Use VikingDB storage

API key authentication and the associated management-precheck behavior on this page are unreleased Preview features, verified against public source adcdfdcc6a5a213b249a8caad435b939c01df7f6. Stable VeADK 1.1.13 does not include them. Install that source before using the API key examples

python -m pip install "veadk-python @ git+https://github.com/volcengine/veadk-python.git@adcdfdcc6a5a213b249a8caad435b939c01df7f6"

The viking backend integrates with the managed VikingDB knowledge base service. Files are first uploaded to TOS (object storage), then registered into a VikingDB collection; splitting, embedding, and retrieval all run server-side, so no local embedding is required. It is the recommended backend for production.

When to use

You need a managed, ready-to-use knowledge base service without maintaining a vector store yourself;
You want server-side splitting, embedding, and reranking;
You need metadata-filtered retrieval.

Prerequisites

A Volcengine or BytePlus account with a VikingDB knowledge base created;
A TOS bucket for uploading files;
On first use, the backend automatically creates the target collection if it does not exist.

Usage

Set the AK/SK, project, region, and TOS bucket below first. Initialization may create a collection; ingestion uploads documents for server-side processing. These actions require resource permissions and may incur charges

from veadk import Agent
from veadk.knowledgebase import KnowledgeBase

# index must start with a letter, contain only letters/digits/underscores, length 1-128
kb = KnowledgeBase(backend="viking", index="company_faq")
assert kb.add_from_text("The standard annual leave is 15 days per year, available after one year of service.")
for entry in kb.search("annual leave", top_k=3):
    print(entry.content)

agent = Agent(
    name="demo",
    instruction="Answer the user; when needed, use the `load_knowledgebase` tool to search the knowledge base.",
    knowledgebase=kb,
)

You can also pass project and credentials explicitly via backend_config:

import os

from veadk.knowledgebase import KnowledgeBase
from veadk.configs.database_configs import TOSConfig

kb = KnowledgeBase(
    backend="viking",
    index="company_faq",
    backend_config={
        "index": "company_faq",
        "volcengine_access_key": os.environ["VOLCENGINE_ACCESS_KEY"],
        "volcengine_secret_key": os.environ["VOLCENGINE_SECRET_KEY"],
        "volcengine_project": "default",
        "version": "2",
        "tos_config": TOSConfig(
            endpoint="tos-cn-beijing.volces.com",
            region="cn-beijing",
        ),
    },
)

Search an existing collection using an API key:

import os

from veadk.knowledgebase import KnowledgeBase

kb = KnowledgeBase(
    backend="viking",
    index="company_faq",
    backend_config={
        "index": "company_faq",
        "api_key": os.environ["DATABASE_VIKING_API_KEY"],
        "volcengine_project": "default",
    },
)

Parameters

KnowledgeBase parameters

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
`backend`	`str \| BaseKnowledgebaseBackend`	`"local"`	Set to `viking` or pass a backend instance
`backend_config`	`dict`	`{}`	Must include index when nonempty; does not merge the outer index
`index`	`str`	`""`	Index name; falls back to app_name when no configuration dictionary is supplied
`app_name`	`str`	`""`	Fallback for index; not a user authorization filter
`top_k`	`int`	`10`	Default result count; search(top_k=0) uses this value
`name`	`str`	`"user_knowledgebase"`	Knowledge-base name shown to the agent
`description`	`str`	`"This knowledgebase stores some user-related information."`	Explains the knowledge base to the agent
`enable_profile`	`bool`	`False`	Enables document profiles; generate profile files first, or leave disabled for ordinary retrieval
`query_with_user_profile`	`bool`	`False`	Uses the agent’s Viking long-term memory profile to guide queries; the knowledge backend itself need not be Viking

Constructor parameters

backend_config supports the following settings:

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
`index`	`str`	No default; provided by `KnowledgeBase`	VikingDB collection name; must start with a letter, contain only letters/digits/underscores, length 1-128.
`api_key`	`str \| None`	Read from env var `DATABASE_VIKING_API_KEY`, defaults to `None`	VikingDB knowledge base API key for searching existing collections. When set, knowledge search uses API key auth; collection management still requires AK/SK or IAM credentials.
`volcengine_access_key`	`str \| None`	See below	Access key (AK). Reads `BYTEPLUS_ACCESS_KEY` in `byteplus` mode, otherwise `VOLCENGINE_ACCESS_KEY`. Falls back to VeFaaS IAM temporary credentials when absent.
`volcengine_secret_key`	`str \| None`	See below	Secret key (SK). Reads `BYTEPLUS_SECRET_KEY` in `byteplus` mode, otherwise `VOLCENGINE_SECRET_KEY`.
`session_token`	`str`	See below	STS temporary-credential token. Reads `BYTEPLUS_SESSION_TOKEN` in `byteplus` mode, otherwise `VOLCENGINE_SESSION_TOKEN`.
`volcengine_project`	`str`	Read from env var `DATABASE_VIKING_PROJECT`, defaults to `default`	VikingDB knowledge base project.
`resource_id`	`str`	Read from env var `DATABASE_VIKING_RESOURCE_ID`, defaults to `""`	VikingDB knowledge base resource ID, used for request routing in multi-resource scenarios. Left empty to omit.
`version`	`str`	Read from env var `DATABASE_VIKING_VERSION`, defaults to `"2"`	Collection version, either `"2"` or `"4"`.
`cloud_provider`	`str`	Read from env var `CLOUD_PROVIDER`, defaults to `volces`	Cloud provider, `volces` or `byteplus`; determines the endpoint and default region.
`region`	`str`	Derived from `cloud_provider` (`cn-beijing` for `volces`, `cn-hongkong` for `byteplus`), overridable via `DATABASE_VIKING_REGION`	Service region. In `volces` mode, when not set explicitly it reads `DATABASE_VIKING_REGION` and then `REGION`, defaulting to `cn-beijing` if neither is set. In `byteplus` mode, an unset or Chinese-mainland region (`cn-beijing`, `cn-shanghai`, `cn-guangzhou`) is automatically mapped to `cn-hongkong`; other regions are used as-is.
`base_url`	`str`	Derived from `region` and `cloud_provider`	Knowledge base API base URL, overridable via `DATABASE_VIKING_BASE_URL`.
`host`	`str`	Derived from `region` and `cloud_provider`	Knowledge base API host.
`schema`	`str`	`https`	Request scheme.
`tos_config`	`TOSConfig`	Read automatically from `DATABASE_TOS_*` env vars	TOS config used for uploading files.

Credential resolution checks AGENTKIT_CLOUD_PROVIDER and then CLOUD_PROVIDER to determine the cloud provider. When set to byteplus, credentials are read from BYTEPLUS_ACCESS_KEY, BYTEPLUS_SECRET_KEY, and BYTEPLUS_SESSION_TOKEN; otherwise from VOLCENGINE_ACCESS_KEY, VOLCENGINE_SECRET_KEY, and VOLCENGINE_SESSION_TOKEN.

When api_key is set, knowledge search uses API key auth. If volcengine_access_key and volcengine_secret_key are not configured, the backend skips collection management precheck (existence check and auto-creation). Creating, deleting, listing collections, and operations such as add_from_text / add_from_files that upload through TOS still require valid AK/SK or IAM credentials. When both API key and AK/SK are configured, search uses the API key and management uses AK/SK or IAM.

TOS config

tos_config is a TOSConfig with env prefix DATABASE_TOS_:

Field	Env var	Type	Default	Description
`endpoint`	`DATABASE_TOS_ENDPOINT`	`str`	`tos-cn-beijing.volces.com`	TOS endpoint. When not explicitly configured, if `region` is set explicitly or resolved from `REGION`, the endpoint is derived as `tos-<region>.volces.com`. Under `byteplus`, when not explicitly configured, it is automatically aligned with the knowledge base region (e.g., `tos-cn-hongkong.bytepluses.com` when the region is `cn-hongkong`).
`region`	`DATABASE_TOS_REGION`	`str`	`cn-beijing`	TOS region. In `volces` mode, when not set explicitly it falls back to the `REGION` environment variable and then the default `cn-beijing`. Under `byteplus`, when not explicitly configured, it is automatically aligned with the knowledge base region.
`bucket`	`DATABASE_TOS_BUCKET`	`str`	`veadk-default-bucket`	TOS bucket name. When empty, the default bucket is used and created automatically.

Under byteplus, the TOS region and endpoint are resolved in the following priority: an explicitly passed tos_config takes precedence; otherwise DATABASE_TOS_REGION and DATABASE_TOS_ENDPOINT environment variables are used; if neither is set, the TOS region and endpoint are automatically aligned with the knowledge base region. TOS bucket creation also uses the aligned region.

Retrieval parameters

Besides query and top_k, the search method also supports:

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
`metadata`	`dict \| None`	`None`	Filter retrieval by document metadata; all key-value pairs must match.
`rerank`	`bool`	`True`	Whether to enable server-side reranking.

Environment variables

# Volcengine credentials
export VOLCENGINE_ACCESS_KEY="your-ak"
export VOLCENGINE_SECRET_KEY="your-sk"

# VikingDB knowledge base
export DATABASE_VIKING_PROJECT="default"
export DATABASE_VIKING_VERSION="2"
export DATABASE_VIKING_REGION="cn-beijing"

# Optional: use API key to search existing collections
export DATABASE_VIKING_API_KEY="your-vikingdb-api-key"

# TOS bucket used for file uploads
export DATABASE_TOS_BUCKET="your_bucket_name"
export DATABASE_TOS_ENDPOINT="tos-cn-beijing.volces.com"
export DATABASE_TOS_REGION="cn-beijing"

Embedding, splitting, and retrieval all run server-side in VikingDB, so this backend requires no embedding model configuration. query_with_user_profile requires Viking long-term memory on the agent; it does not impose that requirement on the knowledge backend

index (the collection name) must start with a letter, contain only letters, digits, and underscores, and be 1-128 characters long; otherwise initialization fails. version supports only "2" or "4".

The example search should return the annual-leave policy. For empty results, check successful ingestion, matching embedding dimensions, completed server processing, network access, and permissions. Managed ingestion may not be immediately searchable. Running the configured Agent also requires model credentials

Overview

Get started

Core components

Observability

Extensions

Frontend

Security

Deployment

When to use

Prerequisites

Usage

Parameters

KnowledgeBase parameters

Constructor parameters

TOS config

Retrieval parameters

Environment variables

​When to use

​Prerequisites

​Usage

​Parameters

​KnowledgeBase parameters

​Constructor parameters

​TOS config

​Retrieval parameters

​Environment variables

When to use

Prerequisites

Usage

Parameters

KnowledgeBase parameters

Constructor parameters

TOS config

Retrieval parameters

Environment variables