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Learn how to remove documents from your VectoriaDB index.

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Remove Single Document

src/remove-single.ts
// Returns true if document was found and removed
const removed = await toolIndex.remove('users:list');

if (removed) {
  console.log('Document removed');
} else {
  console.log('Document not found');
}

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Remove Multiple Documents

src/remove-multiple.ts
// Returns count of documents actually removed
const removedCount = await toolIndex.removeMany([
  'users:list',
  'billing:charge',
  'nonexistent:id', // Silently skipped if not found
]);

console.log(`Removed ${removedCount} documents`);

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Clear All Documents

src/clear-all.ts
// Remove all documents from the index
await toolIndex.clear();

console.log(`Index now contains ${toolIndex.size()} documents`); // 0
clear() is irreversible and removes all documents. Make sure to save important data before calling it.

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Remove by Filter

VectoriaDB doesn’t have a built-in “remove by filter” method. Use this pattern:
src/remove-by-filter.ts
// Get IDs of documents matching filter
const deprecatedDocs = toolIndex.filter((m) => m.deprecated === true);
const idsToRemove = deprecatedDocs.map((doc) => doc.id);

// Remove them
const removed = toolIndex.removeMany(idsToRemove);
console.log(`Removed ${removed} deprecated documents`);

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Safe Removal Pattern

src/safe-remove.ts
async function safeRemove(id: string) {
  // Check if exists first
  const doc = toolIndex.get(id);
  if (!doc) {
    console.log(`Document ${id} not found`);
    return false;
  }

  // Log what we're removing
  console.log(`Removing: ${doc.metadata.toolName}`);

  // Remove
  return toolIndex.remove(id);
}

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HNSW Index Updates

When using HNSW indexing, remove operations update the index structure:
src/hnsw-remove.ts
const db = new VectoriaDB({
  useHNSW: true,
});

// Removal updates HNSW graph
await db.remove('doc-id');

// Search immediately reflects the removal
const results = await db.search('query');

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Storage Considerations

Removing documents doesn’t automatically update persistent storage:
src/remove-with-storage.ts
// Remove document
await db.remove('doc-id');

// Save updated state to storage
await db.saveToStorage();
For file or Redis storage, call saveToStorage() after batch removals to persist the changes.

Adding Documents

Add documents

Updating Documents

Update documents

Storage

Persist changes