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Initialize the CocoIndex Library

Before everything starts, the cocoindex library needs to be initialized with settings. There're two options to do this:

  • Using packaged main function. It's easier to start with.
  • Explicit initialization. It's more flexible.

Using Packaged Main​

The easiest way is to use a packaged main function:

The @cocoindex.main_fn decorator wraps your main function for CocoIndex:

import cocoindex

@cocoindex.main_fn()
def main():
  ...

if __name__ == "__main__":
  main()

This takes care of the following effects:

  1. Initialize the library with settings loaded from environment variables, if not explicitly provided.
  2. If the program is executed with the cocoindex command, CocoIndex CLI will take over the control. It provides a bunch of commands for easily managing and inspecting indexes. See CocoIndex CLI for more details.
  3. Otherwise, it will run the main function.

Environment Variables​

The following environment variables are supported:

  • COCOINDEX_DATABASE_URL: The URL of the Postgres database to use as the internal storage, e.g. postgres://cocoindex:cocoindex@localhost/cocoindex

Explicit Initialization​

Alternatively, for flexibility, you can also explicitly initialize the library by the init() function:

import cocoindex

def main():
  ...
  cocoindex.init(cocoindex.Settings(database_url="postgres://cocoindex:cocoindex@localhost/cocoindex"))
  ...

...
if __name__ == "__main__":
  main()