Create a Legal Document Search Engine with Zeaware Avalon and Isaacus Kanon 2 Embedder

What’s New: Native Kanon 2 Embedder Support in Avalon

Zeaware Avalon now includes native support for Isaacus Kanon 2 Embedder. That means Kanon 2 can be registered as a first-class embedding service and used directly in Avalon’s Knowledge indexing flows - including vector and hybrid retrieval.

This is not a one-off integration. Kanon 2 is now part of our regular test regime, so it is supported and validated alongside the rest of Avalon’s indexing and retrieval stack.

Why Kanon 2 Embedder Matters for Legal Search

Isaacus’ Kanon 2 Embedder is a purpose-built legal embedding model designed to improve relevance for legal retrieval tasks like clause search, case law similarity, regulatory interpretation, and document discovery. For more background, see the Isaacus site: https://isaacus.com/.

We also love that Isaacus is an Australian AI company. Australia’s AI innovation community is strong and practical, and as another Australian AI company, Zeaware is proud to support local capability that competes globally.

Step-by-Step: Use Kanon 2 with Azure AI Search in Avalon

In this walkthrough, we’ll build a legal document search engine using Azure AI Search for the index and Kanon 2 Embedder for vector embeddings. The result is a Knowledge Index that supports semantic vector ranking, keyword matching (BM25), and deterministic filtering.

1. Register Azure AI Search and Kanon 2 in Avalon Services

   Create or select your Azure AI Search service in the Azure Portal, and obtain the required API key(s). Separately, obtain your Kanon 2 Embedder API key from the Isaacus portal.

   In Avalon, navigate to Services and register:

   • Azure AI Search as a Search Service
   • Isaacus Kanon 2 Embedder as an Embedding Service

   

2. Create a Vector (Hybrid) Knowledge Index

   In Avalon, go to Knowledge and select Add an Index. Choose Azure AI Search as the search service.

   • Select Vector Index (or Hybrid, if you want vector + keyword together)
   • Select Kanon 2 as the embedding service

   Avalon will configure the index so document chunks are embedded using Kanon 2 and stored in Azure AI Search for fast similarity search.

   

3. Add Documents (Quick Method)

   To index documents quickly, browse to your storage location in Avalon’s file browser, then right-click files or folders and choose Split and Index.

   Avalon will split content into chunks, generate Kanon 2 embeddings, and push the content + vectors into Azure AI Search.

   Production note: for a real deployment you would typically create a workflow with a file detection trigger and automate the split + index pipeline, rather than indexing manually.

   

4. Use the Knowledge Index in Assistants and Search Experiences

   Once indexed, your Knowledge Index can be used across different assistant patterns in Avalon, including:

   • Chat Apps for fast document Q&A (RAG-style retrieval)
   • Search Assistants for retrieving documents based on criteria
   • Task-focused AI assistants that perform structured discovery jobs

   Example task: find all contracts with uncapped liability - combining semantic similarity (Kanon 2 vectors), keyword matching (BM25), and deterministic filters (document type, jurisdiction, date ranges, parties, and more).

   

Summary

Zeaware Avalon’s native support for Isaacus Kanon 2 Embedder gives teams a practical, enterprise-ready way to build high-quality legal search and assistant experiences - without needing to stitch together fragile glue code.

• Native integration - supported and validated as part of Avalon’s regular test regime
• Stronger legal retrieval - purpose-built embeddings tuned for legal language and intent
• Hybrid retrieval - combine Kanon 2 vectors with Azure AI Search keyword search and filtering
• Australian innovation - proud to support another Australian AI company building globally competitive capability

If you want to see this pattern applied to your own corpus (contracts, policies, case law, standards, or compliance documents), Zeaware Avalon makes it straightforward to go from documents to a working, governed search experience.