Official databricks-openai package fails to import after resolving databricks-vectorsearch

mbecker — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 13:35:48 GMT

I filed a detailed GitHub issue here:

https://github.com/databricks/databricks-ai-bridge/issues/433

Summary:

A clean install of `databricks-openai==0.15.0` currently resolves `databricks-vectorsearch==0.74`, after which the documented import fails:

```python
from databricks_openai import DatabricksOpenAI
```

with:

```text
ImportError: cannot import name 'VectorSearchIndex' from 'databricks.vector_search.client'
```

`pip check` reports no broken requirements.

This appears to be caused by `databricks-openai` eagerly importing vector-search retriever code, combined with the recent `databricks-vectorsearch` / `databricks-ai-search` package transition.

The immediate workaround appears to be:

```bash
python -m pip install "databricks-vectorsearch<0.74"
```

but that is not a good production story for an official Databricks package.

I’m trying to understand:

1. Is `databricks-openai` intended to be production-supported?
2. Is `databricks/databricks-ai-bridge` the correct place to report bugs for `databricks-openai`, `databricks-vectorsearch`, and `databricks-ai-search`?
3. Where is the source repository for `databricks-vectorsearch` / `databricks-ai-search`?
4. Should production users avoid `databricks-openai` and use the upstream `openai` client directly with a Databricks serving endpoint `base_url` instead?
5. Will Databricks publish a patch release or add dependency constraints to prevent this broken default install?

This is concerning because the default installation path for an official Databricks package currently results in a broken import in a clean environment, while the related PyPI pages do not clearly identify the source repository or issue tracker.

topic Official databricks-openai package fails to import after resolving databricks-vectorsearch in Generative AI

Official databricks-openai package fails to import after resolving databricks-vectorsearch