index

name	index
description	Use when the user wants to create, list, describe, or drop indexes on Milvus collections.

Prerequisites

1. CLI installed, logged in, and cluster context set (see setup skill).
2. Target collection must exist (see collection skill).

Commands Reference

All index commands accept an optional --database <db-name> flag. If omitted, the database from the current context is used.

Create an Index

zilliz index create --collection <collection-name>
# Optional: --database <database-name>
# Or use raw JSON: --body '{"indexParams": [{"fieldName": "vector", "indexType": "AUTOINDEX", "metricType": "COSINE"}]}'

List Indexes

zilliz index list --collection <collection-name>
# Optional: --database <database-name>

Describe an Index

zilliz index describe --collection <collection-name> --index-name <index-name>
# Optional: --database <database-name>

Drop an Index

zilliz index drop --collection <collection-name> --index-name <index-name-to-drop>
# Optional: --database <database-name>

Index Types

Common index types:

• AUTOINDEX -- recommended, automatically selects the best index
• IVF_FLAT, IVF_SQ8, HNSW -- manual selection for advanced users

Common metric types:

• COSINE -- cosine similarity (default)
• L2 -- Euclidean distance
• IP -- inner product

Guidance

• On Zilliz Cloud, AUTOINDEX is recommended for most use cases.
• An index is required before loading a collection for search.
• Before creating an index, check the collection schema to identify vector fields.
• After creating an index, remind the user to load the collection.