What is Vector database?
A vector database stores embeddings and returns the nearest matches for a query vector. It is one component of a retrieval system, not a complete one: it does not parse documents, enforce permissions, rerank results or produce citations.
Also known as: vector store, do I need a vector database.
Teams often start by choosing a vector database and discover the real work sits around it - ingestion, structure-aware chunking, hybrid search, access control, evaluation and citation plumbing. That surrounding layer is where most build timelines are lost.
How Uthereal handles it
Uthereal replaces the assembly job: retrieval, permissions and citations arrive as one API instead of six components to integrate.
Related reading
Last updated 2026-09-18 · plain-text glossary for AI tools