{
  "altLabels": [
    "Hierarchical Navigable Small World"
  ],
  "definition": "A graph-based approximate nearest neighbor search method using hierarchical navigable small-world graphs.",
  "distinctions": [
    {
      "reason": "HNSW is one graph-based approximate nearest neighbor method; ANN search is the broader method family.",
      "statement": "HNSW is not Approximate Nearest Neighbor Search.",
      "target": "approximate-nearest-neighbor-search",
      "targetLabel": "Approximate Nearest Neighbor Search",
      "targetUri": "https://id.searchplex.net/approximate-nearest-neighbor-search/"
    },
    {
      "reason": "HNSW can serve dense retrieval systems, but dense retrieval is the retrieval approach using dense representations.",
      "statement": "HNSW is not Dense Retrieval.",
      "target": "dense-retrieval",
      "targetLabel": "Dense Retrieval",
      "targetUri": "https://id.searchplex.net/dense-retrieval/"
    },
    {
      "reason": "HNSW is an indexing and search method often used for vector search; vector search is the broader retrieval mechanism and product term.",
      "statement": "HNSW is not Vector Search.",
      "target": "vector-search",
      "targetLabel": "Vector Search",
      "targetUri": "https://id.searchplex.net/vector-search/"
    }
  ],
  "id": "hnsw",
  "kind": "Method",
  "license": "https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/",
  "links": [
    {
      "label": "Efficient and robust approximate nearest neighbor search using HNSW",
      "type": "definingReference",
      "url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/1603.09320"
    }
  ],
  "modifiedAt": "2026-09-14T06:43:46Z",
  "prefLabel": "HNSW",
  "publisher": {
    "name": "Searchplex",
    "url": "https://searchplex.net/"
  },
  "relations": [
    {
      "note": "HNSW is one graph-based approximate nearest neighbor method; ANN search is the broader method family.",
      "target": "approximate-nearest-neighbor-search",
      "type": "notEquivalentTo"
    },
    {
      "note": "HNSW can serve dense retrieval systems, but dense retrieval is the retrieval approach using dense representations.",
      "target": "dense-retrieval",
      "type": "notEquivalentTo"
    },
    {
      "note": "HNSW is an indexing and search method often used for vector search; vector search is the broader retrieval mechanism and product term.",
      "target": "vector-search",
      "type": "notEquivalentTo"
    },
    {
      "target": "approximate-nearest-neighbor-search",
      "type": "related"
    },
    {
      "target": "dense-retrieval",
      "type": "related"
    },
    {
      "target": "vector-search",
      "type": "related"
    },
    {
      "target": "retrieval",
      "type": "usedFor"
    }
  ],
  "representations": {
    "html": "https://id.searchplex.net/hnsw/",
    "json": "https://id.searchplex.net/hnsw.json",
    "jsonld": "https://id.searchplex.net/hnsw.jsonld"
  },
  "scheme": "https://id.searchplex.net/scheme/",
  "scopeNote": "HNSW is commonly used as a vector-search index method in production systems. It is one ANN method, not a synonym for vector search, dense retrieval, or nearest neighbor search generally.",
  "status": "published",
  "uri": "https://id.searchplex.net/hnsw/"
}