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Path · 9 steps

New to RAG, in order

Nine short pieces: what RAG is for, how knowledge gets in, how retrieval finds it, who is allowed to see it, and how you know it works.
Steps
9
Reading
About 16 min
Disciplines
5

New to the words? The glossary explains terms like RAG, grounding and eval harness in a paragraph each.

The problem

Your team has been asked to add retrieval to an internal tool, and you have two weeks to stop guessing. You need the ideas in the order they build on each other rather than the order they were written in.

When you finish

You can sketch a RAG design, defend its chunking, search and permission choices, and say how you will measure it.

  1. 1ProblemWhy RAG is an evidence design problem, not a buzzword
  2. 2ArchitectureWhy retrieval quality starts before search
  3. 3ArchitectureWhy chunk boundaries shape answer quality
  4. 4ArchitectureWhy embeddings are useful and easy to overtrust
  5. 5DecisionWhy hybrid search is often the practical default
  6. 6DecisionWhy reranking is where retrieval becomes useful
  7. 7SecureWhy relevant data can still be unauthorized data
  8. 8ObserveWhy RAG must be evaluated in parts
  9. 9LessonsRAG production-readiness checklist
Path progress

  1. Problem · step 1 · Explainer

    Why RAG is an evidence design problem, not a buzzword

    Start here. RAG gives the model evidence to work from; it does not make the model smarter.

  2. Architecture · step 2 · Explainer

    Why retrieval quality starts before search

    Answer quality is decided when documents enter the system.

  3. Architecture · step 3 · Explainer

    Why chunk boundaries shape answer quality

    How you cut documents decides what can be found.

  4. Architecture · step 4 · Explainer

    Why embeddings are useful and easy to overtrust

    What embeddings capture, and what they miss.

  5. Decision · step 5 · Explainer

    Why hybrid search is often the practical default

    Keyword plus vector search, and why that is the usual default.

  6. Decision · step 6 · Explainer

    Why reranking is where retrieval becomes useful

    When reranking earns its latency, and when it does not.

  7. Secure · step 7 · Explainer

    Why relevant data can still be unauthorized data

    Relevant is not the same as allowed. Filter by the caller before search.

  8. Observe · step 8 · Explainer

    Why RAG must be evaluated in parts

    Measure ingestion, retrieval, ranking and grounding separately.

  9. Lessons · step 9 · Checklist

    RAG production-readiness checklist

    The checklist to run before a real user sees it.