nemo-retriever | SkillBundle

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SKILL.md

nemo-retriever | SkillBundle

Use when searching, extracting, ingesting, or querying a document collection with the NeMo Retriever 26.8.1 CLI, including local LanceDB indexes and deployed Retriever services. Use for PDFs, images, Office files, HTML, text, audio, and video; not for editing documents or web search.

npx skills add nvidia/skills --skill nemo-retriever

Documentation

SKILL.mdView source

NeMo Retriever

Use the retriever CLI. Prefer it over hand-built retrieval code.

Install only when missing

Create a project-local Python environment:

uv venv .venv --python 3.12
export PATH="$PWD/.venv/bin:$PATH"

Install the package variant required by the workflow:

Do not clone NeMo Retriever or install from a Git URL. If retriever is already on PATH, use that installation.

Local workflow

Build a local index:

Query it:

Use retriever ingest batch only for an explicitly requested Ray batch run.

Service workflow

Use these forms for an already deployed Retriever service:

Set NEMO_RETRIEVER_API_TOKEN when the service requires Bearer authentication. Do not pass local LanceDB flags to the service commands.

Rules

Use the existing index or service when one is provided; do not rebuild it.
Use retriever ingest --help, retriever query --help, or the relevant batch / service help for options not shown here.
Answer only from retrieved evidence; preserve source and page metadata when the task requests citations.

# Remote NIM or service client
uv pip install --python .venv/bin/python "nemo-retriever==26.8.1"
 
# Local GPU ingestion
uv pip install --python .venv/bin/python "nemo-retriever[local]==26.8.1"
 
# Local service using Hugging Face models
uv pip install --python .venv/bin/python \
  "nemo-retriever[service,local]==26.8.1"
 
# Local audio or video ingestion
uv pip install --python .venv/bin/python \
  "nemo-retriever[local,multimedia]==26.8.1"

retriever ingest <file-or-directory> \
  --lancedb-uri lancedb --table-name nemo-retriever

retriever query "<question>" \
  --lancedb-uri lancedb --table-name nemo-retriever \
  --top-k 5 --format evidence

retriever ingest service <file-or-directory> \
  --service-url "$RETRIEVER_SERVICE_URL"
 
retriever query service "<question>" \
  --service-url "$RETRIEVER_SERVICE_URL" \
  --top-k 5 --format evidence