To retrieve documents using LlamaIndex, you can follow a series of straightforward steps that involve setting up the LlamaIndex library, indexing your documents, and then querying those indexes. LlamaIndex is designed to simplify the interaction with large sets of documents, allowing for quick searches and retrievals based on user-defined criteria.
First, start by installing the LlamaIndex library if you haven't already. You can typically do this using a package manager like pip. Once installed, you need to prepare your documents for indexing. Documents can be in various formats such as text files, PDFs, or JSON objects. LlamaIndex supports various document types, allowing you to easily load and preprocess your data. Create an index by using the Index class provided by the library. You'll populate this index with the documents you've prepared, which involves specifying which folders to scan or providing file paths directly.
After your index is built, you can retrieve documents by performing queries against it. LlamaIndex permits different types of queries, such as keyword searches or more complex criteria based on the content of the documents. You can invoke methods such as search() where you provide your query string, and LlamaIndex will return the relevant documents based on the indexed content. For example, if you have indexed a set of articles, you might search for documents containing the word "integration" and receive a list of papers that mention this term. This capability allows developers to fetch relevant information swiftly, improving the efficiency of document handling in applications.