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---
stage: none
group: unassigned
info: To determine the technical writer assigned to the Stage/Group associated with this page, see https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/product/ux/technical-writing/#assignments
---
# AI Architecture
GitLab has created a common set of tools to support our product groups and their utilization of AI. Our goals with this common architecture are:
1. Increase the velocity of feature teams by providing a set of high quality, ready to use tools
1. Ability to switch underlying technologies quickly and easily
AI is moving very quickly, and we need to be able to keep pace with changes in the area. We have built an [abstraction layer](../../ee/development/ai_features/index.md) to do this, allowing us to take a more "pluggable" approach to the underlying models, data stores, and other technologies.
The following diagram from the [architecture blueprint](../architecture/blueprints/ai_gateway/index.md) shows a simplified view of how the different components in GitLab interact. The abstraction layer helps avoid code duplication within the REST APIs within the `AI API` block.
## SaaS-based AI abstraction layer
GitLab currently operates a cloud-hosted AI architecture. We will allow access to it for licensed self managed instances using the AI-gateway. Please see [the blueprint](../architecture/blueprints/ai_gateway) for details
There are two primary reasons for this: the best AI models are cloud-based as they often depend on specialized hardware designed for this purpose, and operating self-managed infrastructure capable of AI at-scale and with appropriate performance is a significant undertaking. We are actively [tracking self-managed customers interested in AI](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/409183).
## AI Gateway
The AI Gateway (formerly the [model gateway](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/modelops/applied-ml/code-suggestions/ai-assist)) is a standalone-service that will give access to AI features to all users of GitLab, no matter which instance they are using: self-managed, dedicated or GitLab.com. The SaaS-based AI abstraction layer will transition to connecting to this gateway, rather than accessing cloud-based providers directly.
Calls to the AI-gateway from GitLab-rails can be made using the
[Abstraction Layer](ai_features/index.md#abstraction-layer).
By default, these actions are performed asynchronously via a Sidekiq
job to prevent long-running requests in Puma. It should be used for
non-latency sensitive actions due to the added latency by Sidekiq.
At the time of writing, the Abstraction Layer still directly calls the AI providers. This will be
changed [in the future](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/424614).
When a certain action is latency sensitive, we can decide to call the
AI-gateway directly. This avoids the latency added by Sidekiq.
[We already do this for `code_suggestions`](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/blob/master/ee/lib/api/code_suggestions.rb)
which get handled by API endpoints nested in
`/api/v4/code_suggestions`. For any new endpoints added, we should
nest them within the `/api/v4/ai_assisted` namespace. Doing this will
automatically route the requests on GitLab.com to the `ai-assisted`
fleet for GitLab.com, isolating the workload from the regular API and
making it easier to scale if needed.
## Supported technologies
As part of the AI working group, we have been investigating various technologies and vetting them. Below is a list of the tools which have been reviewed and already approved for use within the GitLab application.
It is possible to utilize other models or technologies, however they will need to go through a review process prior to use. Use the [AI Project Proposal template](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/new?issuable_template=AI%20Project%20Proposal) as part of your idea and include the new tools required to support it.
### Models
The following models have been approved for use:
- [OpenAI models](https://platform.openai.com/docs/models)
- Google's [Vertex AI](https://cloud.google.com/vertex-ai) and [model garden](https://cloud.google.com/model-garden)
- [AI Code Suggestions](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/modelops/applied-ml/code-suggestions/ai-assist/-/tree/main)
- [Suggested reviewer](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/modelops/applied-ml/applied-ml-updates/-/issues/10)
### Vector stores
The following vector stores have been approved for use:
- [`pgvector`](https://github.com/pgvector/pgvector) is a Postgres extension adding support for storing vector embeddings and calculating ANN (approximate nearest neighbor).
### Indexing Update
We are currently using sequential scan, which provides perfect recall. We are considering adding an index if we can ensure that it still produces accurate results, as noted in the `pgvector` indexing [documentation](https://github.com/pgvector/pgvector#indexing).
Given that the table contains thousands of entries, indexing with these updated settings would likely improve search speed while maintaining high accuracy. However, more testing may be needed to verify the optimal configuration for this dataset size before deploying to production.
A [draft MR](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/merge_requests/122035) has been created to update the index.
The index function has been updated to improve search quality. This was tested locally by setting the `ivfflat.probes` value to `10` with the following SQL command:
```ruby
Embedding::TanukiBotMvc.connection.execute("SET ivfflat.probes = 10")
```
Setting the `probes` value for indexing improves results, as per the neighbor [documentation](https://github.com/ankane/neighbor#indexing).
For optimal `probes` and `lists` values:
- Use `lists` equal to `rows / 1000` for tables with up to 1 million rows and `sqrt(rows)` for larger datasets.
- For `probes` start with `lists / 10` for tables up to 1 million rows and `sqrt(lists)` for larger datasets.
### Code Suggestions
Code Suggestions is being integrated as part of the GitLab-Rails repository which will unify the architectures between Code Suggestions and AI features that use the abstraction layer, along with offering self-managed support for the other AI features.
The following table documents functionality that Code Suggestions offers today, and what those changes will look like as part of the unification:
| Topic | Details | Where this happens today | Where this will happen going forward |
| ----- | ------ | -------------- | ------------------ |
| Request processing | | | |
| | Receives requests from IDEs (VSCode, GitLab WebIDE, MS Visual Studio, IntelliJ, JetBrains, VIM, Emacs, Sublime), including code before and after the cursor | AI Gateway | Abstraction Layer |
| | Authentication the current user, verifies they are authorized to use Code Suggestions for this project | AI Gateway | Abstraction layer |
| | Preprocesses the request to add context, such as including imports via TreeSitter | AI Gateway | Undecided |
| | Routes the request to the AI Provider | AI Gateway | AI Gateway |
| | Returns the response to the IDE | AI Gateway | Abstraction Layer |
| | Logs the request, including timestamp, response time, model, etc | AI Gateway | Both |
| Telemetry | | | |
| | User acceptance or rejection in the IDE | AI Gateway | [Both](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/418282) |
| | Number of unique users per day | [Abstraction Layer](https://app.periscopedata.com/app/gitlab/1143612/Code-Suggestions-Usage) | Undecided |
| | Error rate, model usage, response time, IDE usage | [AI Gateway](https://log.gprd.gitlab.net/app/dashboards#/view/6c947f80-7c07-11ed-9f43-e3784d7fe3ca?_g=(refreshInterval:(pause:!t,value:0),time:(from:now-6h,to:now))) | Both |
| | Suggestions per language | AI Gateway |[Both](https://gitlab.com/groups/gitlab-org/-/epics/11017) |
| Monitoring | | Both | Both |
| | | | |
| Model Routing | | | |
| | Currently we are not using this functionality, but Code Suggestions is able to support routing to multiple models based on a percentage of traffic | AI Gateway | Both |
| Internal Models | | | |
| | Currently unmaintained, the ability to run models in our own instance, running them inside Triton, and routing requests to our own models | AI Gateway | AI Gateway |
#### Code Suggestions Latency
Code Suggestions acceptance rates are _highly_ sensitive to latency. While writing code with an AI assistant, a user will pause only for a short duration before continuing on with manually typing out a block of code. As soon as the user has pressed a subsequent keypress, the existing suggestion will be invalidated and a new request will need to be issued to the Code Suggestions endpoint. In turn, this request will also be highly sensitive to latency.
In a worst case with sufficient latency, the IDE could be issuing a string of requests, each of which is then ignored as the user proceeds without waiting for the response. This adds no value for the user, while still putting load on our services.
See our discussions [here](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/418955) around how we plan to iterate on latency for this feature.
|
