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docs: clarify distance metric mismatch behavior - #362

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daisukebe wants to merge 2 commits into
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daisuke/vector-search-distance-metric-docs
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daisukebe wants to merge 2 commits into
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daisuke/vector-search-distance-metric-docs

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@daisukebe

@daisukebe daisukebe commented Sep 17, 2026

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Fixes https://linear.app/lancedb/issue/DOC-81

Summary

  • clarify that an explicitly mismatched query metric prevents use of the vector index
  • document the brute-force fallback and the LanceDB Enterprise safety limit
  • distinguish current SDK behavior from older clients that sent l2 when the metric was omitted
  • align the vector search, vector indexing, and performance guides

Validation

  • git diff --check
  • npx --yes mintlify@latest broken-links

The `distance_type` can be specified at search time in addition to build time. If
you do this, set it to the same value used to build the vector index. If the search
metric does not match the index metric, LanceDB cannot use the index and falls
back to a costly flat search. On LanceDB Enterprise, the brute-force KNN safety

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it might be worth double checking if this applies to enterprise or just "cloud"

@wkalt wkalt left a comment

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one note to check

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2 participants