Operations

Monitor and manage long-running background tasks in Hindsight.

Prerequisites

Make sure you've completed the Quick Start and understand how retain works.

What Are Operations?

When you call retain_batch with async=True, Hindsight processes the content in the background and returns immediately with an operation ID. Operations let you track and manage these async retain tasks.

By default, async operations are executed in-process within the API service. This is managed automatically — you don't need to configure anything.

Scaling with Streaming

For high-throughput workloads, you can extend the task backend to use a streaming platform like Kafka. This enables scale-out processing across multiple workers and handles backpressure on the API.

Async Batch Retain

For large content batches, use async mode to avoid timeouts:

Python

from hindsight_client import Hindsight

client = Hindsight(base_url="http://localhost:8888")

client.retain_batch(
    bank_id="my-bank",
    items=[
        {"content": doc1_text},
        {"content": doc2_text},
    ],
    retain_async=True
)

Node.js

import { HindsightClient } from '@vectorize-io/hindsight-client';

const client = new HindsightClient({ baseUrl: 'http://localhost:8888' });

await client.retainBatch('my-bank', [
    { content: doc1Text },
    { content: doc2Text },
], { async: true });

CLI

hindsight retain my-bank --files docs/*.md --async

List Operations

View all operations for a memory bank:

Python

# Using the low-level API
from hindsight_client_api import ApiClient, Configuration
from hindsight_client_api.api import DefaultApi

config = Configuration(host="http://localhost:8888")
api_client = ApiClient(config)
api = DefaultApi(api_client)

# List all operations
response = api.list_operations(bank_id="my-bank")

for op in response.items:
    print(f"{op.id}: {op.task_type} - {op.status}")
    print(f"  Items: {op.items_count}")
    if op.error_message:
        print(f"  Error: {op.error_message}")

Node.js

import { sdk, createClient, createConfig } from '@vectorize-io/hindsight-client';

const apiClient = createClient(createConfig({ baseUrl: 'http://localhost:8888' }));

// List all operations
const response = await sdk.listOperations({
    client: apiClient,
    path: { bank_id: 'my-bank' }
});

for (const op of response.data.items) {
    console.log(`${op.id}: ${op.task_type} - ${op.status}`);
    console.log(`  Items: ${op.items_count}`);
    if (op.error_message) {
        console.log(`  Error: ${op.error_message}`);
    }
}

CLI

# List all operations
hindsight operations list my-bank

# Filter by status
hindsight operations list my-bank --status running

# Watch all running operations
hindsight operations watch my-bank --all

Cancel Operations

Stop a running or pending operation:

Python

# Cancel operation
api.cancel_operation(
    bank_id="my-bank",
    operation_id="op-abc123"
)

# Cancel all pending operations
response = api.list_operations(bank_id="my-bank")
for op in response.items:
    if op.status == "pending":
        api.cancel_operation(bank_id="my-bank", operation_id=op.id)

Node.js

// Cancel operation
await sdk.cancelOperation({
    client: apiClient,
    path: { bank_id: 'my-bank', operation_id: 'op-abc123' }
});

// Cancel all pending
const ops = await sdk.listOperations({
    client: apiClient,
    path: { bank_id: 'my-bank' }
});

for (const op of ops.data.items) {
    if (op.status === 'pending') {
        await sdk.cancelOperation({
            client: apiClient,
            path: { bank_id: 'my-bank', operation_id: op.id }
        });
    }
}

CLI

# Cancel operation
hindsight operations cancel my-bank op-abc123

# Cancel all pending
hindsight operations cancel my-bank --all-pending

Operation States

State	Description
pending	Queued, waiting to start
running	Currently processing
completed	Successfully finished
failed	Encountered an error
cancelled	Stopped by user

Monitoring Strategies

Polling

Python

import time

def wait_for_operations(api, bank_id, poll_interval=5):
    """Wait for all pending/running operations to complete."""
    while True:
        response = api.list_operations(bank_id=bank_id)

        pending_or_running = [
            op for op in response.items
            if op.status in ['pending', 'running']
        ]

        if not pending_or_running:
            print("All operations completed!")
            break

        for op in pending_or_running:
            print(f"  {op.id}: {op.status} ({op.items_count} items)")

        time.sleep(poll_interval)

# Use it
wait_for_operations(api, "my-bank")

Node.js

async function waitForOperations(apiClient: any, bankId: string, pollInterval = 5000) {
    while (true) {
        const response = await sdk.listOperations({
            client: apiClient,
            path: { bank_id: bankId }
        });

        const pendingOrRunning = response.data.items.filter(
            (op: any) => ['pending', 'running'].includes(op.status)
        );

        if (pendingOrRunning.length === 0) {
            console.log('All operations completed!');
            break;
        }

        for (const op of pendingOrRunning) {
            console.log(`  ${op.id}: ${op.status} (${op.items_count} items)`);
        }

        await new Promise(resolve => setTimeout(resolve, pollInterval));
    }
}

// Use it
await waitForOperations(apiClient, 'my-bank');

Performance Tips

Use async for large batches:

• Sync: < 100 items or < 100KB
• Async: > 100 items or > 100KB

Monitor progress:

• Check items_count field
• Poll every 5-10 seconds

Handle failures:

• Check error_message field for details
• Retry with exponential backoff
• Break large batches into smaller chunks

Next Steps

• Documents — Track document sources
• Entities — Monitor entity tracking
• Memory Banks — Configure bank settings