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Version: v2.0

Getting Started with Spice.ai OSS

Follow these steps to get started with Spice​

Download the latest version of Spice, connect to a dataset in S3, and ask questions about the data using AI, in less than 5 minutes.

Step 1. Install the Spice CLI:

Install Script​

curl https://install.spiceai.org | /bin/bash

Homebrew​

brew install spiceai/spiceai/spice

Step 2. Initialize a new Spice app with the spice init command:

spice init spice_qs

A spicepod.yaml file is created in the spice_qs directory. Change to that directory:

cd spice_qs

Step 3. Add the spiceai/quickstart Spicepod. A Spicepod is a package of configuration defining datasets and ML models.

spice add spiceai/quickstart

The spicepod.yaml file will be updated with the spiceai/quickstart dependency. This Spicepod includes a taxi_trips dataset sourced from S3.

version: v1
kind: Spicepod
name: spice_qs
dependencies:
  - spiceai/quickstart

Step 4. Add an OpenAI model to the Spicepod with tools enabled, so the model can query the taxi_trips dataset directly:

models:
  - from: openai:gpt-4o-mini
    name: openai_model
    params:
      openai_api_key: ${ env:OPENAI_API_KEY }
      tools: auto

Add your OpenAI API key to a .env file that Spice automatically loads at startup:

echo "OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-..." > .env

Start the Spice runtime:

spice run

The runtime starts and loads the taxi_trips dataset. Wait for the dataset to finish loading before querying:

Spice.ai runtime starting...
2024-08-05T13:02:40.247484Z  INFO runtime::flight: Spice Runtime Flight listening on 127.0.0.1:50051
2024-08-05T13:02:40.247949Z  INFO runtime: Initialized results cache; max size: 128.00 MiB, item ttl: 1s
2024-08-05T13:02:40.248611Z  INFO runtime::http: Spice Runtime HTTP listening on 127.0.0.1:8090

Step 5. Start the Spice Chat REPL and ask a question:

$ spice chat
Using model: openai_model
chat> How many taxi trips were taken?
A total of 2,964,624 trips were taken according to the dataset.

The OpenAI model was automatically provided with the taxi_trips dataset and was able to answer the question.

Step 6. Start the Spice SQL REPL:

spice sql

The SQL REPL interface will be shown:

Welcome to the Spice.ai SQL REPL! Type 'help' for help.

show tables; -- list available tables
sql>

Enter show tables; to display the available tables for query:

sql> show tables
+---------------+--------------+---------------+------------+
| table_catalog | table_schema | table_name    | table_type |
+---------------+--------------+---------------+------------+
| spice         | public       | taxi_trips    | BASE TABLE |
| spice         | runtime      | task_history  | BASE TABLE |
| spice         | runtime      | metrics       | BASE TABLE |
+---------------+--------------+---------------+------------+

Time: 0.022671708 seconds. 3 rows.

Enter a query to display the longest taxi trips:

sql> SELECT trip_distance, total_amount FROM taxi_trips ORDER BY trip_distance DESC LIMIT 10;

Output:

+---------------+--------------+
| trip_distance | total_amount |
+---------------+--------------+
| 312722.3      | 22.15        |
| 97793.92      | 36.31        |
| 82015.45      | 21.56        |
| 72975.97      | 20.04        |
| 71752.26      | 49.57        |
| 59282.45      | 33.52        |
| 59076.43      | 23.17        |
| 58298.51      | 18.63        |
| 51619.36      | 24.2         |
| 44018.64      | 52.43        |
+---------------+--------------+

Time: 0.045150667 seconds. 10 rows.

Next Steps​

Now that Spice is running, explore the key capabilities: