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>

Recommended production pattern

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.