fleet-memory/hindsight-docs/docs/cookbook/recipes/quickstart.md
Nicolò Boschi 5b52a84fff
chore: internal renames (#204)
This commit renames the terminology across the entire codebase:
- "mental models" (fact_type='mental_model' in memory_units) → "observations"
- "reflections" table (stored reflect responses) → "mental_models"

Changes include:
- Database migration to rename tables, indexes, and constraints
- API endpoints: /reflections → /mental-models, /mental-models → /observations
- Config: ENABLE_MENTAL_MODELS → ENABLE_OBSERVATIONS
- Response models and Pydantic classes
- Reflect agent tools and prompts
- Control plane UI and routes
- Documentation and examples
- Regenerated OpenAPI spec and client SDKs (Python, TypeScript)
- Rust CLI: reflection commands → mental-model commands
- LiteLLM: updated fact_types documentation
2026-01-27 09:53:28 +01:00

161 lines
4.2 KiB
Markdown

---
sidebar_position: 1
---
# Hindsight Quickstart
:::tip Run this notebook
This recipe is available as an interactive Jupyter notebook.
[**Open in GitHub →**](https://github.com/vectorize-io/hindsight-cookbook/blob/main/notebooks/01-quickstart.ipynb)
:::
This notebook covers the basics of using Hindsight:
- **Retain**: Store information in memory
- **Recall**: Retrieve memories matching a query
- **Reflect**: Generate insights from memories
## Prerequisites
Make sure you have Hindsight running. The easiest way is via Docker:
```bash
export OPENAI_API_KEY=your-key
docker run --rm -it --pull always -p 8888:8888 -p 9999:9999 \
-e HINDSIGHT_API_LLM_API_KEY=$OPENAI_API_KEY \
-e HINDSIGHT_API_LLM_MODEL=o3-mini \
-v $HOME/.hindsight-docker:/home/hindsight/.pg0 \
ghcr.io/vectorize-io/hindsight:latest
```
- API: http://localhost:8888
- UI: http://localhost:9999
## Installation
Install the Hindsight Python client:
```python
!pip install hindsight-client nest_asyncio python-dotenv -U
```
## Connect to Hindsight
```python
# Jupyter notebooks already run an asyncio event loop. The hindsight client
# uses loop.run_until_complete() internally, but Python doesn't allow nested
# event loops by default. nest_asyncio patches this to allow nesting.
import nest_asyncio
nest_asyncio.apply()
import os
from dotenv import load_dotenv
# Load environment variables from .env file
# Copy .env.example to .env and fill in your values
load_dotenv()
# Configuration (override with env vars if set)
HINDSIGHT_API_URL = os.getenv("HINDSIGHT_API_URL", "http://localhost:8888")
HINDSIGHT_UI_URL = os.getenv("HINDSIGHT_UI_URL", "http://localhost:9999")
from hindsight_client import Hindsight
client = Hindsight(base_url=HINDSIGHT_API_URL)
```
## Retain: Store Information
The `retain` operation is used to push new memories into Hindsight. It tells Hindsight to _retain_ the information you pass in.
Behind the scenes, the retain operation uses an LLM to extract key facts, temporal data, entities, and relationships.
```python
# Simple retain
client.retain(
bank_id="my-bank",
content="Alice works at Google as a software engineer"
)
# View the stored document in the UI:
print(f"View documents: {HINDSIGHT_UI_URL}/banks/my-bank?view=documents")
```
```python
# Retain with context and timestamp
client.retain(
bank_id="my-bank",
content="Alice got promoted to senior engineer",
context="career update",
timestamp="2025-06-15T10:00:00Z"
)
```
## Recall: Retrieve Memories
The `recall` operation retrieves memories matching a query. It performs 4 retrieval strategies in parallel:
- **Semantic**: Vector similarity
- **Keyword**: BM25 exact matching
- **Graph**: Entity/temporal/causal links
- **Temporal**: Time range filtering
```python
# Simple recall
results = client.recall(bank_id="my-bank", query="What does Alice do?")
print("Memories:")
for r in results.results:
print(f" - {r.text}")
```
```python
# Temporal recall
results = client.recall(bank_id="my-bank", query="What happened in June?")
print("Memories:")
for r in results.results:
print(f" - {r.text}")
```
## Reflect: Generate Insights
The `reflect` operation performs reasoning over existing memories using the bank's disposition. It retrieves relevant facts and observations to generate contextual responses.
Example use cases:
- An AI Project Manager reflecting on what risks need to be mitigated
- A Sales Agent reflecting on why certain outreach messages have gotten responses
- A Support Agent reflecting on opportunities where customers have unanswered questions
```python
response = client.reflect(bank_id="my-bank", query="What should I know about Alice?")
print(response)
```
## Memory Types
Hindsight organizes knowledge into facts and consolidated observations:
- **World**: Facts about the world ("The stove gets hot")
- **Experience**: Agent's own experiences ("I touched the stove and it really hurt")
- **Observation**: Consolidated knowledge synthesized from facts ("Always be careful around hot surfaces")
## Cleanup
Delete the bank created during this notebook:
```python
import requests
response = requests.delete(f"{HINDSIGHT_API_URL}/v1/default/banks/my-bank")
print(f"Deleted my-bank: {response.json()}")
```