Migrating from Trieve

Overview

Trieve is shutting down their cloud service on November 1st, 2025. If you’re currently using Trieve for your Vapi knowledge bases, you need to migrate before this date to avoid service disruption.

This guide provides two migration paths to ensure your assistant continues working seamlessly.

Available migration options:

• Custom Knowledge Base: Full control with your own search infrastructure
• Google Knowledge Base: Managed solution using Google’s Gemini models

Migration Options Comparison

Choose the migration path that best fits your needs:

Decision Matrix

Migrating to Custom Knowledge Base

Step 1: Export Your Data

Your export process depends on how your Trieve knowledge base was originally created:

Option A: User-Managed Trieve Dataset (Import Plan)

If you created your knowledge base with your own Trieve dataset:

1. Access your Trieve dashboard directly
2. Export your datasets in your preferred format
3. Download all document chunks and metadata
4. Save any custom embeddings if applicable

Option B: Vapi-Managed Trieve Dataset (Create Plan)

If Vapi created and managed your Trieve dataset:

1. Navigate to the Files page in your Vapi dashboard
2. Download the individual files that were uploaded to create the knowledge base
3. These files are stored in Vapi and are not affected by the Trieve shutdown

Step 2: Set Up Your Custom Server

Choose your infrastructure and implement the knowledge base endpoint:

1
import express from 'express';
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import { PineconeClient } from '@pinecone-database/pinecone';
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const app = express();
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const pinecone = new PineconeClient();
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app.post('/kb/search', async (req, res) => {
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  try {
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    const { message } = req.body;
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    const userMessages = message.messages.filter(msg => msg.role === 'user');
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    const latestQuery = userMessages[userMessages.length - 1]?.content || '';
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    // Search your vector database
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    const index = pinecone.Index('your-knowledge-base');
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    const searchResults = await index.query({
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      vector: await getEmbedding(latestQuery),
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      topK: 5,
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      includeMetadata: true
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    });
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    // Format response
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    const documents = searchResults.matches.map(match => ({
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      content: match.metadata.content,
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      similarity: match.score,
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      uuid: match.id
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    }));
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    res.json({ documents });
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  } catch (error) {
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    res.status(500).json({ error: 'Search failed' });
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  }
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});
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app.listen(3000);

Step 3: Create Custom Knowledge Base in Vapi

$
curl --location 'https://api.vapi.ai/knowledge-base' \
>
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
>
--header 'Authorization: Bearer YOUR_VAPI_API_KEY' \
>
--data '{
>
    "provider": "custom-knowledge-base",
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    "server": {
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        "url": "https://your-domain.com/kb/search",
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        "secret": "your-webhook-secret"
>
    }
>
}'

Step 4: Update Your Assistant

Replace your Trieve knowledge base with the custom one:

$
curl --location --request PATCH 'https://api.vapi.ai/assistant/YOUR_ASSISTANT_ID' \
>
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
>
--header 'Authorization: Bearer YOUR_VAPI_API_KEY' \
>
--data '{
>
    "model": {
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        "model": "gpt-4o",
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        "provider": "openai",
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        "messages": [
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            {
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                "role": "system",
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                "content": "Your existing system prompt..."
>
            }
>
        ],
>
        "knowledgeBaseId": "YOUR_NEW_KNOWLEDGE_BASE_ID"
>
    }
>
}'

Migrating to Google Knowledge Base

Step 1: Prepare Your Files

Your file preparation depends on how your Trieve knowledge base was originally created:

Option A: User-Managed Trieve Dataset (Import Plan)

If you created your knowledge base with your own Trieve dataset:

1. Export your Trieve datasets as individual files
2. Organize files by topic or domain
3. Ensure files are in supported formats (.txt, .pdf, .docx, .md, etc.)
4. Keep individual files under 300KB for optimal processing
5. Upload these files to Vapi (you’ll need them in Vapi to create the query tool)

Option B: Vapi-Managed Trieve Dataset (Create Plan)

If Vapi created and managed your Trieve dataset:

1. Navigate to the Files page in your Vapi dashboard
2. Locate the files that were used to create your Trieve knowledge base
3. Note the file IDs - you’ll use these directly to create your query tool
4. No need to download or re-upload - the files are already in Vapi

Step 2: Upload Files to Vapi (Option A Only)

If you exported files from your own Trieve dataset (Option A):

1. Navigate to Build > Files in your Vapi dashboard
2. Click Upload and select your exported files
3. Wait for processing and note the generated file IDs

Step 3: Create Query Tool

Create a query tool using your file IDs:

• Option A: Use the file IDs from the files you just uploaded in Step 2
• Option B: Use the existing file IDs you noted from your Vapi Files page

For detailed instructions, see our Query Tool documentation.

$
curl --location 'https://api.vapi.ai/tool' \
>
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
>
--header 'Authorization: Bearer YOUR_VAPI_API_KEY' \
>
--data '{
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    "type": "query",
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    "function": {
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        "name": "knowledge-search"
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    },
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    "knowledgeBases": [
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        {
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            "provider": "google",
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            "name": "product-support-documentation",
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            "description": "Contains comprehensive information about our products, services, features, pricing, and technical support documentation. Includes troubleshooting guides and company information.",
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            "fileIds": [
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                "FILE_ID_1",
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                "FILE_ID_2",
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                "FILE_ID_3"
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            ]
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        }
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    ]
>
}'

Step 4: Update Your Assistant

Remove Trieve tools and add your new query tool:

$
curl --location --request PATCH 'https://api.vapi.ai/assistant/YOUR_ASSISTANT_ID' \
>
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
>
--header 'Authorization: Bearer YOUR_VAPI_API_KEY' \
>
--data '{
>
    "model": {
>
        "model": "gpt-4o",
>
        "provider": "openai",
>
        "messages": [
>
            {
>
                "role": "system", 
>
                "content": "Your existing system prompt..."
>
            }
>
        ],
>
        "toolIds": ["YOUR_NEW_QUERY_TOOL_ID"]
>
    }
>
}'

Post-Migration Checklist

After completing your migration:

• Test all assistants to ensure knowledge retrieval is working
• Monitor response quality and adjust configurations if needed
• Remove the old Trieve knowledge base from Vapi using API.
• Remove Trieve credentials from Vapi dashboard

Troubleshooting Common Issues

Poor Search Quality After Migration

Custom Knowledge Base:

• Verify your embedding model matches or exceeds Trieve’s quality
• Adjust similarity thresholds based on your model
• Test different chunking strategies
• Consider implementing hybrid search (semantic + keyword)

Google Knowledge Base:

• Review file formatting and structure
• Optimize knowledge base descriptions
• Test with different query phrasings
• Consider splitting large files into smaller, focused documents

Performance Issues

Custom Knowledge Base:

• Implement caching for frequently searched content
• Optimize your vector database configuration
• Consider using faster embedding models for latency-critical applications
• Monitor and optimize server response times

Google Knowledge Base:

• Ensure files are under 300KB each
• Use clear, well-structured file formats
• Minimize the number of files per knowledge base where possible

Next Steps

Once you’ve completed your migration:

• Custom Knowledge Base: Learn advanced customization options
• Query Tool Configuration: Optimize your Google knowledge base setup
• Assistant Configuration: Fine-tune your assistant’s knowledge base usage