When your system needs retrieval
Understand the rule, inspect a real Level Higher build, make the decision yourself and leave with a reusable artifact.
Retrieval is useful when the answer depends on information outside the model: private documents, current facts or a body of material too specific to guess.
Retrieval supplies evidence. It does not automatically make the final answer correct.
Define the corpus
List the sources the answer is allowed to rely on.
Retrieve narrowly
Return the smallest passages that can support the decision.
Verify the answer
Check that every important claim is present in the retrieved evidence.
Answer course questions from the released lesson, not from memory.
A Discord helper can sound confident while describing an older version of a lesson or inventing a policy.
The question retrieves the current course excerpt and account policy; the answer cites the relevant section and escalates account-specific issues.
Students receive an answer grounded in the material they actually purchased.
Start with the smallest system that can produce reliable evidence.
Write a retrieval contract.
Design it for one question people repeatedly ask you.
- The source set is bounded
- Freshness is explicit
- Retrieved text supports the exact claim
- Missing evidence produces uncertainty
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Retrieve to ground a decision, not to decorate an answer with documents.
Your work should now pass the four checks above. If one fails, repair the contract or evidence before adding more tools.