openai-cloudflare-deploy/references/ai-search/README.md

Cloudflare AI Search Reference

Expert guidance for implementing Cloudflare AI Search (formerly AutoRAG), Cloudflare's managed semantic search and RAG service.

Overview

AI Search is a managed RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) pipeline that combines: - Automatic semantic indexing of your content - Vector similarity search - Built-in LLM generation

Key value propositions: - Zero vector management - No manual embedding, indexing, or storage - Auto-indexing - Content automatically re-indexed every 6 hours - Built-in generation - Optional AI response generation from retrieved context - Multi-source - Index from R2 buckets or website crawls

Data source options: - R2 bucket - Index files from Cloudflare R2 (supports MD, TXT, HTML, PDF, DOC, CSV, JSON) - Website - Crawl and index website content (requires Cloudflare-hosted domain)

Indexing lifecycle: - Automatic 6-hour refresh cycle - Manual "Force Sync" available (30s rate limit) - Not designed for real-time updates

Quick Start

1. Create AI Search instance in dashboard: - Go to Cloudflare Dashboard → AI Search → Create - Choose data source (R2 or website) - Configure instance name and settings

2. Configure Worker:

// wrangler.jsonc
{
  "ai": {
    "binding": "AI"
  }
}

3. Use in Worker:

export default {
  async fetch(request, env) {
    const answer = await env.AI.autorag("my-search-instance").aiSearch({
      query: "How do I configure caching?",
      model: "@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast"
    });

    return Response.json({ answer: answer.response });
  }
};

When to Use AI Search

AI Search vs Vectorize

Factor	AI Search	Vectorize
Management	Fully managed	Manual embedding + indexing
Use when	Want zero-ops RAG pipeline	Need custom embeddings/control
Indexing	Automatic (6hr cycle)	Manual via API
Generation	Built-in optional	Bring your own LLM
Data sources	R2 or website	Manual insert
Best for	Docs, support, enterprise search	Custom ML pipelines, real-time

AI Search vs Direct Workers AI

Factor	AI Search	Workers AI (direct)
Context	Automatic retrieval	Manual context building
Use when	Need RAG (search + generate)	Simple generation tasks
Indexing	Built-in	Not applicable
Best for	Knowledge bases, docs	Simple chat, transformations

search() vs aiSearch()

Method	Returns	Use When
search()	Search results only	Building custom UI, need raw chunks
aiSearch()	AI response + results	Need ready-to-use answer (chatbot, Q&A)

Real-time Updates Consideration

AI Search is NOT ideal if: - Need real-time content updates (<6 hours) - Content changes multiple times per hour - Strict freshness requirements

AI Search IS ideal if: - Content relatively stable (docs, policies, knowledge bases) - 6-hour refresh acceptable - Prefer zero-ops over real-time

Platform Limits

Limit	Value
Max instances per account	10
Max files per instance	100,000
Max file size	4 MB
Index frequency	Every 6 hours
Force Sync rate limit	Once per 30 seconds
Filter nesting depth	2 levels
Filters per compound	10
Score threshold range	0.0 - 1.0

Reading Order

Navigate these references based on your task:

Task	Read	Est. Time
Understand AI Search	README only	5 min
Implement basic search	README → api.md	10 min
Configure data source	README → configuration.md	10 min
Production patterns	patterns.md	15 min
Debug issues	gotchas.md	10 min
Full implementation	README → api.md → patterns.md	30 min

In This Reference

• api.md - API endpoints, methods, TypeScript interfaces
• configuration.md - Setup, data sources, wrangler config
• patterns.md - Common patterns, decision guidance, code examples
• gotchas.md - Troubleshooting, code-level gotchas, limits

See Also

• Cloudflare AI Search Docs
• Workers AI Docs
• Vectorize Docs