> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.maia.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Output and upsert components

Output and upsert components write pipeline data out to an external destination, such as a relational database, a SaaS platform, or a vector database. Where the destination supports it, they can upsert records, inserting new rows and updating existing ones in a single step, rather than only appending data.

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## Use cases

Output and upsert components are especially useful when a pipeline needs to push processed or enriched data to a downstream system, rather than only loading it into the warehouse. Use output and upsert components to:

* Write pipeline results back to an operational or SaaS system, keeping it in sync with your data warehouse.
* Bulk load data into a relational database as the final step of a pipeline.
* Insert or update records in place, avoiding duplicate rows when a pipeline runs repeatedly against the same destination.
* Write embeddings and associated metadata into a vector database to support semantic search or retrieval-augmented generation (RAG).