What is Bounded index?
Verified 5 August 2026
Unbounded indexes have unbounded costs. A bounded index sets a ceiling, competitively replaces weaker entries as better candidates arrive, and fills genuine gaps on demand rather than pre-emptively.
For agent retrieval the trade is favourable: a smaller curated index returns better context per token than a larger one full of near-duplicates. The obligation it creates is transparency — if you are deliberately excluding things, you should be able to say what and why.
How unlob handles this: How it works
Common questions
What is Bounded index?
A bounded index caps its own size and prunes or replaces existing entries rather than growing without limit.
How does Bounded index work in practice?
For agent retrieval the trade is favourable: a smaller curated index returns better context per token than a larger one full of near-duplicates. The obligation it creates is transparency — if you are deliberately excluding things, you should be able to say what and why.
See it working
The free tier is 10,000 requests a month with no card — enough to test any of this against your own queries.