List vectors

The list-vectors operation allows you to enumerate all vector identifiers in a Vectorize index using paginated requests. This guide covers best practices for efficiently using this operation.

When to use list-vectors

Use list-vectors for:

• Bulk operations: To process all vectors in an index
• Auditing: To verify the contents of your index or generate reports
• Data migration: To move vectors between indexes or systems
• Cleanup operations: To identify and remove outdated vectors

Pagination behavior

The list-vectors operation uses cursor-based pagination with important consistency guarantees:

Snapshot consistency

Vector identifiers returned belong to the index snapshot captured at the time of the first list-vectors request. This ensures consistent pagination even when the index is being modified during iteration:

• New vectors: Vectors inserted after the initial request will not appear in subsequent paginated results
• Deleted vectors: Vectors deleted after the initial request will continue to appear in the remaining responses until pagination is complete

Starting a new iteration

To see recently added or removed vectors, you must start a new list-vectors request sequence (without a cursor). This captures a fresh snapshot of the index.

Response structure

Each response includes:

• count: Number of vectors returned in this response
• totalCount: Total number of vectors in the index
• isTruncated: Whether there are more vectors available
• nextCursor: Cursor for the next page (null if no more results)
• cursorExpirationTimestamp: Timestamp of when the cursor expires
• vectors: Array of vector identifiers

Cursor expiration

Cursors have an expiration timestamp. If a cursor expires, you'll need to start a new list-vectors request sequence to continue pagination.

Performance considerations

Take care to have sufficient gap between consecutive requests to avoid hitting rate-limits.

Example workflow

Here's a typical pattern for processing all vectors in an index:

# Start iteration
wrangler vectorize list-vectors my-index --count=1000

# Continue with cursor from response
wrangler vectorize list-vectors my-index --count=1000 --cursor="<cursor-from-response>"

# Repeat until no more results