Embeddings Basics

Problem

Many AI applications need to compare text semantically -- finding similar documents, powering search, clustering content, or building recommendation systems. Raw text comparison (string matching) misses synonyms, paraphrases, and conceptual similarity.

Solution

Use NeuroLink's embed() and embedMany() provider methods to generate vector embeddings. These fixed-length number arrays capture the semantic meaning of text, enabling similarity comparisons with cosine similarity or dot product.

Code

import { NeuroLink, ProviderFactory } from "@juspay/neurolink";

// -----------------------------------------------------------
// 1. Generate a single embedding
// -----------------------------------------------------------
async function singleEmbedding() {
  const provider = await ProviderFactory.createProvider(
    "openai",
    "text-embedding-3-small",
  );

  const embedding = await provider.embed(
    "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.",
  );

  console.log("Embedding dimensions:", embedding.length);
  console.log("First 5 values:", embedding.slice(0, 5));
}

// -----------------------------------------------------------
// 2. Generate embeddings for multiple texts
// -----------------------------------------------------------
async function batchEmbeddings() {
  const provider = await ProviderFactory.createProvider(
    "openai",
    "text-embedding-3-small",
  );

  const texts = [
    "Machine learning is a subset of artificial intelligence.",
    "Deep learning uses neural networks with many layers.",
    "The weather forecast predicts rain tomorrow.",
    "Neural networks are inspired by the human brain.",
  ];

  const embeddings = await provider.embedMany(texts);

  console.log(`Generated ${embeddings.length} embeddings`);
  console.log(`Each has ${embeddings[0].length} dimensions`);
}

// -----------------------------------------------------------
// 3. Compare similarity between texts
// -----------------------------------------------------------
function cosineSimilarity(a: number[], b: number[]): number {
  if (a.length !== b.length) {
    throw new Error(`Vector length mismatch: ${a.length} vs ${b.length}`);
  }

  let dotProduct = 0;
  let normA = 0;
  let normB = 0;

  for (let i = 0; i < a.length; i++) {
    dotProduct += a[i] * b[i];
    normA += a[i] * a[i];
    normB += b[i] * b[i];
  }

  const denominator = Math.sqrt(normA) * Math.sqrt(normB);
  if (denominator === 0) {
    return 0; // Guard against zero-norm vectors
  }

  return dotProduct / denominator;
}

async function compareSimilarity() {
  const provider = await ProviderFactory.createProvider(
    "openai",
    "text-embedding-3-small",
  );

  const texts = [
    "How do I reset my password?", // [0] Query
    "To change your password, go to Settings > Security > Reset Password.", // [1] Relevant
    "Our office hours are 9am to 5pm Monday through Friday.", // [2] Irrelevant
    "Forgot your password? Click the reset link on the login page.", // [3] Relevant
  ];

  const embeddings = await provider.embedMany(texts);

  const query = embeddings[0];

  console.log('Similarity scores against: "How do I reset my password?"');
  console.log("---");

  for (let i = 1; i < texts.length; i++) {
    const score = cosineSimilarity(query, embeddings[i]);
    console.log(`${score.toFixed(4)} | "${texts[i].slice(0, 60)}..."`);
  }
}

// -----------------------------------------------------------
// 4. Simple semantic search
// -----------------------------------------------------------
async function semanticSearch(
  query: string,
  documents: string[],
  topK: number = 3,
) {
  const provider = await ProviderFactory.createProvider(
    "openai",
    "text-embedding-3-small",
  );

  // Embed all documents and the query
  const allTexts = [query, ...documents];
  const embeddings = await provider.embedMany(allTexts);

  const queryEmbedding = embeddings[0];
  const docEmbeddings = embeddings.slice(1);

  // Score each document
  const scored = documents.map((doc, i) => ({
    document: doc,
    score: cosineSimilarity(queryEmbedding, docEmbeddings[i]),
  }));

  // Sort by score descending and return top K
  scored.sort((a, b) => b.score - a.score);
  return scored.slice(0, topK);
}

// -----------------------------------------------------------
// Usage
// -----------------------------------------------------------
async function main() {
  console.log("=== Single Embedding ===\n");
  await singleEmbedding();

  console.log("\n=== Batch Embeddings ===\n");
  await batchEmbeddings();

  console.log("\n=== Similarity Comparison ===\n");
  await compareSimilarity();

  console.log("\n=== Semantic Search ===\n");
  const results = await semanticSearch("How do I deploy to production?", [
    "Deployment guide: Use CI/CD pipelines to push to production.",
    "Our company was founded in 2015 in San Francisco.",
    "To deploy, run `npm run build` then `npm run deploy`.",
    "Production deployments require approval from the team lead.",
    "The cafeteria menu changes every week.",
  ]);

  for (const result of results) {
    console.log(`${result.score.toFixed(4)} | "${result.document}"`);
  }
}

main();

Explanation

1. Provider Setup for Embeddings

Embedding models are accessed through the provider directly via ProviderFactory. Each provider has a default embedding model:

Provider	Default Embedding Model	Dimensions
OpenAI	text-embedding-3-small	1536
Google AI Studio	gemini-embedding-001	3072
Google Vertex	text-embedding-004	768
Amazon Bedrock	amazon.titan-embed-text-v2:0	1024

Note: Google's text-embedding-004 is being retired. The recommended replacement is gemini-embedding-001 (3072 dimensions). Override the default with VERTEX_EMBEDDING_MODEL=gemini-embedding-001.

const provider = await ProviderFactory.createProvider(
  "openai",
  "text-embedding-3-small",
);

2. embed() vs embedMany()

• embed(text): Generates a single embedding vector. Use for one-off queries.
• embedMany(texts): Generates embeddings for an array of texts in one API call. More efficient for batches.

const single = await provider.embed("Hello world"); // number[]
const batch = await provider.embedMany(["Hello", "World"]); // number[][]

3. Cosine Similarity

Cosine similarity measures the angle between two vectors. Values range from -1 to 1:

• 1.0: Identical meaning
• 0.0: Unrelated
• -1.0: Opposite meaning (rare with embedding models)

In practice, similar texts score above 0.7 and unrelated texts score below 0.4.

4. Semantic Search Pattern

The core semantic search pattern is:

1. Embed all documents once (store the vectors)
2. Embed the user's query at search time
3. Compute cosine similarity between the query and each document
4. Return the top K highest-scoring documents

Variations

Cache Embeddings for Repeated Searches

Avoid re-embedding documents on every search:

class EmbeddingCache {
  private cache = new Map<string, number[]>();
  private provider: any;

  constructor(provider: any) {
    this.provider = provider;
  }

  async getEmbedding(text: string): Promise<number[]> {
    if (this.cache.has(text)) {
      return this.cache.get(text)!;
    }

    const embedding = await this.provider.embed(text);
    this.cache.set(text, embedding);
    return embedding;
  }

  async getEmbeddings(texts: string[]): Promise<number[][]> {
    const uncached = texts.filter((t) => !this.cache.has(t));

    if (uncached.length > 0) {
      const newEmbeddings = await this.provider.embedMany(uncached);
      uncached.forEach((text, i) => this.cache.set(text, newEmbeddings[i]));
    }

    return texts.map((t) => this.cache.get(t)!);
  }
}

Use with Google AI Studio

Switch to Google's embedding model:

const provider = await ProviderFactory.createProvider(
  "google-ai",
  "gemini-embedding-001",
);

const embedding = await provider.embed(
  "Semantic search with Gemini embeddings.",
);
console.log("Dimensions:", embedding.length); // 3072

Combine Embeddings with RAG

Use embeddings as the foundation for RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation):

import { NeuroLink } from "@juspay/neurolink";

async function ragWithEmbeddings() {
  const neurolink = new NeuroLink();

  // NeuroLink handles embedding + search automatically via the rag option
  const result = await neurolink.generate({
    input: { text: "What are the deployment requirements?" },
    provider: "openai",
    rag: {
      files: ["./docs/deployment.md", "./docs/requirements.md"],
      topK: 5,
    },
  });

  console.log(result.content);
}

Clustering Documents

Group similar documents together using embeddings:

async function clusterDocuments(documents: string[], threshold: number = 0.8) {
  const provider = await ProviderFactory.createProvider(
    "openai",
    "text-embedding-3-small",
  );

  const embeddings = await provider.embedMany(documents);
  const clusters: number[][] = [];
  const assigned = new Set<number>();

  for (let i = 0; i < documents.length; i++) {
    if (assigned.has(i)) continue;

    const cluster = [i];
    assigned.add(i);

    for (let j = i + 1; j < documents.length; j++) {
      if (assigned.has(j)) continue;

      const similarity = cosineSimilarity(embeddings[i], embeddings[j]);
      if (similarity >= threshold) {
        cluster.push(j);
        assigned.add(j);
      }
    }

    clusters.push(cluster);
  }

  return clusters.map((indices) => ({
    documents: indices.map((i) => documents[i]),
    size: indices.length,
  }));
}

Tips

1. Embed once, query many times: Embedding documents is the expensive step. Store embeddings in a database or vector store for fast repeated searches.
2. Use embedMany() for batches: It is significantly faster than calling embed() in a loop because it makes a single API call.
3. Match embedding and search models: Always use the same model to embed both documents and queries. Vectors from different models are incompatible.
4. Consider dimensions: text-embedding-3-small (1536d) is a good balance of quality and size. For storage-constrained systems, OpenAI also offers a 256d variant.

See Also

• Batch Processing
• Cost Optimization
• Provider Switching
• API Reference