weaviate-local-setup

Weaviate Local Setup Skill

Run Weaviate locally using Docker for development, testing, and avoiding network restrictions in Claude Desktop/Web.

Why Use Local Weaviate?

Benefits:

• No network restrictions in Claude Desktop/Web
• Free (no cloud costs)
• Full control over data and configuration
• Fast development/testing cycles
• Works offline
• No API key management for cloud instances

Best for:

• Development and testing
• Learning Weaviate
• Working in Claude Desktop with network restrictions
• Privacy-sensitive projects

Prerequisites

Required:

• Docker Desktop installed and running
• Available ports: 8080 (Weaviate), 8081 (optional for Weaviate Console)
• Python 3.8+ installed

Optional (for specific vectorizers):

• OpenAI API key (for text2vec-openai)
• Cohere API key (for text2vec-cohere)
• Anthropic API key (for generative-anthropic)

Python Environment Setup

IMPORTANT: Do this FIRST before using any Weaviate skills!

Claude will create a virtual environment and install dependencies to avoid conflicts with your system Python.

Step 1: Create Virtual Environment

# Navigate to the weaviate-claude-skills directory
cd ~/Documents/weaviate-claude-skills

# Create virtual environment
python3 -m venv .venv

# Activate it
source .venv/bin/activate  # macOS/Linux
# OR
.venv\Scripts\activate     # Windows

Step 2: Install Dependencies

# Install required packages
pip install weaviate-client python-dotenv

# Optional: Install additional packages for specific vectorizers
pip install openai  # If using OpenAI vectorizer
pip install cohere  # If using Cohere vectorizer

Or install everything at once:

pip install -r requirements.txt

Step 3: Verify Installation

import subprocess
import sys

# Check if dependencies are installed
try:
    import weaviate
    from dotenv import load_dotenv
    print("✅ All required packages are installed!")
except ImportError as e:
    print(f"❌ Missing package: {e}")
    print("Installing dependencies...")
    subprocess.check_call([sys.executable, "-m", "pip", "install",
                          "weaviate-client", "python-dotenv"])
    print("✅ Dependencies installed successfully!")