Start with the records
An application rarely needs everything in a database at once. It needs the records relevant to one action: the policy behind an answer, the earlier decision behind a plan, or the product that fits a requirement. Polygres provides retrieval tools over Postgres so your application can make that selection before it asks a model to respond.
The foundation is still relational data. Keep stable identifiers, ownership, and source information with each record. Embeddings and relationships add ways to find those records; they do not replace the need to know what a result represents.
Choose where the database lives
A hosted project gives you a managed Postgres database on Polygres. A synchronized project connects selected tables from an existing supported Postgres source. The source stays the system of record, while Polygres maintains a copy for the project and its retrieval work.
For synchronization, existing rows arrive through an initial snapshot and subsequent changes arrive through logical replication. This distinction matters when you plan writes, schema changes, and project capacity. A connected source is not a promise of zero-copy queries across every system.
Choose the retrieval path
AI Context Search is the current collection-based path for semantic retrieval in Polygres. It supports approaches that combine meaning, text signals, grouped results, and graph context. Graph retrieval follows modeled relationships between records.
Choose these tools around a specific question. A product description may benefit from semantic similarity. A version identifier may require exact terms. A dependency question needs the edges that establish which service depends on which other service.
Build a small, inspectable example
Start with one dataset and a short list of representative questions. Inspect the returned records before connecting a model. Check whether the sources are relevant, complete enough for the task, and within the caller’s access.
Use the dashboard to explore, the CLI for repeatable operations, and the Python SDK or Runtime API in your application. The first useful milestone is a query whose evidence you understand, not an answer that merely sounds convincing.
Explore the next step
Continue with the platform guide. For the current setup and API contract, use the Polygres documentation.