> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.interactive.ai/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.interactive.ai/cli/iai_collections_create.md).

# iai collections create

Create a collection from a config file

## Synopsis

Create a vector collection from a YAML or JSON config file (--file).

The config declares the vector slot(s) — either an embedding-backed slot ("embedding": {model, dimension}) or a raw vector slot ({type, dimension, distance}) — and optional full-text search.

Slot type, dimension, distance, and the embedding model are IMMUTABLE after creation; fixing a wrong value means deleting and recreating the collection.

Run 'iai collections schema' for the config file format.

```
iai collections create <collection> [flags]
```

## Examples

```
  iai collections create docs -d my-db --file collection.yaml
```

## Options

```
  -d, --database string       Database that holds the collection (required)
      --dry-run               Validate the config without creating the collection
      --file string           Path to a YAML/JSON collection config
  -h, --help                  help for create
  -o, --organization string   Organization name
  -p, --project string        Project name
```

## Options inherited from parent commands

```
      --api-key string               API key for authentication
      --cfg-file string              Path to YAML config file with organization, project, and optional service definitions
      --deployment-hostname string   Hostname for the deployment API (default "https://deployment.interactive.ai")
      --hostname string              Hostname for the API (default "https://app.interactive.ai")
```

## SEE ALSO

* [iai collections](/cli/iai_collections.md) - Knowledge bases (searchable tables of chunks) inside a pgvector database


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