Quickstart

From install to your first retrieval query

This guide gets you from install to your first retrieval query. Install ToraDB with pip install toradb (Install), then continue below.

For the bundled examples/full_example.py, clone the repository and run from the repo root.

Run the bundled example

python examples/full_example.py

This creates examples/_demo_db and walks through ingest, search strategies, SQL, and integrations.

Use the CLI

toradb query ./examples/_demo_db articles "Nikola Tesla motor"
toradb sql ./examples/_demo_db "SHOW TABLES"
toradb sql ./examples/_demo_db "SELECT tag, COUNT(*) FROM articles GROUP BY tag"

Minimal Python flow

import toradb

db = toradb.local("./quickstart_db")
docs = db.create_table("docs", mode="text")
docs.add([
    "Nikola Tesla invented the alternating current induction motor",
    "Marie Curie studied radioactivity",
])

results = docs.search("Nikola Tesla alternating current motor", top_k=3)
print(results.to_pandas())

Reindex (optional)

toradb reindex ./quickstart_db docs --using BM25

Next steps

• Search strategies — hybrid, dense, DiskANN, HYDE, CRAG
• SQL guide — retrieval and analytics
• Python SDK — tables, ingest, and results
• Contributing — development workflow