VEC

VEC is a compact, exact-scan vector database. vec keeps vectors on an NVIDIA GPU; vec-cpu uses system RAM and implements the same wire commands.

# GPU, fp32, TCP port 1920 plus the local pipe/socket
vec tools 1024

# GPU, fp16 storage
vec tools 1024:f16

# CPU, fp32 only
vec-cpu tools 1024

# Empty writable database for this process only; no persistence files are read or written
vec --memory tools 1024
vec-cpu --memory tools 1024

Records have a stable integer slot ID, an optional label, and an optional opaque data blob. The minimal external-database workflow is still supported:

from sdk.vec_client import VecClient

db = VecClient("tools")
index = db.push(embedding)       # vector in -> integer ID out
records = db.get(index)          # pull it back by ID
hits = db.query(other_embedding) # nearest IDs plus requested fields

Use shape 0 when the external database owns all metadata: QUERY/QID return only index and squared-L2/cosine distance, and GET returns only index.

SDKs and transport

The supplied SDKs connect directly to a local database name:

OS	Local endpoint
Windows	\\.\pipe\vec_<name>
Linux	/tmp/vec_<name>.sock

SDK	File
C++ (header-only)	sdk/vec_client.h
Python 3 + NumPy	sdk/vec_client.py
Node.js	sdk/vec_client.js
TypeScript declarations	sdk/vec_client.d.ts
Delphi	sdk/vec_client.pas

The server also accepts the binary protocol over TCP (default port 1920) and has deploy/router modes. Those remote/router transports are not exposed by the current SDK APIs. There is no text command interface.

See the SDK guide, endpoint datasheet, and wire protocol.

Commands

• PUSH stores a vector and returns its integer slot ID. Inline data is optional but requires a label.
• QUERY searches by a supplied vector; QID searches by a stored ID or label.
• EXISTS performs exact stored-representation lookup.
• GET fetches records by ID, label, or ID batch.
• UPDATE changes only a vector; LABEL, SET_DATA, and GET_DATA manage sidecars.
• DELETE tombstones a slot; UNDO removes the last physical slot.
• CLUSTER, DISTINCT, and REPRESENT provide DBSCAN, farthest-point sampling, and one farthest-from-centroid member per cluster.
• INFO returns database metadata; SAVE persists dirty state in normal mode and is an acknowledged no-op in --memory mode.

QUERY/QID/GET use a shape mask: 0x01 vector, 0x02 label, 0x04 data. The SDK default is 0x07; 0x00 is useful when only IDs/distances are needed. L2 distances are squared Euclidean distances. GPU QUERY/QID return at most 16 records. CPU defaults to 50 and accepts --topk=N for 1..100.

PUSH rejects an exact duplicate of an alive vector. In fp16 databases, exactness is evaluated after conversion to the stored fp16 representation. UPDATE does not run this duplicate check.

Persistence

For vec tools 1024, the files are based on tools_1024_f32:

.tensors  [dim][count][deleted][fmt][one-byte alive flags][vectors][CRC32]
.meta     [count][per-slot label length + bytes]
.hashes   [count][per-slot xxh64][CRC32]
.data     [count][one-byte presence flags][packed blobs][CRC32]

.tensors is authoritative. Missing or invalid .hashes is rebuilt from it. .meta is written only when at least one label exists; .data only when at least one blob exists. The loaders do not validate .meta or .data with the tensor CRC status. See the wire protocol for the exact layouts and caveats.

Dirty databases autosave after 60 seconds without a write. SAVE requests an immediate save; clean, read-only, and empty databases can make it a no-op.

--memory starts a new empty database and disables all persistence I/O. It does not discover or load existing files, autosave, or save on shutdown. SAVE is an acknowledged no-op, and any existing files with the same database name remain unchanged. Transport endpoints are unaffected.

Build

vec requires the NVIDIA CUDA toolkit. vec-cpu requires a C++ compiler.

# Windows
build.bat

# Linux
./build.sh

Windows production executables are written to dist\. VEC links the CUDA runtime statically, so dist\cuda is present for layout consistency but does not contain redistributable DLLs.

The GPU build accepts SM 7.5, 8.0, 8.6, 8.9, 9.0, and 10.0. The CPU build is fp32-only.

Command-line reference

vec tools 1024 1921            # custom TCP port
vec --notcp tools 1024         # local pipe/socket only
vec --memory tools 1024        # empty database; no persistence reads or writes
vec deploy                     # discover and launch databases
vec --route 1920               # route namespaced frames
vec tools --check              # inspect the matching .tensors file
vec tools --repair             # repair the matching .tensors file
vec tools --delete             # delete matching .tensors and .meta files
vec --help

vec-cpu tools 1024 --topk=100
vec-cpu --memory tools 1024

--check/--repair operate on tensor files. As currently implemented, --delete removes matching .tensors and .meta files, but not .hashes or .data sidecars.

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Created by @PsyChip — June 2026