Build From Source

This section shows how to build the Semantic Search Agent from source code. Use this path when you need to modify the code or package customized builds.

Prerequisites

• Clone the repository and navigate to the semantic-search-agent/ directory.

• Verify that the system requirements are met.

Build the Docker Image

The repository provides the docker/Dockerfile and docker/docker-compose.yml files. The Compose configuration builds the image from local source files.

To build using the Makefile from the project root folder:

make docker-build

To build the image directly using the docker CLI:

docker build \
  --build-arg HTTP_PROXY=${HTTP_PROXY} \
  --build-arg HTTPS_PROXY=${HTTPS_PROXY} \
  -t intel/semantic-search-agent:2026.1.0 \
  -f docker/Dockerfile \
  .

This packages the application code, installs Python dependencies, and configures the container to run as a non-root user with User Identifier (UID) 1000.

Note

If you are behind a corporate proxy, pass --build-arg HTTP_PROXY and --build-arg HTTPS_PROXY as shown above so pip can reach the PyPI repository during the build.

Build a Python Environment (Standalone)

To set up a local development environment and run or test the service directly:

# Create and activate python venv
python -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate

# Install dependencies
pip install --upgrade pip
pip install -r requirements.txt

Verify the Build

To test the build locally, run the automated test suite:

# Run tests with coverage report
make test

# Or run tests directly with pytest
pytest

To run a faster test pass without coverage:

make test-fast

If all tests pass, the build is functional and ready for deployment.