> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://portkey-docs-feat-rerank-documentation.mintlify.site/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Vectara MCP server

> The Vectara MCP server provides AI agents with access to Vectara's semantic search and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) APIs.

## When should you use this server

Use Vectara MCP when you want an agent to:

* Run **semantic search** over enterprise documents.
* Perform **RAG queries** that return both search results and a synthesized answer.
* Ground responses in organization-specific data with minimal setup.

## Tools provided

### **ask\_vectara**

Run a RAG query using Vectara. Returns search results along with a generated response.

**Arguments**

* `query` *(string, required)* — the user query to run.
* `corpus_keys` *(list\[string], required)* — corpus keys to search; the user must provide one or more.
* `api_key` *(string, required)* — the Vectara API key.
* `n_sentences_before` *(int, optional, default=2)* — sentences before a hit to include in context.
* `n_sentences_after` *(int, optional, default=2)* — sentences after a hit to include in context.
* `lexical_interpolation` *(float, optional, default=0.005)* — balance between semantic and lexical match.
* `max_used_search_results` *(int, optional, default=10)* — max number of search results to use.
* `generation_preset_name` *(string, optional, default=`vectara-summary-table-md-query-ext-jan-2025-gpt-4o`)* — generation preset.
* `response_language` *(string, optional, default=`eng`)* — language of the generated response.

**Returns**

* Generated answer (string)
* Supporting search results (list of documents/snippets)

**Example usage**

* *"Summarize the refund policy from the Finance corpus."*
* *"Answer FAQs about GDPR using the Compliance corpus."*

***

### **search\_vectara**

Run a semantic search query without generation. Returns only the most relevant search results.

**Arguments**

* `query` *(string, required)* — the user query to run.
* `corpus_keys` *(list\[string], required)* — corpus keys to search.
* `api_key` *(string, required)* — the Vectara API key.
* `n_sentences_before` *(int, optional, default=2)* — sentences before a hit to include.
* `n_sentences_after` *(int, optional, default=2)* — sentences after a hit to include.
* `lexical_interpolation` *(float, optional, default=0.005)* — balance between semantic and lexical match.

**Returns**

* Matching search results with context snippets.

**Example usage**

* *"Find all product docs mentioning SAML login."*
* *"Search engineering notes for 'distributed caching.'"*

[Source](https://github.com/vectara/vectara-mcp)