What the documents look like
Brand omnichannel stock transfers move goods between stores and warehouses. The work does not involve marketing outreach. The data sources are ERP inventory, store POS, e-commerce orders, and WMS. In order fulfillment and after-sales support, staff answer questions such as what stage a given transfer request has reached, or whether a store shortage list has entered a transfer path. Every answer must trace back to a specific document.
Four document types matter here: transfer requests, inventory snapshots, store shortage lists, and transfer logistics notes. Each has its own update rhythm and scope of validity. An inventory snapshot may be generated daily or weekly. A store shortage list changes as stores report. A transfer logistics note appears after goods are dispatched. Once these materials enter the knowledge base, retrieval returns only fragments semantically close to the question. The retrieval result carries no permission judgment and does not confirm that a record has been approved.
Two or three facts from this category shape the tracing task directly. First, the same goods quantity can appear in several documents at different stages, so a quantity match alone does not establish that one document fulfills another. Second, status fields carry the stage meaning, and a status such as pending review or under approval is not an executed outcome. Third, retrieval is recall, not authorization: a transfer request appearing in search results says nothing about whether it was approved, executed, or visible to the person asking.
Constraints at the citation tracing step
The knowledge base search node can associate one or more knowledge bases that share the same vector model. Knowledge bases with different vector models cannot be associated together. When checking, confirm the vector model identifier first, exclude those that do not match, and do not run cross-model retrieval to compare recall differences.
The search node outputs cited content as an array, and the length may be zero. An empty array means the output path still runs; it does not mean the workflow errored out or stopped. The answering step that receives the citations must check each one against the source text. Fluent wording does not substitute for source evidence.
Retrieval is recall behavior, not authorization behavior. A transfer request being retrieved only means it is semantically close within the selected knowledge bases. It does not mean the request was approved, executed, or visible to the questioner. Business approval, database writes, and external system synchronization each require a separate implementation.
Hypothetical paper test case
Source text (excerpt from a store shortage list): "Store A submitted a shortage list on 10 March 2025, covering product X, 12 units, status 'pending review'. This list has not yet been linked to any transfer request."
Transfer request excerpt: "Transfer request T-0312 was initiated by the regional warehouse, target store A, product X, quantity 12 units, current status 'under approval', initiation date 11 March 2025."
Proposed draft sentence to be assessed: "Store A's shortage list has been restocked through transfer request T-0312."
Configuration and implementation checks
| Configuration item | Setting or check on this page | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Associated knowledge bases | Select knowledge bases containing transfer requests, shortage lists, and logistics notes | Must share the same vector model; confirm the library identifier before associating |
| Search mode | Semantic search or hybrid search | Number-type queries may use full-text or hybrid search |
| Citation limit | Controls cited content by tokens | For this hypothetical trial, the starting value is set at 3000 tokens, chosen to cover several short document fragments; compare against other values before adjusting |
| Minimum relevance | A 0-1 value, effective only in semantic search or with result reranking | Filters low-relevance results; it is not a permission or entity filter |
| Result reranking | Requires a ReRank model, enabled per settings | Rerank score is 0-1 and can be used for filtering |
| Cited content output | Array format, length may be zero | An empty array needs downstream design to handle it; treat it as an error only if the downstream design does |
Three common errors
- Treating a retrieval hit as approval. Input: the shortage list in the hypothetical sample with status "pending review". Compare the retrieval result against the approval status field. Observe whether "retrieved" is worded as "approved". Retrieval does not change the approval status.
- Associating knowledge bases with different vector models. Input: two knowledge bases whose vector model identifiers differ. Compare whether the identifiers match. Observe whether association is still performed. When identifiers differ, exclude them and do not compare recall differences.
- Treating the citation limit as a permission boundary. Input: a citation limit set to some token value. Compare the returned content against the visible scope of the questioner. Observe whether records that should be visible are omitted because of trimming. The citation limit only controls content volume.
How to verify the setup
- Input the shortage list source text and the proposed draft sentence from the hypothetical sample. Compare the draft wording "has been restocked" against the source wording "pending review" and "has not yet been linked to any transfer request". Observe whether the draft sentence is judged unsupported. Expected result: the source status and the draft wording do not agree, so the judgment is pending verification.
- Input the transfer request T-0312 source text from the hypothetical sample. Compare its status "under approval" against the draft wording "has been restocked". Observe whether under-approval is worded as completed. Expected result: under approval does not equal completed, so the draft sentence does not hold.
- Input an empty citation array
[]as the retrieval output. Compare whether the downstream answering step handles it normally. Observe whether the workflow breaks because of the empty array. Expected result: the empty array passes through the output path, the downstream handles it as designed, and it is not treated as an error.