unique values.
- **from\_** (int) – Starting offset for pagination.
- **size** (int) – Number of values to return.
**Returns:**
- tuple\[list\[str\], int\] – Tuple of (list of unique values, total count of matching values).
#### query_sql
```python
query_sql(query: str) -> Any
```
Executes an SQL query if supported by the document store backend.
Azure AI Search does not support SQL queries.
#### write_documents
```python
write_documents(
documents: list[Document], policy: DuplicatePolicy = DuplicatePolicy.NONE
) -> int
```
Writes the provided documents to search index.
**Parameters:**
- **documents** (list\[Document\]) – documents to write to the index.
- **policy** (DuplicatePolicy) – Policy to determine how duplicates are handled.
**Returns:**
- int – the number of documents added to index.
**Raises:**
- ValueError – If the documents are not of type Document.
- TypeError – If the document ids are not strings.
#### delete_documents
```python
delete_documents(document_ids: list[str]) -> None
```
Deletes all documents with a matching document_ids from the search index.
**Parameters:**
- **document_ids** (list\[str\]) – ids of the documents to be deleted.
#### delete_all_documents
```python
delete_all_documents(recreate_index: bool = False) -> None
```
Deletes all documents in the document store.
**Parameters:**
- **recreate_index** (bool) – If True, the index will be deleted and recreated with the original schema.
If False, all documents will be deleted while preserving the index.
#### delete_by_filter
```python
delete_by_filter(filters: dict[str, Any]) -> int
```
Deletes all documents that match the provided filters.
Azure AI Search does not support server-side delete by query, so this method
first searches for matching documents, then deletes them in a batch operation.
**Parameters:**
- **filters** (dict\[str, Any\]) – The filters to apply to select documents for deletion.
For filter syntax, see [Haystack metadata filtering](https://docs.haystack.deepset.ai/docs/metadata-filtering)
**Returns:**
- int – The number of documents deleted.
#### update_by_filter
```python
update_by_filter(filters: dict[str, Any], meta: dict[str, Any]) -> int
```
Updates the fields of all documents that match the provided filters.
Azure AI Search does not support server-side update by query, so this method
first searches for matching documents, then updates them using merge operations.
**Parameters:**
- **filters** (dict\[str, Any\]) – The filters to apply to select documents for updating.
For filter syntax, see [Haystack metadata filtering](https://docs.haystack.deepset.ai/docs/metadata-filtering)
- **meta** (dict\[str, Any\]) – The fields to update. These fields must exist in the index schema.
**Returns:**
- int – The number of documents updated.
#### get_documents_by_id
```python
get_documents_by_id(document_ids: list[str]) -> list[Document]
```
Retrieves documents by their IDs.
**Parameters:**
- **document_ids** (list\[str\]) – IDs of the documents to retrieve.
**Returns:**
- list\[Document\] – List of documents with the given IDs.
#### search_documents
```python
search_documents(search_text: str = '*', top_k: int = 10) -> list[Document]
```
Returns all documents that match the provided search_text.
If search_text is None, returns all documents.
**Parameters:**
- **search_text** (str) – the text to search for in the Document list.
- **top_k** (int) – Maximum number of documents to return.
**Returns:**
- list\[Document\] – A list of Documents that match the given search_text.
#### filter_documents
```python
filter_documents(filters: dict[str, Any] | None = None) -> list[Document]
```
Returns the documents that match the provided filters.
Filters should be given as a dictionary supporting filtering by metadata. For details on
filters, see the [metadata filtering documentation](https://docs.haystack.deepset.ai/docs/metadata-filtering).
**Parameters:**
- **filters** (dict\[str, Any\] | None) – the filters to apply to the document list.
**Returns:**
- list\[Document\] – A list of Documents that match the given filters.
## haystack_integrations.document_stores.azure_ai_search.filters