Page 6 of 8~96 min topic

Inside RAG — the pipeline

Evaluate with evidence

Measure RAG pipeline stages with denominators, slices, and gates chosen before seeing results on the vacation-policy Q&A.

~12 min this pageEvaluation

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Metrics

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RAG in one glance
  1. QuestionYour ask
  2. RetrieveFind docs
  3. StuffAdd to prompt
  4. AnswerWith evidence

Look up trusted notes first — then answer with that context

Track for RAG pipeline stages: recall@5, citation entailment, p95 latency, freshness lag, abstain quality. Report fractions like 36/40, not vague quality adjectives. Segment by language, plan tier, document length, or other slices that matter for the vacation-policy Q&A.

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Protocol

Freeze inputs and neighboring versions while evaluating RAG pipeline stages. Change one control. Pair results case by case on the vacation-policy Q&A. Define hard gates (severe errors, privacy, latency) before the bake-off. Use deterministic checks where possible; humans for nuance; model judges only with calibration against gold.

Numeric reminder for RAG pipeline stages: if 18 of 20 test questions retrieve at least one relevant chunk in top 5, recall@5 = 18/20 = 0.90

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Make it operational

Resist adding a twelfth metric before the first three for RAG pipeline stages on the vacation-policy Q&A have owners. This workload improves faster when a small scorecard is trusted than when a warehouse of unused plots exists.

Also pin one numeric memory from this RAG pipeline stages chapter: if 18 of 20 test questions retrieve at least one relevant chunk in top 5, recall@5 = 18/20 = 0.90 That number is not decoration; it is a template for how claims about RAG pipeline stages on the vacation-policy Q&A should look in design docs. Scoped specifically to RAG pipeline stages / vacation-policy Q&A / evaluation.

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Common mix-ups

People confuse RAG pipeline stages with neighboring buzzwords when debugging the vacation-policy Q&A. Before changing prompts, ask whether the broken stage was evidence gathering, the RAG pipeline stages judgment itself, validation, or the product action. Fixing the wrong stage creates folklore (“we tried RAG pipeline stages and it failed”) that blocks the next team on the vacation-policy Q&A. Scoped specifically to RAG pipeline stages / vacation-policy Q&A / evaluation.

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Rehearsal (rag-pipeline-steps/evaluation)

Write a five-line artifact for this page: goal, inputs, check, owner, stop rule. Invent one fluent failure that the check would catch. Keep details specific to rag pipeline steps rather than generic AI advice.

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Rehearsal (rag-pipeline-steps/evaluation)

Write a five-line artifact for this page: goal, inputs, check, owner, stop rule. Invent one fluent failure that the check would catch. Keep details specific to rag pipeline steps rather than generic AI advice.

Read

Rehearsal (rag-pipeline-steps/evaluation)

Write a five-line artifact for this page: goal, inputs, check, owner, stop rule. Invent one fluent failure that the check would catch. Keep details specific to rag pipeline steps rather than generic AI advice.

Read

Rehearsal (rag-pipeline-steps/evaluation)

Write a five-line artifact for this page: goal, inputs, check, owner, stop rule. Invent one fluent failure that the check would catch. Keep details specific to rag pipeline steps rather than generic AI advice.

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Why this matters

A demo of the vacation-policy Q&A looks great on three hand-picked examples of RAG pipeline stages. What does that demo refuse to tell you?

In the wild

See how this idea shows up as a product and a company — then come back to the lesson. Skills transfer across vendors.

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