index

Prerequisites

1. CLI installed, logged in, and cluster context set (see setup skill).
2. Target collection must exist (see collection skill).

Commands Reference

All index commands accept an optional --database <db-name> flag. If omitted, the database from the current context is used.

Create an Index

zilliz index create --collection <collection-name>
# Optional: --database <database-name>
# Or use raw JSON: --body '{"indexParams": [{"fieldName": "vector", "indexType": "AUTOINDEX", "metricType": "COSINE"}]}'

List Indexes

zilliz index list --collection <collection-name>
# Optional: --database <database-name>

Describe an Index

zilliz index describe --collection <collection-name> --index-name <index-name>
# Optional: --database <database-name>

Drop an Index

zilliz index drop --collection <collection-name> --index-name <index-name-to-drop>
# Optional: --database <database-name>

Index Types

Common index types:

• AUTOINDEX -- recommended, automatically selects the best index
• IVF_FLAT, IVF_SQ8, HNSW -- manual selection for advanced users

Common metric types:

• COSINE -- cosine similarity (default)
• L2 -- Euclidean distance
• IP -- inner product

Guidance

• On Zilliz Cloud, AUTOINDEX is recommended for most use cases.
• An index is required before loading a collection for search.
• Before creating an index, check the collection schema to identify vector fields.
• After creating an index, remind the user to load the collection.