Create Stores

Stores are AI-powered search indexes that organize your files for semantic search. Choose the right configuration for your use case, from temporary development environments to public knowledge bases.

Basic Creation

Create a new Store with default settings:

Create Store

from mixedbread import Mixedbread

mxbai = Mixedbread(api_key="YOUR_API_KEY")

store = mxbai.stores.create(name="my-knowledge-base")

print(store)

When you create a Store, you get a Store object with a unique ID (UUID). You can use either the ID or the name you provide as Store identifiers in all operations.

For complete details on the Store object structure, see Data Models.

Configuration Options

Name

Names and IDs are interchangeable identifiers for all operations.

Create Store with Name

from mixedbread import Mixedbread

mxbai = Mixedbread(api_key="YOUR_API_KEY")

store = mxbai.stores.create(
    name="product-documentation",
    description="Product documentation and FAQs for customer support",
)

print(store)

Naming Rules:

Can only contain lowercase letters, numbers, periods (.), and hyphens (-)
Must be unique within your organization
Can be updated at any time

Expiration Policies

Set automatic cleanup policies to manage Store lifecycle based on activity:

Create Store with Expiration

from mixedbread import Mixedbread
from mixedbread.types import ExpiresAfterParam

mxbai = Mixedbread(api_key="YOUR_API_KEY")

store = mxbai.stores.create(
    name="development-tests",
    expires_after=ExpiresAfterParam(anchor="last_active_at", days=7),
)

print(store)

The last_active_at anchor resets the expiration timer whenever you add files, delete files, or perform searches. Stores never expire unless explicitly configured.

Public Access

Control read access to your Store:

Create Store with Public Access

from mixedbread import Mixedbread

mxbai = Mixedbread(api_key="YOUR_API_KEY")

store = mxbai.stores.create(
    name="public-documentation",
    description="Public API documentation and tutorials",
    is_public=True,
)

print(store)

Private (default): Only your organization can access. You pay all costs.

Public: Anyone with an API key can search. They pay for their own searches.

Store Configuration

Configure how files are processed and how metadata is used for search context:

Contextualization: Control whether metadata is included when embedding chunks to improve search relevance. When enabled, metadata fields are added to the chunk text before embedding, making searches more contextually aware.

false (default): Chunks are embedded without metadata
true: All metadata fields are included (flattened)
Array of field names: Only specified fields are included (supports nested fields with dot notation)

Example with Contextualization:

store = client.stores.create(
    name="docs-store",
    config={
        "contextualization": {
            "with_metadata": ["title", "author.name", "category"]
        }
    }
)

This configuration will include the title, author.name, and category metadata fields when creating embeddings for chunks, making searches more accurate when these attributes are relevant to the query.

Configuration Guide

Use Case	Name Pattern	Expiration	Public	Purpose
Development	`dev-{feature}`	7 days	No	Temporary testing
Production Docs	`docs-v{version}`	Never	Yes	Public documentation
Customer Data	`customer-{id}`	Never	No	Private customer content
Demo/POC	`demo-{client}`	30 days	No	Time-limited demos

Combined Configuration

Use multiple configuration options together for specific use cases:

Development Environment with Auto-cleanup

from mixedbread import Mixedbread
from mixedbread.types import ExpiresAfterParam


mxbai = Mixedbread(api_key="YOUR_API_KEY")

store = mxbai.stores.create(
    name="dev-feature-search",
    description="Development testing for new search feature",
    expires_after=ExpiresAfterParam(anchor="last_active_at", days=7),
)

print(store)

Public Knowledge Base

from mixedbread import Mixedbread

mxbai = Mixedbread(api_key="YOUR_API_KEY")

store = mxbai.stores.create(
    name="api-docs-v2",
    description="Public API documentation version 2.0",
    is_public=True,
)

print(store)

Create Stores

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