> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://danswer-whuang-craft-v2-docs.mintlify.site/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# System Description

> High level view of Onyx components

## Overview

The Onyx application is a set of Docker Containers which can be deployed on any infra and for any scale.

<Tip>
  As an open source project,
  Onyx is designed with security and data privacy as a foundational principle so that teams can trust the software even
  without needing partnership guarantees.
</Tip>

## System Architecture

<img className="rounded-image" src="https://mintcdn.com/danswer-whuang-craft-v2-docs/GyiBClIDI08U3zyz/assets/security/OnyxArchitecture.png?fit=max&auto=format&n=GyiBClIDI08U3zyz&q=85&s=54ea47d2cd1dc0d0b67f439c175cc96f" alt="Onyx Architecture" width="5614" height="2520" data-path="assets/security/OnyxArchitecture.png" />

## Core Components

### Application Layer

* **Frontend web client**: Next.js-based web application providing the user interface for the Onyx
  platform
* **API Server**: Python FastAPI web server to handle business logic and requests
* **Background Workers**: Python workers to handle async jobs like fetching document updates, etc.

### Model Servers

* **Inference Model Server**: Serves the embedding and reranking models used at query time to
  retrieve and order context
* **Indexing Model Server**: A dedicated model server that handles embedding of documents during
  indexing, isolating heavy indexing workloads from live query traffic

### Data Layer

* **Relational Database**: Postgres database to store application data, user sessions, and system
  state
* **Search Engine**: OpenSearch providing keyword (BM25) search + vector store for retrieving
  context for queries
* **In Memory Cache**: Redis, used to optimize performance
* **File Store**: MinIO blob store for user uploaded files and documents pulled from connectors

### Infrastructure Layer

* **Request Router**: Nginx reverse proxy for load balancing and request routing

## Component Replacements

Some components of the Onyx stack are easily replaceable while others are not.

**MinIO** can be replaced with S3 or any similar object storage service.
The file store interface is abstracted to make this straightforward.

**Redis** can be replaced with a managed Redis service like AWS ElastiCache.
Other in-memory caches could work but would require code changes.

**Postgres** can be replaced with a managed Postgres service such as AWS RDS.
It is much more challenging and not advised to switch to a different relational DB due to language specific features and
optimizations.

**OpenSearch** can be replaced with a multi-node OpenSearch cluster (typically not necessary)
or a managed OpenSearch service such as AWS OpenSearch Service.
OpenSearch is tightly integrated with the context retrieval functionalities and switching to a different search engine
would require significant development effort to maintain the same functionality.

**Nginx** can be removed and replaced with your own routing proxy.