# retrievers

> **Module** in `langchain_classic`

📖 [View in docs](https://reference.langchain.com/python/langchain-classic/retrievers)

**Retriever** class returns Documents given a text **query**.

It is more general than a vector store. A retriever does not need to be able to
store documents, only to return (or retrieve) it. Vector stores can be used as
the backbone of a retriever, but there are other types of retrievers as well.

## Properties

- `DEPRECATED_LOOKUP`

## Methods

- [`create_importer()`](https://reference.langchain.com/python/langchain-classic/retrievers/create_importer)

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[View source on GitHub](https://github.com/langchain-ai/langchain/blob/673737f356f319ad788d00e327464a9ba89f06bd/libs/langchain/langchain_classic/retrievers/__init__.py)