Facebook's library for efficient similarity search and clustering of dense vectors. Supports billions of vectors, GPU acceleration, and various index types (Flat, IVF, HNSW). Use for fast k-NN search, large-scale vector retrieval, or when you need pure similarity search without metadata. Best for high-performance applications.
npx skills add https://github.com/Orchestra-Research/AI-Research-SKILLs --skill faiss
Facebook AI's library for billion-scale vector similarity search.
Use FAISS when:
Metrics:
Use alternatives instead:
# CPU only
pip install faiss-cpu
# GPU support
pip install faiss-gpu
import faiss
import numpy as np
# Create sample data (1000 vectors, 128 dimensions)
d = 128
nb = 1000
vectors = np.random.random((nb, d)).astype('float32')
# Create index
index = faiss.IndexFlatL2(d) # L2 distance
index.add(vectors) # Add vectors
# Search
k = 5 # Find 5 nearest neighbors
query = np.random.random((1, d)).astype('float32')
distances, indices = index.search(query, k)
print(f"Nearest neighbors: {indices}")
print(f"Distances: {distances}")
# L2 (Euclidean) distance
index = faiss.IndexFlatL2(d)
# Inner product (cosine similarity if normalized)
index = faiss.IndexFlatIP(d)
# Slowest, most accurate
# Create quantizer
quantizer = faiss.IndexFlatL2(d)
# IVF index with 100 clusters
nlist = 100
index = faiss.IndexIVFFlat(quantizer, d, nlist)
# Train on data
index.train(vectors)
# Add vectors
index.add(vectors)
# Search (nprobe = clusters to search)
index.nprobe = 10
distances, indices = index.search(query, k)
# HNSW index
M = 32 # Number of connections per layer
index = faiss.IndexHNSWFlat(d, M)
# No training needed
index.add(vectors)
# Search
distances, indices = index.search(query, k)
# PQ reduces memory by 16-32×
m = 8 # Number of subquantizers
nbits = 8
index = faiss.IndexPQ(d, m, nbits)
# Train and add
index.train(vectors)
index.add(vectors)
# Save index
faiss.write_index(index, "large.index")
# Load index
index = faiss.read_index("large.index")
# Continue using
distances, indices = index.search(query, k)
# Single GPU
res = faiss.StandardGpuResources()
index_cpu = faiss.IndexFlatL2(d)
index_gpu = faiss.index_cpu_to_gpu(res, 0, index_cpu) # GPU 0
# Multi-GPU
index_gpu = faiss.index_cpu_to_all_gpus(index_cpu)
# 10-100× faster than CPU
from langchain_community.vectorstores import FAISS
from langchain_openai import OpenAIEmbeddings
# Create FAISS vector store
vectorstore = FAISS.from_documents(docs, OpenAIEmbeddings())
# Save
vectorstore.save_local("faiss_index")
# Load
vectorstore = FAISS.load_local(
"faiss_index",
OpenAIEmbeddings(),
allow_dangerous_deserialization=True
)
# Search
results = vectorstore.similarity_search("query", k=5)
from llama_index.vector_stores.faiss import FaissVectorStore
import faiss
# Create FAISS index
d = 1536
faiss_index = faiss.IndexFlatL2(d)
vector_store = FaissVectorStore(faiss_index=faiss_index)
| Index Type | Build Time | Search Time | Memory | Accuracy |
|------------|------------|-------------|--------|----------|
| Flat | Fast | Slow | High | 100% |
| IVF | Medium | Fast | Medium | 95-99% |
| HNSW | Slow | Fastest | High | 99% |
| PQ | Medium | Fast | Low | 90-95% |
Guide for creating high-quality MCP (Model Context Protocol) servers that enable LLMs to interact with external services through well-designed tools. Use when building MCP servers to integrate external APIs or services, whether in Python (FastMCP) or Node/TypeScript (MCP SDK).
Automatically creates user-facing changelogs from git commits by analyzing commit history, categorizing changes, and transforming technical commits into clear, customer-friendly release notes. Turns hours of manual changelog writing into minutes of automated generation.
Use when implementation is complete, all tests pass, and you need to decide how to integrate the work - guides completion of development work by presenting structured options for merge, PR, or cleanup
Guide for creating high-quality MCP (Model Context Protocol) servers that enable LLMs to interact with external services through well-designed tools. Use when building MCP servers to integrate external APIs or services, whether in Python (FastMCP) or Node/TypeScript (MCP SDK).
React Native and Expo best practices for building performant mobile apps. Use when building React Native components, optimizing list performance, implementing animations, or working with native modules. Triggers on tasks involving React Native, Expo, mobile performance, or native platform APIs.
React and Next.js performance optimization guidelines from Vercel Engineering. This skill should be used when writing, reviewing, or refactoring React/Next.js code to ensure optimal performance patterns. Triggers on tasks involving React components, Next.js pages, data fetching, bundle optimization, or performance improvements.
Next.js best practices - file conventions, RSC boundaries, data patterns, async APIs, metadata, error handling, route handlers, image/font optimization, bundling
Use when starting feature work that needs isolation from current workspace or before executing implementation plans - creates isolated git worktrees with smart directory selection and safety verification
Take orchestra-research/faiss from the repository into ~/.claude/skills for personal
use, or into .claude/skills inside a project.
The agent identifies a skill by the name field in its header. Two skills with the
same name cannot sit side by side — one of them will be ignored.
The instructions reference pip.
Without those the skill loads but fails at the first command.