Qdrant Vector Database Integration

Overview

Qdrant is an AI-native vector database for semantic search and similarity retrieval. This skill provides patterns for integrating Qdrant with Java applications, focusing on Spring Boot and LangChain4j integration.

When to Use

• Semantic search or recommendation systems in Spring Boot applications
• RAG pipelines with Java and LangChain4j
• Vector database integration for AI/ML applications
• High-performance similarity search with filtered queries

Instructions

1. Deploy Qdrant with Docker

docker run -p 6333:6333 -p 6334:6334 \
    -v "$(pwd)/qdrant_storage:/qdrant/storage:z" \
    qdrant/qdrant

Access: REST API at http://localhost:6333, gRPC at http://localhost:6334.

2. Add Dependencies

Maven:

<dependency>
    <groupId>io.qdrant</groupId>
    <artifactId>client</artifactId>
    <version>1.15.0</version>
</dependency>

Gradle:

implementation 'io.qdrant:client:1.15.0'

3. Initialize Client

QdrantClient client = new QdrantClient(
    QdrantGrpcClient.newBuilder("localhost").build());

For production with API key:

QdrantClient client = new QdrantClient(
    QdrantGrpcClient.newBuilder("localhost", 6334, false)
        .withApiKey("YOUR_API_KEY")
        .build());

4. Create Collection

client.createCollectionAsync("search-collection",
    VectorParams.newBuilder()
        .setDistance(Distance.Cosine)
        .setSize(384)
        .build()
).get();

Validation: Verify the collection was created by checking client.getCollectionAsync("search-collection").get().

5. Upsert Vectors

List<PointStruct> points = List.of(
    PointStruct.newBuilder()
        .setId(id(1))
        .setVectors(vectors(0.05f, 0.61f, 0.76f, 0.74f))
        .putAllPayload(Map.of("title", value("Spring Boot Documentation")))
        .build()
);
client.upsertAsync("search-collection", points).get();

Validation: Check that client.upsertAsync(...).get() completes without throwing.

6. Search Vectors

List<ScoredPoint> results = client.queryAsync(
    QueryPoints.newBuilder()
        .setCollectionName("search-collection")
        .setLimit(5)
        .setQuery(nearest(0.2f, 0.1f, 0.9f, 0.7f))
        .build()
).get();

Filtered search:

List<ScoredPoint> results = client.searchAsync(
    SearchPoints.newBuilder()
        .setCollectionName("search-collection")
        .addAllVector(List.of(0.62f, 0.12f, 0.53f, 0.12f))
        .setFilter(Filter.newBuilder()
            .addMust(range("category", Range.newBuilder().setEq("docs").build()))
            .build())
        .setLimit(5)
        .build()).get();

LangChain4j Integration

For RAG pipelines, use LangChain4j's high-level abstractions:

EmbeddingStore<TextSegment> embeddingStore = QdrantEmbeddingStore.builder()
    .collectionName("rag-collection")
    .host("localhost")
    .port(6334)
    .apiKey("YOUR_API_KEY")
    .build();

Spring Boot configuration with LangChain4j:

@Bean
public EmbeddingStore<TextSegment> embeddingStore() {
    return QdrantEmbeddingStore.builder()
        .collectionName("rag-collection")
        .host(host)
        .port(port)
        .build();
}

@Bean
public EmbeddingModel embeddingModel() {
    return new AllMiniLmL6V2EmbeddingModel();
}

Spring Boot Integration

Inject the client via configuration:

@Configuration
public class QdrantConfig {
    @Value("${qdrant.host:localhost}")
    private String host;

    @Value("${qdrant.port:6334}")
    private int port;

    @Bean
    public QdrantClient qdrantClient() {
        return new QdrantClient(
            QdrantGrpcClient.newBuilder(host, port, false).build());
    }
}

Examples

REST Search Endpoint

@RestController
@RequestMapping("/api/search")
public class SearchController {
    private final VectorSearchService searchService;

    public SearchController(VectorSearchService searchService) {
        this.searchService = searchService;
    }

    @GetMapping
    public List<ScoredPoint> search(@RequestParam String query) {
        List<Float> queryVector = embeddingModel.embed(query).content().vectorAsList();
        return searchService.search("documents", queryVector);
    }
}

Best Practices

• Distance metric: Cosine for normalized text embeddings, Euclidean for non-normalized.
• Batch upserts: Use batch operations over individual point insertions.
• Connection pooling: Configure connection pooling for high-throughput production workloads.
• Error handling: Wrap async operations in try/catch for ExecutionException/InterruptedException.
• API keys: Store in environment variables or Spring config, never hardcode.

Advanced Patterns

Multi-tenant Storage

public void upsertForTenant(String tenantId, List<PointStruct> points) {
    String collectionName = "tenant_" + tenantId + "_documents";
    client.upsertAsync(collectionName, points).get();
}

Docker Compose for Production

services:
  qdrant:
    image: qdrant/qdrant:v1.7.0
    ports:
      - "6333:6333"
      - "6334:6334"
    volumes:
      - qdrant_storage:/qdrant/storage

References

• Qdrant API Reference — Complete client API documentation
• Complete Spring Boot Examples — Full application implementations
• Qdrant Documentation
• LangChain4j Documentation

Constraints and Warnings

• Vector dimensions must match the embedding model exactly; mismatched dimensions cause upsert errors.
• Input validation: Sanitize all document content before ingestion; untrusted payloads may contain prompt injection attacks.
• Content filtering: Apply content filtering on retrieved documents before passing them to the LLM.
• Large collections require proper indexing for acceptable search performance.
• Use gRPC API (port 6334) for production; REST API (port 6333) for debugging only.
• Collection recreation deletes all data; implement backup strategies for production environments.