Note to first-time contributors: Please open a discussion post in Discussions and describe your changes before submitting a pull request.
Before submitting, make sure you've checked the following:
Target branch: Please verify that the pull request targets the dev branch.
Description: Provide a concise description of the changes made in this pull request.
Changelog: Ensure a changelog entry following the format of Keep a Changelog is added at the bottom of the PR description.
Documentation: Have you updated relevant documentation Open WebUI Docs, or other documentation sources?
Dependencies: Are there any new dependencies? Have you updated the dependency versions in the documentation?
Testing: Have you written and run sufficient tests to validate the changes?
Code review: Have you performed a self-review of your code, addressing any coding standard issues and ensuring adherence to the project's coding standards?
Prefix: To clearly categorize this pull request, prefix the pull request title using one of the following:
BREAKING CHANGE: Significant changes that may affect compatibility
build: Changes that affect the build system or external dependencies
ci: Changes to our continuous integration processes or workflows
chore: Refactor, cleanup, or other non-functional code changes
docs: Documentation update or addition
feat: Introduces a new feature or enhancement to the codebase
fix: Bug fix or error correction
i18n: Internationalization or localization changes
perf: Performance improvement
refactor: Code restructuring for better maintainability, readability, or scalability
style: Changes that do not affect the meaning of the code (white space, formatting, missing semi-colons, etc.)
test: Adding missing tests or correcting existing tests
WIP: Work in progress, a temporary label for incomplete or ongoing work
Changelog Entry
Description
Improved web search text cleaning to prevent vector database pollution with excessive whitespace and malformed content. The fix adds proper text normalization and encoding correction for web-scraped content before it's embedded into the vector database, significantly improving search quality and reducing storage overhead.
Added
Text cleaning helper method _clean_text() in SafeWebBaseLoader class
ftfy import for robust text encoding fixes in web content processing
Whitespace normalization using BeautifulSoup's strip=True and separator=' ' parameters
Changed
Modified lazy_load() method in SafeWebBaseLoader to use cleaned text extraction
Modified alazy_load() method in SafeWebBaseLoader to use cleaned text extraction
Enhanced text processing pipeline to remove excessive newlines (\n\n\n\n) and normalize spacing
Deprecated
[List any deprecated functionality or features that have been removed]
Removed
[List any removed features, files, or functionalities]
Fixed
Web content cleaning: Resolved vector database pollution caused by excessive whitespace, newlines, and malformed text from web scraping
Text encoding issues: Added ftfy.fix_text() processing to handle mojibake and Unicode problems in scraped content
Security
[List any new or updated security-related changes, including vulnerability fixes]
Breaking Changes
BREAKING CHANGE: [List any breaking changes affecting compatibility or functionality]
Additional Information
[Insert any additional context, notes, or explanations for the changes]
[Reference any related issues, commits, or other relevant information]
Screenshots or Videos
BEFORE
-AFTER
Contributor License Agreement
By submitting this pull request, I confirm that I have read and fully agree to the Contributor License Agreement (CLA), and I am providing my contributions under its terms.
🔄 This issue represents a GitHub Pull Request. It cannot be merged through Gitea due to API limitations.
## 📋 Pull Request Information
**Original PR:** https://github.com/open-webui/open-webui/pull/17043
**Author:** [@PVBLIC-F](https://github.com/PVBLIC-F)
**Created:** 8/29/2025
**Status:** ❌ Closed
**Base:** `dev` ← **Head:** `fix/clean-vectors`
---
### 📝 Commits (2)
- [`2407d9b`](https://github.com/open-webui/open-webui/commit/2407d9b905978d68619bdce4021e424046ec8df9) Merge pull request #16859 from open-webui/dev
- [`201acd3`](https://github.com/open-webui/open-webui/commit/201acd3e609f43e83bd76e1ac5bfc7c87265f999) fix: improve web text cleaning to remove excessive whitespace
### 📊 Changes
**1 file changed** (+21 additions, -2 deletions)
<details>
<summary>View changed files</summary>
📝 `backend/open_webui/retrieval/web/utils.py` (+21 -2)
</details>
### 📄 Description
# Pull Request Checklist
### Note to first-time contributors: Please open a discussion post in [Discussions](https://github.com/open-webui/open-webui/discussions) and describe your changes before submitting a pull request.
**Before submitting, make sure you've checked the following:**
- [ ] **Target branch:** Please verify that the pull request targets the `dev` branch.
- [ ] **Description:** Provide a concise description of the changes made in this pull request.
- [ ] **Changelog:** Ensure a changelog entry following the format of [Keep a Changelog](https://keepachangelog.com/) is added at the bottom of the PR description.
- [ ] **Documentation:** Have you updated relevant documentation [Open WebUI Docs](https://github.com/open-webui/docs), or other documentation sources?
- [ ] **Dependencies:** Are there any new dependencies? Have you updated the dependency versions in the documentation?
- [ ] **Testing:** Have you written and run sufficient tests to validate the changes?
- [ ] **Code review:** Have you performed a self-review of your code, addressing any coding standard issues and ensuring adherence to the project's coding standards?
- [ ] **Prefix:** To clearly categorize this pull request, prefix the pull request title using one of the following:
- **BREAKING CHANGE**: Significant changes that may affect compatibility
- **build**: Changes that affect the build system or external dependencies
- **ci**: Changes to our continuous integration processes or workflows
- **chore**: Refactor, cleanup, or other non-functional code changes
- **docs**: Documentation update or addition
- **feat**: Introduces a new feature or enhancement to the codebase
- **fix**: Bug fix or error correction
- **i18n**: Internationalization or localization changes
- **perf**: Performance improvement
- **refactor**: Code restructuring for better maintainability, readability, or scalability
- **style**: Changes that do not affect the meaning of the code (white space, formatting, missing semi-colons, etc.)
- **test**: Adding missing tests or correcting existing tests
- **WIP**: Work in progress, a temporary label for incomplete or ongoing work
# Changelog Entry
### Description
- Improved web search text cleaning to prevent vector database pollution with excessive whitespace and malformed content. The fix adds proper text normalization and encoding correction for web-scraped content before it's embedded into the vector database, significantly improving search quality and reducing storage overhead.
### Added
- Text cleaning helper method _clean_text() in SafeWebBaseLoader class
- ftfy import for robust text encoding fixes in web content processing
- Whitespace normalization using BeautifulSoup's strip=True and separator=' ' parameters
### Changed
- Modified lazy_load() method in SafeWebBaseLoader to use cleaned text extraction
- Modified alazy_load() method in SafeWebBaseLoader to use cleaned text extraction
- Enhanced text processing pipeline to remove excessive newlines (\n\n\n\n) and normalize spacing
### Deprecated
- [List any deprecated functionality or features that have been removed]
### Removed
- [List any removed features, files, or functionalities]
### Fixed
- Web content cleaning: Resolved vector database pollution caused by excessive whitespace, newlines, and malformed text from web scraping
- Text encoding issues: Added ftfy.fix_text() processing to handle mojibake and Unicode problems in scraped content
### Security
- [List any new or updated security-related changes, including vulnerability fixes]
### Breaking Changes
- **BREAKING CHANGE**: [List any breaking changes affecting compatibility or functionality]
---
### Additional Information
- [Insert any additional context, notes, or explanations for the changes]
- [Reference any related issues, commits, or other relevant information]
### Screenshots or Videos
- BEFORE
<img width="663" height="938" alt="CleanShot 2025-08-29 at 07 45 26" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/83107110-61c0-4e97-9655-dca29ad1ace6" />
-AFTER
<img width="662" height="954" alt="CleanShot 2025-08-29 at 09 15 34" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/b27e949a-d4c9-4f31-a9e7-1e218ea8ee28" />
### Contributor License Agreement
By submitting this pull request, I confirm that I have read and fully agree to the [Contributor License Agreement (CLA)](/CONTRIBUTOR_LICENSE_AGREEMENT), and I am providing my contributions under its terms.
---
<sub>🔄 This issue represents a GitHub Pull Request. It cannot be merged through Gitea due to API limitations.</sub>
Blocking a user prevents them from interacting with repositories, such as opening or commenting on pull requests or issues. Learn more about blocking a user.
📋 Pull Request Information
Original PR: https://github.com/open-webui/open-webui/pull/17043
Author: @PVBLIC-F
Created: 8/29/2025
Status: ❌ Closed
Base:
dev← Head:fix/clean-vectors📝 Commits (2)
2407d9bMerge pull request #16859 from open-webui/dev201acd3fix: improve web text cleaning to remove excessive whitespace📊 Changes
1 file changed (+21 additions, -2 deletions)
View changed files
📝
backend/open_webui/retrieval/web/utils.py(+21 -2)📄 Description
Pull Request Checklist
Note to first-time contributors: Please open a discussion post in Discussions and describe your changes before submitting a pull request.
Before submitting, make sure you've checked the following:
devbranch.Changelog Entry
Description
Added
Changed
Deprecated
Removed
Fixed
Security
Breaking Changes
Additional Information
Screenshots or Videos
-AFTER
Contributor License Agreement
By submitting this pull request, I confirm that I have read and fully agree to the Contributor License Agreement (CLA), and I am providing my contributions under its terms.
🔄 This issue represents a GitHub Pull Request. It cannot be merged through Gitea due to API limitations.