Document RAG Pipeline
Build a complete Retrieval-Augmented Generation system for documents. Parse PDFs and documents, chunk intelligently, embed for semantic search, retrieve relevant context, and generate grounded answers with LLMs.
How Document RAG Works
The RAG Pipeline: From Documents to Answers
Click each stage to see how it works
Why Chunking Matters
Documents are too long for embedding models. We must split them intelligently.
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Embeddings: Meaning as Geometry
Each chunk becomes a point in high-dimensional space. Similar meanings = nearby points.
Retrieval: Finding the Right Context
The retrieved chunks become the LLM's knowledge for answering your question.
The "Lost in the Middle" Problem
LLMs pay more attention to the beginning and end of context, often missing crucial middle content.
RAG Patterns: From Simple to Advanced
When RAG Fails (And How to Fix It)
Measuring RAG Quality
Use RAGAS framework to evaluate your pipeline
Use Cases
- ✓Enterprise knowledge base Q&A
- ✓Legal document analysis
- ✓Research paper assistant
- ✓Technical documentation search
- ✓Customer support automation
- ✓Compliance and policy lookup
Architectural Patterns
Naive RAG
Simple chunk-embed-retrieve-generate pipeline. Split documents into fixed-size chunks, embed each chunk, retrieve top-k by similarity, pass to LLM.
- +Simple to implement
- +Works for many use cases
- +Fast development
- -Chunks may split context
- -No semantic boundaries
- -Retrieved chunks may be redundant
Advanced RAG with Reranking
Add a cross-encoder reranker after initial retrieval to improve precision. Retrieve more candidates, then rerank for relevance.
- +Higher precision
- +Better answer quality
- +Handles ambiguous queries
- -Added latency
- -Requires reranker model
- -More complexity
Hierarchical / Parent-Child Chunking
Store small chunks for retrieval but return parent (larger) chunks for context. Captures both precision and context.
- +Better context preservation
- +Precise retrieval
- +Reduces context fragmentation
- -More complex indexing
- -Storage overhead
- -Implementation complexity
Agentic RAG
LLM-driven retrieval with query decomposition, multi-hop reasoning, and tool use. The agent decides what to retrieve and when.
- +Handles complex questions
- +Multi-step reasoning
- +Can combine sources
- -Higher latency
- -More API calls
- -Harder to debug
Graph RAG
Build a knowledge graph from documents, traverse relationships during retrieval. Good for entities and relationships.
- +Captures relationships
- +Entity-centric queries
- +Structured knowledge
- -Complex to build
- -Graph extraction errors
- -Maintenance overhead
Implementations
API Services
Cohere RAG
CohereBuilt-in RAG with Command R models. Grounded generation with citations.
Perplexity API
PerplexityOnline RAG with real-time web search. Always up-to-date answers.
OpenAI Assistants
OpenAIFile search with vector store. Managed RAG infrastructure.
Open Source
LlamaIndex
MITComprehensive RAG framework. Supports many loaders, indexes, and query engines. Best for complex pipelines.
LangChain
MITPopular LLM framework with strong RAG support. Good ecosystem, many integrations.
Haystack
Apache 2.0Production-ready NLP framework. Strong on document processing and pipelines.
RAGFlow
Apache 2.0Deep document understanding RAG engine. Strong on complex layouts.
Vercel AI SDK
Apache 2.0Lightweight RAG building blocks for TypeScript/JavaScript. Good for web apps.
Benchmarks
Code Examples
Simple RAG with LlamaIndex
Build a basic document Q&A system in minutes
pip install llama-index llama-index-llms-openai llama-index-embeddings-openaifrom llama_index.core import VectorStoreIndex, SimpleDirectoryReader
from llama_index.llms.openai import OpenAI
# Load documents from a folder
documents = SimpleDirectoryReader('data/').load_data()
# Build index (chunks, embeds, stores)
index = VectorStoreIndex.from_documents(documents)
# Create query engine
query_engine = index.as_query_engine(
llm=OpenAI(model='gpt-4o'),
similarity_top_k=3
)
# Ask a question
response = query_engine.query(
'What are the main findings in these documents?'
)
print(response)RAG with Reranking
Add a reranker for better precision using Cohere
pip install llama-index llama-index-postprocessor-cohere-rerankfrom llama_index.core import VectorStoreIndex, SimpleDirectoryReader
from llama_index.postprocessor.cohere_rerank import CohereRerank
# Load and index documents
documents = SimpleDirectoryReader('data/').load_data()
index = VectorStoreIndex.from_documents(documents)
# Add Cohere reranker
reranker = CohereRerank(
api_key='YOUR_COHERE_KEY',
top_n=3
)
# Query with reranking
query_engine = index.as_query_engine(
similarity_top_k=10, # Retrieve more, rerank to 3
node_postprocessors=[reranker]
)
response = query_engine.query('What is the refund policy?')
print(response)Production RAG with Chroma + OpenAI
Persistent vector store with semantic chunking
pip install chromadb openai langchain langchain-openai langchain-chroma unstructuredfrom langchain_openai import OpenAIEmbeddings, ChatOpenAI
from langchain_chroma import Chroma
from langchain.text_splitter import RecursiveCharacterTextSplitter
from langchain_community.document_loaders import DirectoryLoader
from langchain.chains import RetrievalQA
# Load documents
loader = DirectoryLoader('docs/', glob='**/*.pdf')
documents = loader.load()
# Semantic chunking
text_splitter = RecursiveCharacterTextSplitter(
chunk_size=1000,
chunk_overlap=200,
separators=['\n\n', '\n', '. ', ' ', '']
)
chunks = text_splitter.split_documents(documents)
# Create persistent vector store
vectorstore = Chroma.from_documents(
documents=chunks,
embedding=OpenAIEmbeddings(model='text-embedding-3-large'),
persist_directory='./chroma_db'
)
# Build RAG chain
qa_chain = RetrievalQA.from_chain_type(
llm=ChatOpenAI(model='gpt-4o'),
retriever=vectorstore.as_retriever(search_kwargs={'k': 5}),
return_source_documents=True
)
# Query with sources
result = qa_chain.invoke({'query': 'Summarize the key points'})
print(result['result'])
print('\nSources:')
for doc in result['source_documents']:
print(f' - {doc.metadata.get("source", "unknown")}')Quick Facts
- Input
- Document
- Output
- Text
- Implementations
- 5 open source, 3 API
- Patterns
- 5 approaches