Improves visibility of vector index options and inference configuration by kosabogi · Pull Request #141653 · elastic/elasticsearch

kosabogi · 2026-02-02T12:21:45Z

This PR improves the discoverability of vector indexing and inference configuration in the docs by:

Refactoring the Automatically quantize vectors for kNN search section to lead with an example and include a concrete bbq_disk configuration.
Extending the first dense_vector mapping example to show index_options, with a numbered annotation linking to the quantization section.
Expanding the semantic_text example to set an inference_id and include index_options, linking back to the dense_vector quantization docs.

Relates to elastic/docs-content#3804 and elastic/docs-content#4832

elasticsearchmachine · 2026-02-02T12:22:11Z

Pinging @elastic/core-docs (Team:Docs)

github-actions · 2026-02-02T12:26:07Z

🔍 Preview links for changed docs

github-actions · 2026-02-02T12:26:08Z

ℹ️ Important: Docs version tagging

👋 Thanks for updating the docs! Just a friendly reminder that our docs are now cumulative. This means all 9.x versions are documented on the same page and published off of the main branch, instead of creating separate pages for each minor version.

We use applies_to tags to mark version-specific features and changes.

Expand for a quick overview

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✅ At the page level to indicate which products/deployments the content applies to (mandatory)
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❌ Don't remove or replace information that applies to an older version
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Mikep86

Nice work! I left some comments on some things we should expand on in the semantic text documentation.

docs/reference/elasticsearch/mapping-reference/semantic-text.md

docs/reference/elasticsearch/mapping-reference/dense-vector.md

Co-authored-by: Mike Pellegrini <mike.pellegrini@elastic.co>

kosabogi · 2026-02-11T09:56:43Z

Thank you for your review, @Mikep86 !

Based on your suggestions, I prepared a plan for continuing this work. I’d like to address the following items in this PR:

Default indexing strategy (version-specific)

9.0:
Default method for dense_vector fields: int8_hnsw
9.1:
Default method for dense_vector fields:

Vectors ≥ 384 dimensions: bbq_hnsw
Vectors < 384 dimensions: int8_hnsw

Is this correct, right?

semantic_text index_options section

Create new sections under Set up and configure, including configuration examples and explanations for both:

Set index_options for sparse_vectors
Set index_options for dense_vectors

Update this sentence:

“To learn more about available index options and how they affect vector quantization…”
Instead of linking to the dense_vector quantization page, link to the newly added semantic_text section.

Full semantic_text example with all optional parameters

Keep the current example as a Basic semantic_text mapping example
Add a separate Extended semantic_text mapping example that specifies all optional parameters of semantic_text

Mikep86

Layout and content looks good 🚀 ! I spotted two inaccuracies we should fix before we merge.

docs/reference/elasticsearch/mapping-reference/semantic-text-setup-configuration.md

Mikep86

LGTM, thanks for the iterations!

szabosteve

Left a few suggestions, mostly to remove legacy snippet test comments, and a question.

docs/reference/elasticsearch/mapping-reference/dense-vector.md

docs/reference/elasticsearch/mapping-reference/semantic-text-setup-configuration.md

szabosteve · 2026-02-23T15:15:50Z

docs/reference/elasticsearch/mapping-reference/semantic-text-setup-configuration.md

+            "prune": true, <1>
+            "pruning_config": {
+              "tokens_freq_ratio_threshold": 10, <2>
+              "tokens_weight_threshold": 0.4 <3>


Just to double check. Should it be 0.4 or 0.5?

Good point! I meant to write 0.5. I've fixed it in my latest commit.

docs/reference/elasticsearch/mapping-reference/semantic-text.md

Co-authored-by: István Zoltán Szabó <istvan.szabo@elastic.co>

…etup-configuration.md Co-authored-by: István Zoltán Szabó <istvan.szabo@elastic.co>

Co-authored-by: István Zoltán Szabó <istvan.szabo@elastic.co>

…on-sliced-reindex * upstream/main: Update docs for v9.3.1 release (elastic#142887) Update docs for v9.2.6 release (elastic#142888) Improves visibility of vector index options and inference configuration (elastic#141653) Disable CAE in microsoft-graph-authz plugin (elastic#142848) Small improvements to `GetSnapshotsIT#testAllFeatures` (elastic#142825) Fix IndexSettingsTests synthetic ID tests (elastic#142654) [Test] Unmute tests of SnapshotShutdownIT (elastic#142921) Fixing metrics_info.json kibana definition file name (elastic#142813) [Packaging] Disable glibc 2.43 malloc huge pages in Wolfi images (elastic#142894) Mute org.elasticsearch.xpack.searchablesnapshots.SearchableSnapshotsTSDBSyntheticIdIntegTests testSearchableSnapshot elastic#142918 Add shard heap usage to ClusterInfo (elastic#139557) ESQL: Load script fields row-by-row (elastic#142807) ESQL: Consolidate doc values memory tracking (elastic#142816) ES-14124 Create Index Count Limit User documentation Page (elastic#142570) Add a es819 codec test to verify tryRead returns null if may contain duplicates (elastic#142409) Support arithmetic operations for dense_vectors: scalar version (elastic#141060) [Transform] Allow project_routing (elastic#142421) Refactor query rewrite async actions for knn and sparse_vector queries (elastic#142889) Do not mark bulk indexing requests as retried after primary relocations (elastic#142157)

…on (elastic#141653) * Improve visibility of vector index options and inference configuration * Fixes link * Removes incorrect note * Update docs/reference/elasticsearch/mapping-reference/semantic-text.md Co-authored-by: Mike Pellegrini <mike.pellegrini@elastic.co> * Adresses suggestions * Syntax fix * Fixes syntax, adds list * Applies suggestions * Update docs/reference/elasticsearch/mapping-reference/dense-vector.md Co-authored-by: István Zoltán Szabó <istvan.szabo@elastic.co> * Update docs/reference/elasticsearch/mapping-reference/semantic-text-setup-configuration.md Co-authored-by: István Zoltán Szabó <istvan.szabo@elastic.co> * Update docs/reference/elasticsearch/mapping-reference/semantic-text.md Co-authored-by: István Zoltán Szabó <istvan.szabo@elastic.co> * Update docs/reference/elasticsearch/mapping-reference/semantic-text.md Co-authored-by: István Zoltán Szabó <istvan.szabo@elastic.co> * Fixes syntax and code example --------- Co-authored-by: Mike Pellegrini <mike.pellegrini@elastic.co> Co-authored-by: István Zoltán Szabó <istvan.szabo@elastic.co>

Improve visibility of vector index options and inference configuration

f5a355e

kosabogi requested review from Mikep86 and kderusso February 2, 2026 12:21

kosabogi self-assigned this Feb 2, 2026

kosabogi added >docs General docs changes Team:Docs Meta label for docs team labels Feb 2, 2026

elasticsearchmachine added the v9.4.0 label Feb 2, 2026

Fixes link

bff5fde

kosabogi requested a review from a team February 2, 2026 16:35

tteofili approved these changes Feb 3, 2026

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kderusso removed their request for review February 3, 2026 13:00

kosabogi and others added 2 commits February 4, 2026 13:41

Removes incorrect note

8376d81

Merge branch 'main' into dense_vector_sem_text_docs_improvements

62c23ea

ioanatia approved these changes Feb 5, 2026

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Mikep86 reviewed Feb 10, 2026

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Update docs/reference/elasticsearch/mapping-reference/semantic-text.md

c832571

Co-authored-by: Mike Pellegrini <mike.pellegrini@elastic.co>

Merge branch 'main' into dense_vector_sem_text_docs_improvements

fe5b65c

kosabogi marked this pull request as draft February 11, 2026 12:39

kosabogi and others added 4 commits February 13, 2026 11:16

Adresses suggestions

87b44b2

Merge branch 'main' into dense_vector_sem_text_docs_improvements

97bd81c

Syntax fix

7bf19e5

Fixes syntax, adds list

162851a

kosabogi requested a review from Mikep86 February 13, 2026 10:36

kosabogi marked this pull request as ready for review February 13, 2026 10:36

Mikep86 reviewed Feb 17, 2026

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docs/reference/elasticsearch/mapping-reference/semantic-text-setup-configuration.md Outdated Show resolved Hide resolved

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Applies suggestions

b46004c

kosabogi requested review from a team and Mikep86 February 18, 2026 14:11

Mikep86 approved these changes Feb 19, 2026

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szabosteve reviewed Feb 23, 2026

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kosabogi and others added 7 commits February 24, 2026 09:34

Update docs/reference/elasticsearch/mapping-reference/dense-vector.md

420ca7b

Co-authored-by: István Zoltán Szabó <istvan.szabo@elastic.co>

Update docs/reference/elasticsearch/mapping-reference/semantic-text-s…

dd36a18

…etup-configuration.md Co-authored-by: István Zoltán Szabó <istvan.szabo@elastic.co>

Update docs/reference/elasticsearch/mapping-reference/semantic-text.md

453350d

Co-authored-by: István Zoltán Szabó <istvan.szabo@elastic.co>

Merge branch 'main' into dense_vector_sem_text_docs_improvements

df32b95

Update docs/reference/elasticsearch/mapping-reference/semantic-text.md

424d528

Co-authored-by: István Zoltán Szabó <istvan.szabo@elastic.co>

Fixes syntax and code example

4bcad32

Merge branch 'main' into dense_vector_sem_text_docs_improvements

b82f44c

kosabogi merged commit e86a8a1 into elastic:main Feb 24, 2026
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ℹ️ Important: Docs version tagging

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What NOT to do:

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kosabogi commented Feb 11, 2026 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

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Default indexing strategy (version-specific)

semantic_text index_options section

Full semantic_text example with all optional parameters

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