# Semantic Search Setup

> Setup vector embeddings and semantic search for document collections. Use for AI-powered similarity search, finding related documents, and preparing knowledge bases for RAG systems.

- Skill: `vamseeachanta/semantic-search-setup` (Agent Skill)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add vamseeachanta/semantic-search-setup`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/vamseeachanta/semantic-search-setup/raw
- Safety review: PASS (external: skill-scanner PASS, skillspector PASS)
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: AI & ML
- Author: vamseeachanta (https://skillmd.com/u/vamseeachanta)
- Updated: 2026-09-17
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/vamseeachanta/semantic-search-setup

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# Semantic Search Setup

## Overview

This skill sets up vector embedding infrastructure for semantic search. Unlike keyword search (FTS5), semantic search finds conceptually similar content even without exact word matches.

## Quick Start

```python
from sentence_transformers import SentenceTransformer
import numpy as np

model = SentenceTransformer('all-MiniLM-L6-v2')

# Generate embeddings
texts = ["How to fix a bug", "Debugging software issues"]
embeddings = model.encode(texts, normalize_embeddings=True)

# Compute similarity
similarity = np.dot(embeddings[0], embeddings[1])
print(f"Similarity: {similarity:.3f}")  # ~0.85
```

## When to Use

- Adding AI-powered search to document collections
- Finding conceptually related documents
- Preparing knowledge bases for RAG Q&A systems
- Building recommendation systems
- Enabling "more like this" functionality

## Related Skills

- `knowledge-base-builder` - Build the document database first
- `rag-system-builder` - Add AI Q&A on top of semantic search
- `pdf/text-extractor` - Extract text from PDFs

## Version History

- **1.1.0** (2026-01-02): Added Quick Start, Execution Checklist, Error Handling, Metrics sections; updated frontmatter with version, category, related_skills
- **1.0.0** (2024-10-15): Initial release with sentence-transformers, cosine similarity search, batch processing

## Sub-Skills

- [Best Practices](best-practices/SKILL.md)

## Sub-Skills

- [Execution Checklist](execution-checklist/SKILL.md)
- [Error Handling](error-handling/SKILL.md)
- [Metrics](metrics/SKILL.md)
- [Dependencies](dependencies/SKILL.md)

## Sub-Skills

- [How Semantic Search Works](how-semantic-search-works/SKILL.md)
- [Model Selection](model-selection/SKILL.md)
- [Step 1: Install Dependencies (+5)](step-1-install-dependencies/SKILL.md)
- [1. CPU vs GPU (+3)](1-cpu-vs-gpu/SKILL.md)
- [Status Monitoring](status-monitoring/SKILL.md)
- [Example Usage](example-usage/SKILL.md)