# Vertex AI Search

> Vertex AI Search & Summarization Best Practices

- Skill: `izzyfresh/vertex-ai-search` (Agent Skill)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add izzyfresh/vertex-ai-search`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/izzyfresh/vertex-ai-search/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Coding & Dev Tools
- Author: IzzyFresh (https://skillmd.com/u/izzyfresh)
- Updated: 2026-09-21
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/izzyfresh/vertex-ai-search

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# Vertex AI Search & Summarization Best Practices

1. **Mandatory Use of the Answer API (`/answer`)**: 
   - Do NOT use the standard `/search` API if the goal is to generate summaries across multiple datastores. 
   - Always implement the Answer API (`AnswerQueryRequest`), as it is explicitly designed to handle multi-datastore summarization and multi-step retrieval.

2. **Multi-Datastore Configuration**: 
   - Ensure the API payload correctly passes multiple datastores using the `dataStoreSpecs` array to properly enable Blended Search.

3. **Chunk Mode for Unstructured Data**: 
   - If querying unstructured datastores, the search request proto must be explicitly configured to feed chunked data to the LLM. 
   - Set `search_result_mode` to `CHUNK`.
   - Configure the `chunk_spec` within the `content_search_spec` so the model knows how to process and summarize the cross-datastore chunks.

4. **Bypass UI Limitations**: 
   - Be aware that the Google Cloud Console UI sometimes suppresses summary configurations for blended search or returns default errors if preview flags aren't enabled. 
   - Always rely on direct REST API calls or official Google Cloud Client Libraries to validate summarization functionality rather than the Cloud Console UI.