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Connect Astra DB to your preprocessing pipeline, and use the Unstructured Ingest CLI or the Unstructured Ingest Python library to batch process all your documents and store structured outputs locally on your filesystem.

The requirements are as follows.

  • An Astra account. Create or sign in to an Astra account.

  • A database in the Astra account. Create a database in an account.

  • An application token for the database. Create a database application token.

  • A namespace in the database. Create a namespace in a database.

  • A collection in the namespace. Create a collection in a namespace.

    An existing collection is not required. At runtime, the collection behavior is as follows:

    For the Unstructured UI and Unstructured API:

    • If an existing collection name is specified, and Unstructured generates embeddings, but the number of dimensions that are generated does not match the existing collection’s embedding settings, the run will fail. You must change your Unstructured embedding settings or your existing collection’s embedding settings to match, and try the run again.
    • If a collection name is not specified, Unstructured creates a new collection in your namespace. If Unstructured generates embeddings, the new collections’s name will be u<short-workflow-id>_<short-embedding-model-name>_<number-of-dimensions>. If Unstructured does not generate embeddings, the new collections’s name will be u<short-workflow-id.

    For Unstructured Ingest:

    • If an existing collection name is specified, and Unstructured generates embeddings, but the number of dimensions that are generated does not match the existing collection’s embedding settings, the run will fail. You must change your Unstructured embedding settings or your existing collections’s embedding settings to match, and try the run again.
    • If a collection name is not specified, Unstructured creates a new collection in your Pinecone account. The new collection’s name will be unstructuredautocreated.

The Astra DB connector dependencies:

CLI, Python
pip install "unstructured-ingest[astradb]"

You might also need to install additional dependencies, depending on your needs. Learn more.

These environment variables:

  • ASTRA_DB_API_ENDPOINT - The API endpoint for the Astra DB database, represented by --api-endpoint (CLI) or api_endpoint (Python). To get the endpoint, see the Database Details > API Endpoint value on your database’s Overview tab.
  • ASTRA_DB_APPLICATION_TOKEN - The database application token value for the database, represented by --token (CLI) or token (Python). To get the token, see the Database Details > Application Tokens box on your database’s Overview tab.
  • ASTRA_DB_KEYSPACE - The name of the keyspace for the database, represented by --keyspace (CLI) or keyspace (Python).
  • ASTRA_DB_COLLECTION - The name of the collection for the keyspace, represented by --collection-name (CLI) or collection_name (Python). If no value is provided, see the beginning of this article for the behavior at run time.

Additional settings include:

  • For the source connector only, --fields (CLI) or fields (Python): Optionally, a comma-separated list (CLI) or an array of strings (Python) of fields to include in the output. The default is ti include all fields, if not otherwise specified.
  • For the destination connector only, --flatten-metadata (CLI) or flatten_metadata=True (Python): Optionally, whether to “flatten” the metadata. Specifically, the metadata key values are brought to the top level of the element, and the metadata key itself is removed. To not flatten the metadata (the default), specify --no-flatten_metadata (CLI) or flatten_metadata=False (Python). The default is is to not flatten the metadata if not otherwise specified.

Now call the Unstructured CLI or Python. The destination connector can be any of the ones supported. This example uses the local destination connector.

This example sends data to Unstructured for processing by default. To process data locally instead, see the instructions at the end of this page.

#!/usr/bin/env bash

unstructured-ingest \
  astradb \
    --api-endpoint $ASTRA_DB_API_ENDPOINT \
    --token $ASTRA_DB_APPLICATION_TOKEN \
    --collection-name $ASTRA_DB_COLLECTION \
    --keyspace $ASTRA_DB_KEYSPACE \
    --fields record_id,content \
    --download-dir $LOCAL_FILE_DOWNLOAD_DIR \
    --partition-by-api \
    --api-key $UNSTRUCTURED_API_KEY \
    --partition-endpoint $UNSTRUCTURED_API_URL \
    --additional-partition-args="{\"split_pdf_page\":\"true\", \"split_pdf_allow_failed\":\"true\", \"split_pdf_concurrency_level\": 15}"

For the Unstructured Ingest CLI and the Unstructured Ingest Python library, you can use the --partition-by-api option (CLI) or partition_by_api (Python) parameter to specify where files are processed:

  • To do local file processing, omit --partition-by-api (CLI) or partition_by_api (Python), or explicitly specify partition_by_api=False (Python).

    Local file processing does not use an Unstructured API key or API URL, so you can also omit the following, if they appear:

    • --api-key $UNSTRUCTURED_API_KEY (CLI) or api_key=os.getenv("UNSTRUCTURED_API_KEY") (Python)
    • --partition-endpoint $UNSTRUCTURED_API_URL (CLI) or partition_endpoint=os.getenv("UNSTRUCTURED_API_URL") (Python)
    • The environment variables UNSTRUCTURED_API_KEY and UNSTRUCTURED_API_URL

  • To send files to the Unstructured Partition Endpoint for processing, specify --partition-by-api (CLI) or partition_by_api=True (Python).

    Unstructured also requires an Unstructured API key and API URL, by adding the following:

    • --api-key $UNSTRUCTURED_API_KEY (CLI) or api_key=os.getenv("UNSTRUCTURED_API_KEY") (Python)
    • --partition-endpoint $UNSTRUCTURED_API_URL (CLI) or partition_endpoint=os.getenv("UNSTRUCTURED_API_URL") (Python)
    • The environment variables UNSTRUCTURED_API_KEY and UNSTRUCTURED_API_URL, representing your API key and API URL, respectively.

    You must specify the API URL only if you are not using the default API URL for Unstructured Ingest, for example, if you are using a self-hosted instance of the Unstructured API.

    The default API URL for Unstructured Ingest is https://api.unstructuredapp.io/general/v0/general, which is the API URL for the Unstructured Partition Endpoint. However, you should always use the URL that was provided to you when your Unstructured account was created. If you do not have this URL, contact Unstructured Sales at sales@unstructured.io.

    If you do not have an API key, get one now.

    If the Unstructured API is self-hosted, the process for generating Unstructured API keys, and the Unstructured API URL that you use, are different. For details, contact Unstructured Sales at sales@unstructured.io.