How to set up RAG for OpenAI agents using IRIS Vector DB in Python

In this article, I’ll walk you through an example of using InterSystems IRIS Vector DB to store embeddings and integrate them with an OpenAI agent.

To demonstrate this, we’ll create an OpenAI agent with knowledge of InterSystems technology. We’ll achieve this by storing embeddings of some InterSystems documentation in IRIS and then using IRIS vector search to retrieve relevant content—enabling a Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) workflow.

Note: Section 1 details how process text into embeddings.

Managing InterSystems Servers – Virtual  January 5-9, 2026

• Configure, manage, plan, and monitor system operations of InterSystems Data Platform technology
• This 5-day course teaches system and database administrators how to manage InterSystems® Data Platform technology which powers all of our products.
• Learn to install, configure and secure the data platform, configure for high availability and disaster recovery, and monitor the system.
• Students also learn troubleshooting techniques.

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FastJsonSchema: High-Performance JSON Validation in IRIS

Validating JSON data against JSON Schema is a common requirement for modern applications. FastJsonSchema brings this capability natively to InterSystems IRIS, combining speed, simplicity, and full schema compliance.

Unlike traditional validation approaches, FastJsonSchema generates native ObjectScript code from your JSON Schemas and compiles it directly to iris object code, enabling idiomatic performance without relying on external libraries or runtimes.

Hello Developers! 👋
I’m excited to introduce IRIS IO Utility, my submission for the InterSystems "Bringing Ideas to Reality" Contest 2025. This VS Code extension provides you an intuitive and powerful interface for importing and exporting data without leaving your IDE. The extension implements and expand this idea submitted on the Ideas Portal turning a common developer need into a real tool: seamless IO operations with any IRIS instance directly inside VS Code.

Hello, 

I am using Object Script with Phyton to import an Excel File. 

Please see the below code. Its works fine for all text and numeric Columns. But by importing a DATE formated column in Excel (birthdate) , Iam facing the below issue as result:

My question: How can i import date formated Excel Data in Object Script?

Thanks a lot in advance

Maikel

       Set tSC = $$$OK
        Set tData = ##class(%SYS.Python).Import("openpyxl")         Try 
        {
            /// Pfad zur Excel-Datei
            Set filePath = pInput.

Hey everyone.

As part of an ongoing mission to track down orphaned HL7 Messages in our integration engine, I have been digging into our environment to track down the causes.

Having looked at various posts here (including one of my own) there are a few scenarios that can create orphaned messages resulting in excessive disk space usage. These scenarios are generally:

1. Purging an environment with the option "Bodies Too" deselected
2. Code creating/saving a Message but then not sending it
3. BPL errors similar to 2, or a scenario where the response to a Call component is not set.

Hello,

Are there any utilities/api in HealthConnect 2016.2.1 that will allow conversion of XML virtual document to Json format? We were thinking to convert HL7 ADT message to XML via Ensemble DTL and then send it to another BP to convert to Json format for transmission via Web Services. To my understanding there isn't anyway to represent Json as a virtual object so it can be use for direct mapping of HL7 2.x message to Json via Ensemble DTL.

Thanks

Yuriy

In some cases, it's necessary to manipulate data from one namespace to another. For example, a routine in the "N1" namespace needs data from the "N2" namespace. In legacy systems (using only globals), it's common to make the global universal, but what about persistent classes? Is this type of globalization also possible?

In the same context, how could I make a persistent class global for all namespaces? The only way I know is by putting it in %SYS.

Hi Developers,

Following the resounding success of last year's new contest, we decided to repeat it. Please welcome 

🏆 Bringing Ideas to Reality Contest 🏆

Submit an application that implements an idea from the InterSystems Ideas Portal that has status Community Opportunity or Future Consideration, created before the publication of this announcement, and requires doing the actual programming 😉

Duration: November 17 - December 7, 2025 December 14, 2025 (the submission period extended until December 7)

Prize pool: $12,000

The following regex is matching while I think it should not :

write $match("♥","\?") //print '1' (unexpected)

It should only match the '?' character. I think what happen is the ♥ character got converted to '?' (as it's not within regular ascii range) before being validated by the regex engine.

In fact, this give a clue about what happen : 

write $char($ascii("♥")) //print '?'

Is this an IRIS well known limitation, is there workarounds ? Should I report it to InterSystems ?

In my case, a way to detect non standard ascii code in a string will be good enough.

Hey Community,

It's time for the new batch of #KeyQuestions from the previous month.

Here are the technology bonuses for the InterSystems "Bringing Ideas to Reality" Contest 2025 that will give you extra points in the voting:

• Developer Experience Idea implemented - 4
• IRIS Vector Search usage -3
• Embedded Python usage -3
• InterSystems Interoperability - 3
• InterSystems IRIS BI - 3
• VSCode Plugin - 3
• FHIR Tools - 3
• Docker container usage -2 
• ZPM Package Deployment - 2
• Online Demo -2 
• Find and report a bug - 2
• Article on Developer Community - 2
• The second article on Developer Community - 1
• Video on YouTube - 3
• YouTube Short - 1
• First Time Contribution - 3

See the details below.

Hallo, I am new on programming Object Script.

My problem: How can I use a String variable in embedded SQL?

The below example does not work by using: namevar with ' ' 

set namevar = 'Ali'

&sql(DECLARE C2 CURSOR FOR SELECT name INTO :name FROM person where name = 'namevar')

Only below will work: person where name = 'Ali' 

Thanks in advance

Hey Developers,

Enjoy the new video on InterSystems Developers YouTube

⏯ Understanding AI Ready Data @ READY 2025

Hey Community!

We're happy to share a new video from our InterSystems Developers YouTube:

⏯  Smarter Table Statistics @ Ready 2025

Could someone explain how and why a HL7 ACK be showing up as a Orphaned message when I run the following SQL...
 

SELECT HL7.ID,HL7.DocType,HL7.Envelope,HL7.Identifier,HL7.MessageTypeCategory,HL7.Name,HL7.OriginalDocId,HL7.ParentId, HL7.TimeCreated
FROM EnsLib_HL7.Message HL7
LEFT JOIN Ens.MessageHeader hdr
ON HL7.Id=hdr.MessageBodyId
WHERE hdr.MessageBodyId IS NULL

I am trying to find the problem code that is causing the Orphaned messages, and an ACK showing up seems kind of Odd. While we do have Archive IO/Trace on, and Index NOT OK's set why would they show up as Orphaned messages?

I’m facing an issue with a CSP-based web application.
The default.csp page loads correctly on both servers. However, when I try to open or submit the login.csp page on one server, it shows the error:

"INVALID ACTION"

The exact same codebase is deployed on another IRIS server, and it works there without any issues.

Summary of the issue:

• default.csp → Loads successfully
• login.csp → Fails with “INVALID ACTION” only on one server
• No code changes between the two servers

Has anyone encountered this kind of scenario?

Access IRIS Terminal Session using WebTerminal. I noticed that the $P or $PRINCIPAL system variable is defined as //./nul

When logging into Terminal via Management Portal, $P = |TRM||$J

Because of this, we cannot get into Programmers Mode via ^%SYS.PMODE

Any ideas?

InterSystems IRIS provides extensive configurable security options, yet many developers primarily use roles and resources to secure entire tables or routines. Today, we will delve deeper. We can also secure individual columns and rows separately, but these two mechanisms operate very differently. Let's begin with the columns.

Column Security

For testing and demonstration, we will keep our table structure concise and straightforward. We have a table called "Person" in the USER namespace that contains an ID column, a date of birth column (DOB), first name, and last name. 

There are a select few in the group that have been using Github as a Local Client push to a Repository setup in GitHub. Questions were brought up today about the security, and possible issues when it comes to data being pushed in this method.

Looking over code we have noticed that there is Histogram data within some of the class files that could be considered a security issue. Does anyone else have concerns with the Histogram data being within the class files pushed up to github?

I am using IRIS for Windows (x86-64) 2022.1 (Build 209) Tue May 31 2022 12:27:55 EDT [Health:3.5.0]. I created Interoperability Production with a Service to read file from S3 bucket and an Operation to write files to a different S3 bucket. I specified AWS  ProviderCredentialsFile.

I see "Terminating Job 7096 / 'From S3 Bucket' with Status = ERROR #5023: Remote Gateway Error: Connection cannot be established, %QuitTask=

Do I need anything like Python libraries or AWS CLI to make this work?

Recently, we implemented some Java-based services using JDBC. And some time ago, I refactored some legacy PHP programs that used "csession" for communication between systems to use PDO with ODBC.

This raised a question for me about how license management is done in this scenario.
Is a license used per pool? Or per connection? How is this management done?

✨ Everyone’s career journey looks different. How have you created a path forward for yourself?

Our team reached out to InterSystems certified professionals to hear their stories:

Hi, Community!

Want to build smoother communication between payer systems and providers? See how the Prior Authorization Support (PAS) module of the InterSystems Payer Services ePrior Authorization solution can help:

Prior Authorization Support

Welcome to the monthly recap of updates and releases to VS Code and InterSystems-related extensions that are relevant to IRIS developers. 

We'll break down the updates that are relevant to InterSystems developers with tips on how they can be applied to your day-to-day projects. 

Don't forget, if you're migrating from InterSystems Studio to VS Code, or want to deepen your knowledge, check out the VS Code training courses from George James Software: georgejames.com/vscode-training. 

VS Code version 1.106

Unified AI-agent dashboard - 1.

There's a pattern I've encountered several times where I need to use a temp file/folder and have it cleaned up at some point later.

The natural thing to do here is to follow the patterns from "Robust Error Handling and Cleanup in ObjectScript" with a try/catch/pseudo-finally or a registered object to manage cleanup in the destructor. %Stream.File* also has a "RemoveOnClose" property that you can set - but use with care, as you could accidentally remove an important file, and this flag gets reset by calls to %Save() so you'll need to set it back to 1 after doing that.

There's one tricky case, though - suppose you need the temp file to survive in an enclosing stack level. e.g.:

Hi,

We're working on new capabilities to help you build Agents and AI applications faster with InterSystems IRIS. In order to better understand which entry points and development methodologies would help you most, we've created this brief survey: Building AI solutions with InterSystems IRIS. 

Filling it in should not take much more than 5 minutes, and your feedback on this exciting topic will help us fine tune our designs and prioritize the right features.

Thanks in advance!
benjamin
 

Security is fundamental to enterprise application development. InterSystems IRIS provides a comprehensive security framework that protects data, controls access, and ensures compliance. This guide introduces essential security features for developers new to IRIS, covering authentication, authorization, encryption, and practical implementation strategies.

Hey Community!

We're happy to share the next video in the "Code to Care" series on our InterSystems Developers YouTube:

⏯  Using GenAI in Real Life: Daily Use Cases That Work