If you're building any kind of AI app that requires storage of vectors for embeddings, and you need an open source storage solution, it's hard to go wrong with PostgreSQL + the pgvector extension.

You could go with a hosted solution, such as Supabase's vector storage. You can also host it yourself.

It's easy and I show you how to do it for the Debian OS below, which would allow you to add this to a Debian hosted website. This is also the exact setup I'm using for clarifypdf.com, a "Chat with PDF" AI app.

Prerequisities

You'll need root access to your Debian environment.

Steps

SSH into your server, with your username and server's IP address

$ ssh user@ip.add.re.ss

Install pgvector

sudo apt install postgresql-15-pgvector

Login to PostgreSQL

$ psql -U db-username db-name

Enable pgvector

# CREATE EXTENSION pgvector;

Check that it's enabled

# \dx

You should see the extensions list, with pgvector in it.

That's it! You're ready to create embeddings with PostgreSQL!