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AI Functions

AI functions in Spice provide direct integration with large language models (LLMs) and embedding models within SQL queries. These functions process text through configured model providers and return generated responses or vector embeddings.

ai​

Invokes large language models (LLMs) directly within SQL queries for text generation tasks. This asynchronous function processes prompts through configured model providers and returns generated text responses.

ai(message)
ai(message, model_name)

Arguments​

  • message: String prompt to send to the language model.
  • model_name (optional): Name of the model to use as configured in your Spicepod. If omitted, the default model is used (only valid when exactly one model is configured).

Return Type​

Returns a string containing the generated text response. Returns NULL for NULL input messages or when the model returns an empty response. If the underlying model call fails, the query errors out (errors are logged).

Behavior​

Queries execute asynchronously, processing LLM calls in parallel across rows for improved performance. Each invocation issues an asynchronous call to the specified model provider.

Concurrency: When a per-model rate controller is configured in the Spicepod, it manages concurrency and backpressure. Otherwise, concurrency falls back to DataFusion's execution.target_partitions setting. When multiple models with different providers are configured (e.g., OpenAI and Anthropic), each provider's requests are controlled independently.

Limits:

  • Maximum batch size: 1000 rows per invocation
  • Maximum input message size: 1,000,000 bytes (1 MB) per message
  • Maximum model name length: 256 characters

Configuration​

Models must be configured in spicepod.yaml under the models section. See Large Language Models for detailed configuration.

models:
  - name: gpt-4o
    from: openai:gpt-4o
    params:
      openai_api_key: ${secrets:openai_key}

Task History​

Each ai() function invocation creates an ai span in the task_history table, which tracks execution time, input prompts, model name, and row count. Child ai_completion spans capture per-row model call details.

Examples​

Using default model​

When only one model is configured, the model name can be omitted:

SELECT
  zone,
  ai(concat_ws(' ', 'Categorize the zone', zone, 'in a single word. Only return the word.')) AS category
FROM taxi_zones
LIMIT 10;

Example output:

+-----------------------+-------------+
| zone                  | category    |
+-----------------------+-------------+
| Newark Airport        | Transport   |
| Jamaica Bay           | Nature      |
| Allerton/Pelham...    | Residential |
| Alphabet City         | Urban       |
| Arden Heights         | Suburban    |
+-----------------------+-------------+

Specifying a model explicitly​

When multiple models are configured, specify which model to use:

SELECT
  product_name,
  ai('Summarize this product in 5 words: ' || product_description, 'gpt-4o') AS summary
FROM products
LIMIT 5;

Generating search terms​

Use the ai() function to generate search terms for enhanced search functionality:

SELECT
  user_query,
  ai('Generate 3 alternative search terms for: ' || user_query, 'gpt-4o-mini') AS alt_terms
FROM user_searches
WHERE created_at > NOW() - INTERVAL '1 hour';

Batch text processing​

Process multiple rows efficiently with parallel LLM calls. Each ai() invocation is capped at 1000 rows, so use LIMIT to stay within this bound:

SELECT
  customer_id,
  feedback,
  ai('Classify sentiment as positive, negative, or neutral: ' || feedback) AS sentiment
FROM customer_feedback
WHERE processed = false
LIMIT 1000;

embed​

Generates vector embeddings for text using specified embedding models. Supports both single text strings and arrays of text for batch processing.

embed(text, model_name)

Arguments​

  • text: String or array of strings to generate embeddings for. Utf8 / LargeUtf8 scalars and lists/arrays of strings are supported.
  • model_name: Name of the embedding model to use (e.g., 'potion_2m', 'xl_embed') as configured in your Spicepod. Required — unlike ai(), embed() does not auto-select a default when only one model is configured.

Return Type​

  • For a scalar string input: List<Float32> — a single embedding vector.
  • For an array of strings: List<List<Float32>> — one embedding vector per element, preserving the input length. NULL input elements produce NULL output elements.

Configuration​

Embedding models must be configured in spicepod.yaml. See Embeddings for configuration details.

embeddings:
  - from: openai:text-embedding-3-small
    name: openai_embed
    params:
      openai_api_key: ${secrets:openai_key}

Examples​

Single text embedding​

Generate an embedding for a single piece of text:

SELECT embed('hello world', 'potion_2m') AS embedding;

Multiple text embeddings​

Generate embeddings for multiple strings in one call:

SELECT embed(['hey', 'there', 'sunshine'], 'potion_2m') AS embeddings;

Generate embeddings to use with vector search:

SELECT
  title,
  embed(content, 'xl_embed') AS content_embedding
FROM documents
WHERE embedding IS NULL
LIMIT 1000;

For more information on configuring and using AI models, see: