What the documents look like
Permit handling happens before customs declaration and decides whether a shipment may legally cross the border. Product-data and selection questions therefore sit in front of several materials that different parties supply at different times: information from the commerce authority system, customs commodity codes, supplier documents, and customer statements of use. In one shipment, the automatic import licence, the dual-use item licence, the contract, and the product description can each be at a different stage. The contract may be signed, the licence may still be under review, and the statement of use may not yet be issued. Which document a product answer cites, and whether that document is currently valid, determines whether the stated basis for a later declaration can hold up.
The knowledge base search node can be associated with one or more knowledge bases that share the same vector model, and it outputs citations as an array whose length may be zero. When the array is empty, that output path still runs. Whether a cited item is adopted still requires manual checking against document version and approval status. Retrieval results do not constitute authorization, and a similarity score does not filter by entity, permission, or licence status.
Assume a paper exercise sample. An enterprise plans to export a batch of equipment. The document base holds a March 2024 product description whose text reads: "This product contains dual-use controlled components; a dual-use item licence must be obtained before export." A June 2024 product description in the same base reads: "This product does not contain dual-use controlled components; no dual-use item licence is required." The same base also holds a contract signed in May 2024, covering the same product model, which does not state which party is responsible for obtaining the licence. The draft sentence to be assessed is: "This product requires no dual-use item licence and can be scheduled for export directly." The checking goal is: which product description version the draft sentence matches, whether the two versions give mutually exclusive values for the same field, and whether the contract states the licence responsibility. The contract does not address that field, so it is unsupported rather than negated.
Constraints at the citation tracing step
Several limits shape this step. Association is restricted to knowledge bases with the same vector model; different models cannot be associated together, and the check is to compare model identifiers and exclude non-matching bases rather than to run cross-model retrieval and compare what was missed. The citation output is an array that may be empty; an empty array is not a workflow error, and downstream nodes still execute. The similarity threshold and the citation cap affect recall ordering and volume, not entity or permission isolation. Rerank, when a model is available and the setting is enabled, reorders candidate text and produces a score used for filtering. Mixed retrieval combines semantic and full-text recall through RRF, which is a fusion process rather than a switch. Image retrieval requires image input and model capability, and rerank requires an available model; the optional paths in the overall retrieval diagram are not all executed on every request. Thinking budget concerns model reasoning and is unrelated to the citation token cap.
Configuration and implementation checks
The table below lists settings and implementation checks relevant to this feature, tied to the sample above. The numeric values are starting points for this paper exercise, not official defaults.
| Configuration item | Starting point for this exercise | Reason and comparison object |
|---|---|---|
| Associated knowledge bases | Include only the base holding the March 2024 and June 2024 product descriptions | First compare vector model identifiers across bases; bases with different identifiers are not associated together |
| Search mode | Hybrid retrieval | Model numbers and licence names are exact terms; semantic and full-text recall are combined through RRF |
| Minimum relevance | Set to 0.5 for this exercise | Compare against running without a threshold to observe whether unrelated fragments decrease |
| Citation cap | Set to 2000 tokens for this exercise | Compare against 1000 tokens to observe whether both product description versions can enter the citations |
| Result rerank | Enabled | Reorders text when candidates are numerous; the score is used for filtering |
| Citation output | Compare each sentence against source text | Check whether every conclusion in an answer maps to a specific version's original wording |
Three common errors
- Treating a retrieval hit as confirmation of licence status. The input is the two product description versions above. The comparison object is the mutually exclusive values in the two versions and the contract's unstated field. The observable result is that a conclusion matches only one version, the other version is ignored, and the contract field remains missing. Retrieval does not verify approval status.
- Associating knowledge bases with different vector models. The input is the vector model identifiers of two bases. The comparison is whether the identifiers match. The observable result is that non-matching bases are excluded, and no cross-model retrieval is run to compare missed recall.
- Treating a similarity score as an entity or permission filter. The input is a low-relevance record belonging to another entity. The comparison object is the score threshold and the record's ownership field. The observable result is that the threshold affects recall ordering only, while ownership and authorization still require separate checking.
How to verify the setup
- Use the two product description texts and the draft sentence. The input is the two source sentences and the sentence under assessment. Compare which version the draft matches and whether the two versions give mutually exclusive values for the same field. The expected observation is that the matching version is identified, the other version is marked as a conflicting source, and the contract field is marked as unsupported.
- Use the paper input
[]to check downstream handling. The input is an empty citation array. Compare whether downstream nodes still execute. The expected observation is that the path runs and the empty array is not judged a business failure. - Use two records in the same base to check version currency. The input is the March 2024 and June 2024 descriptions. Compare which version the answer cites. The expected observation is that the citation traces back to a specific version, and adoption is left to a valid-version review.
This page addresses only import and export permit handling, product-data and selection questions, and citation tracing. Operational handover must not treat retrieval or forms as authorization execution.