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tei-server-operations

Source: vignettes/tei-server-operations.qmd

Purpose

This vignette documents TEI server operations outside the package:

  • start and stop workflows,
  • health and info checks,
  • endpoint verification,
  • operational troubleshooting.

openalexVectorComp no longer manages TEI process lifecycle internally.

Start TEI

Local binary 

text-embeddings-router --model-id BAAI/bge-small-en-v1.5 --port 3000

Alternative port 

text-embeddings-router --model-id BAAI/bge-small-en-v1.5 --port 3001

Verify service

Health 

curl -s http://localhost:3000/health

Info 

curl -s http://localhost:3000/info

Embed smoke test 

curl -s -X POST http://localhost:3000/embed \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"inputs":["hello world"]}'

Use TEI endpoint in package 

library(openalexVectorComp)

backend <- backend_config(
  provider = "tei",
  base_url = "http://localhost:3000"
)

emb <- embed_texts(
  texts = c("Title: A\nAbstract: B", "Title: C\nAbstract: D"),
  backend = backend
)
dim(emb)

Process management (shell)

If TEI is running in a terminal, stop with Ctrl+C.

If running in background:

pkill -f text-embeddings-router

Or find PID and stop explicitly:

ps aux | grep text-embeddings-router
kill <PID>
  1. Run TEI under a process supervisor (systemd, supervisord, or container runtime).
  2. Expose one stable embed URL.
  3. Keep model id fixed for each embedding campaign.
  4. Record endpoint + model id in run metadata.

Troubleshooting

Port already in use

Use another port and update backend config accordingly.

Empty/invalid responses

  • Check curl smoke test directly against /embed.
  • Reduce max_batch_size in backend_config().

Slow throughput

  • Increase TEI resources.
  • Use larger batch_size in embed_corpus() where feasible.
  • Verify server-side limits from /info.