What the documents look like
Channel diversion review concerns regional and price order. The working materials are anti-counterfeit code records, distributor shipment records, e-commerce platform prices, and market inspection photographs. Daily documents include diversion complaint forms and penalty notices, with a weekly or irregular update rhythm. This page addresses only citation sources and tracing inside product information and selection Q&A: whether an answer's cited material can be tied to a specific complaint form, anti-counterfeit code record, penalty notice, or investigation photograph, together with that material's version and effective scope. Retrieval recalls candidate content. Permission decisions and business execution require separate implementation.
Constraints at the citation tracing step
The knowledge base search node can associate one or more knowledge bases that share the same vector model, and outputs citations as an array whose length may be zero. An empty array means the output path still runs; it does not mean the workflow terminated with an error. Whether cited content is adopted by the answering step requires checking each answer sentence against the cited source text. Minimum relevance applies only under semantic retrieval or result reranking, and it is a filtering threshold that does not perform permission or entity isolation. Hybrid retrieval merges multiple result paths through RRF as a result-fusion process. Image retrieval requires image input and matching model capability; reranking requires a model and must be enabled by configuration. These optional paths are not guaranteed to execute on every request. Knowledge bases with different vector models cannot be associated together; during checking, first inspect vector model identifiers and exclude non-matching ones, then record what was observed.
Hypothetical exercise sample: a brand channel control group receives a diversion complaint form numbered SJ-2024-0317, naming distributor A, covering the East China region, with the complaint text "distributor A shipped 200 units of batch B2403 to the South China region for low-price sale in March 2024." The attached anti-counterfeit code record shows the batch outbound date as 5 March 2024, with two investigation photographs. Draft determination sentence: "Distributor A has completed cross-region sales, and the penalty notice has taken effect." That sentence covers two facts, the sales act and the penalty status. The materials state only the complaint and the outbound record; they do not state any signing or effective date for a penalty notice.
Configuration and implementation checks
| Configuration item | Hypothetical starting value for this exercise | Reason for the choice and comparison method |
|---|---|---|
| Associated knowledge bases | Associate only the knowledge base holding diversion complaint forms and anti-counterfeit code records | First check each base's vector model identifier, exclude those with different vector models, and do not run cross-model retrieval |
| Search mode | Hybrid retrieval | Complaint forms contain numbered fields, so semantic recall is combined with it to compare number matches |
| Citation limit | Set to 3000 tokens | Hypothetical starting point for this exercise; compare against the actual combined length of the sample complaint form and anti-counterfeit code record before adjusting |
| Minimum relevance | Set to 0.4 | Hypothetical starting point for this exercise; compare against manual reading of the sample recall results and observe whether relevant entries are filtered out |
| Question optimization | Enabled | The sample question contains a reference that needs its subject completed before retrieval; observe whether the completed result contains distributor A and the batch number |
| Result reranking | Enabled | When candidate entries are numerous, perform secondary ordering and check whether rerank scores agree with manual reading |
Three common errors
- Treating retrieval recall as a permission decision. Minimum relevance is a filtering threshold and does not exclude unrelated businesses or unauthorized records. Check method: input the sample complaint question, compare recalled entries against the target range covered by access rights, and observe whether out-of-range records appear.
- Treating an empty citation array as process failure. Citation output length may be zero. Check method: use a paper input of an empty array against the downstream design, observe whether the downstream continues on empty citations, and do not infer that a fabricated rule must return an empty array.
- Treating complaint form content as an effective penalty. The sample states only the complaint and the outbound record. Check method: compare the draft determination sentence against the source text, observe whether the materials state signing or effective fields for a penalty notice, and record missing items as pending verification.
How to verify the setup
- Source correspondence check. Input the sample complaint question, compare the answer's cited entries against complaint number SJ-2024-0317, batch B2403, distributor A, and the East China region, and observe whether each citation corresponds to the source text; record non-corresponding items as unsupported.
- Status field check. Input the draft determination sentence, compare "has completed cross-region sales" against the complaint and outbound records stated in the materials, and compare "the penalty notice has taken effect" against whether the materials state signing and effective information. Observe whether both items have source support; where missing, retain the evidence gap.
- Empty result continuation check. Use a paper input of an empty array, compare the downstream node's citation handling design, and observe whether the downstream continues on empty citations. Do not claim this was actually tested, and do not infer system errors or automatic business actions.