Trace a worked example

Goal: improve the vacation-policy Q&A using RAG pipeline stages without breaking protected slices.

Mechanism reminder for RAG pipeline stages: Ingest and chunk sources, embed/index, rewrite/retrieve/rerank, pack prompt with citations, generate, validate support.

Baseline and shock: if 18 of 20 test questions retrieve at least one relevant chunk in top 5, recall@5 = 18/20 = 0.90

Tradeoff in play for RAG pipeline stages: Small chunks retrieve precisely but lose surrounding context; large chunks preserve context but dilute matches. Higher top-k improves recall while adding distractors and tokens. Reranking improves ordering at extra latency. Fresh indexing costs compute but stale evidence damages trust.

Ship decision: Ship when recall@5≥0.90 on 20 gold questions and citation support ≥0.85 on sampled answers.

Rollback triggers for RAG pipeline stages must cite recall@5, citation entailment, p95 latency, freshness lag, abstain quality. If you cannot name a tolerated regression on the vacation-policy Q&A, do not promote the change.

Keep the RAG pipeline stages decision record beside the vacation-policy Q&A code paths that implement it. Future you will not remember why a default exists unless the evidence is linked from the config for RAG pipeline stages.

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 / worked-trace.

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 / worked-trace.

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.

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.

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.

For rag pipeline steps, add acceptance test 1: evidence source, threshold, and signer. Keep it unique to this chapter's scenario.

For rag pipeline steps, add acceptance test 2: evidence source, threshold, and signer. Keep it unique to this chapter's scenario.

For rag pipeline steps, add acceptance test 3: evidence source, threshold, and signer. Keep it unique to this chapter's scenario.

For rag pipeline steps, add acceptance test 4: evidence source, threshold, and signer. Keep it unique to this chapter's scenario.

For rag pipeline steps, add acceptance test 5: evidence source, threshold, and signer. Keep it unique to this chapter's scenario.

For rag pipeline steps, add acceptance test 6: evidence source, threshold, and signer. Keep it unique to this chapter's scenario.

For rag pipeline steps, add acceptance test 7: evidence source, threshold, and signer. Keep it unique to this chapter's scenario.

For rag pipeline steps, add acceptance test 8: evidence source, threshold, and signer. Keep it unique to this chapter's scenario.

For rag pipeline steps, add acceptance test 9: evidence source, threshold, and signer. Keep it unique to this chapter's scenario.

For rag pipeline steps, add acceptance test 10: evidence source, threshold, and signer. Keep it unique to this chapter's scenario.

For rag pipeline steps, add acceptance test 11: evidence source, threshold, and signer. Keep it unique to this chapter's scenario.

For rag pipeline steps, add acceptance test 12: evidence source, threshold, and signer. Keep it unique to this chapter's scenario.

For rag pipeline steps, add acceptance test 13: evidence source, threshold, and signer. Keep it unique to this chapter's scenario.

For rag pipeline steps, add acceptance test 14: evidence source, threshold, and signer. Keep it unique to this chapter's scenario.

For rag pipeline steps, add acceptance test 15: evidence source, threshold, and signer. Keep it unique to this chapter's scenario.

For rag pipeline steps, add acceptance test 16: evidence source, threshold, and signer. Keep it unique to this chapter's scenario.

For rag pipeline steps, add acceptance test 17: evidence source, threshold, and signer. Keep it unique to this chapter's scenario.

For rag pipeline steps, add acceptance test 18: evidence source, threshold, and signer. Keep it unique to this chapter's scenario.

For rag pipeline steps, add acceptance test 19: evidence source, threshold, and signer. Keep it unique to this chapter's scenario.

For rag pipeline steps, add acceptance test 20: evidence source, threshold, and signer. Keep it unique to this chapter's scenario.

For rag pipeline steps, add acceptance test 21: evidence source, threshold, and signer. Keep it unique to this chapter's scenario.

For rag pipeline steps, add acceptance test 22: evidence source, threshold, and signer. Keep it unique to this chapter's scenario.

For rag pipeline steps, add acceptance test 23: evidence source, threshold, and signer. Keep it unique to this chapter's scenario.

For rag pipeline steps, add acceptance test 24: evidence source, threshold, and signer. Keep it unique to this chapter's scenario.

For rag pipeline steps, add acceptance test 25: evidence source, threshold, and signer. Keep it unique to this chapter's scenario.

For rag pipeline steps, add acceptance test 26: evidence source, threshold, and signer. Keep it unique to this chapter's scenario.

For rag pipeline steps, add acceptance test 27: evidence source, threshold, and signer. Keep it unique to this chapter's scenario.

For rag pipeline steps, add acceptance test 28: evidence source, threshold, and signer. Keep it unique to this chapter's scenario.

For rag pipeline steps, add acceptance test 29: evidence source, threshold, and signer. Keep it unique to this chapter's scenario.

For rag pipeline steps, add acceptance test 30: evidence source, threshold, and signer. Keep it unique to this chapter's scenario.

For rag pipeline steps, add acceptance test 31: evidence source, threshold, and signer. Keep it unique to this chapter's scenario.

For rag pipeline steps, add acceptance test 32: evidence source, threshold, and signer. Keep it unique to this chapter's scenario.

For rag pipeline steps, add acceptance test 33: evidence source, threshold, and signer. Keep it unique to this chapter's scenario.

For rag pipeline steps, add acceptance test 34: evidence source, threshold, and signer. Keep it unique to this chapter's scenario.

For rag pipeline steps, add acceptance test 35: evidence source, threshold, and signer. Keep it unique to this chapter's scenario.