feat(community): add elasticsearch hybrid search

[margaretjgu]

Elasticsearch Hybrid Search Implementation

Summary

This PR adds hybrid search support to the Elasticsearch vector store integration in LangChain.js. Hybrid search combines semantic (vector) search with lexical (BM25 full-text) search using Reciprocal Rank Fusion (RRF) for improved search relevance.

Related documentation PR: langchain-ai/docs#1466

Features

1. Hybrid Search Strategy

• New HybridRetrievalStrategy class for configuring hybrid search
• Combines kNN vector search with BM25 full-text search
• Uses Elasticsearch's built-in RRF (Reciprocal Rank Fusion) for result merging
• Server-side implementation for optimal performance

2. Backward Compatible

• Existing pure vector search behavior unchanged
• Hybrid search is opt-in via strategy parameter
• No breaking changes to existing APIs

Implementation Details

New Classes

HybridRetrievalStrategyConfig

Configuration interface for hybrid search:

interface HybridRetrievalStrategyConfig {
  rankWindowSize?: number;        // Default: 100
  rankConstant?: number;           // Default: 60
  textField?: string;              // Default: "text"
  includeSourceVectors?: boolean;  // For ES 9.2+
}

HybridRetrievalStrategy

Strategy class implementing hybrid search:

const strategy = new HybridRetrievalStrategy({
  rankWindowSize: 100,
  rankConstant: 60,
  textField: "text",
  includeSourceVectors: true  // For ES 9.2+
});

Modified Methods

similaritySearch()

• Captures query text for hybrid search
• Routes to hybrid or vector search based on strategy

similaritySearchVectorWithScore()

• Routes to hybridSearchVectorWithScore() when strategy is present
• Falls back to pure kNN search otherwise

New: hybridSearchVectorWithScore()

• Private method implementing hybrid search
• Uses Elasticsearch retriever API with RRF
• Combines two retrievers:
  1. Standard retriever: BM25 full-text search
  2. kNN retriever: Vector similarity search

Usage

Basic Vector Search (No Change)

import { Client } from "@elastic/elasticsearch";
import { OpenAIEmbeddings } from "@langchain/openai";
import { ElasticVectorSearch } from "@langchain/community/vectorstores/elasticsearch";

const vectorStore = new ElasticVectorSearch(
  new OpenAIEmbeddings(),
  {
    client: new Client({ node: "http://localhost:9200" }),
    indexName: "my-index"
  }
);

const results = await vectorStore.similaritySearch("query", 5);

Hybrid Search (New)

import { HybridRetrievalStrategy } from "@langchain/community/vectorstores/elasticsearch";

const vectorStore = new ElasticVectorSearch(
  new OpenAIEmbeddings(),
  {
    client: new Client({ node: "http://localhost:9200" }),
    indexName: "my-index",
    strategy: new HybridRetrievalStrategy({
      rankWindowSize: 100,
      rankConstant: 60,
      textField: "text"
    })
  }
);

// Same API, but now uses hybrid search internally
const results = await vectorStore.similaritySearch(
  "how to prevent muscle soreness",
  5
);

Core Implementation

• libs/langchain-community/src/vectorstores/elasticsearch.ts (+145 lines)
  • Added HybridRetrievalStrategyConfig interface
  • Added HybridRetrievalStrategy class
  • Updated ElasticClientArgs interface
  • Added hybridSearchVectorWithScore() method
  • Updated similaritySearch() and similaritySearchVectorWithScore()
  • Enhanced JSDoc documentation

[changeset-bot]

🦋 Changeset detected

Latest commit: 139374b

The changes in this PR will be included in the next version bump.

This PR includes changesets to release 1 package

Name	Type
@langchain/community	Patch

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[margaretjgu]

cc @nayrttam for vis