What the documents look like
Price and display audits for chain stores happen during ordinary trading periods, and the emphasis falls on whether standards continue to be carried out. Supervisory systems, POS price tables, store cameras and headquarters promotion calendars form the main data sources. Weekly and monthly update rhythms mean a price tag or display state can change between two audit visits. Patrol photos, price tag lists, display standards and rectification notices are the documents handled day to day, and checking price tags, capturing photo evidence and tracking the rectification loop take the most time. Citation tracing therefore has to answer which material a conclusion came from, which version, which day, which store it covers, and what state that material was in at the moment of comparison.
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 it outputs citations as an array whose length may be zero. An empty array still lets the output path run through. Citation tracing requires checking each answer against the cited source text rather than substituting a thinking process or fluent wording for source evidence. Retrieval brings materials back and does not constitute authorization. Forms collect values, while business verification, approval, database writes and external synchronization each need their own downstream implementation. The minimum relevance value is a filtering threshold and does not isolate stores, entities or permissions. Hybrid retrieval merges multiple result paths through RRF, which is a fusion process without a separate switch. Image retrieval needs image input and matching model capability, reranking needs a model and must be enabled by configuration, and the optional paths drawn in a document flow diagram do not all execute on every request.
Hypothetical drill sample: a chain brand operations department conducts a price and display audit across three directly operated stores in the East China region between 10 March 2026 and 16 March 2026. The source materials supplied for comparison are: "Store A patrol photo shows the shelf price tag at 9.9 yuan on 12 March 2026." "The headquarters promotion calendar states that this product's promotion period runs from 10 March 2026 to 20 March 2026 at a promotion price of 9.9 yuan." "The regional supervisor rectification notice draft records: Store A price tag does not match the promotion price, rectification required before 14 March." The draft sentence to be judged is: "Store A had a price tag that did not match the promotion price on 12 March 2026, and rectification is complete." The rectification state in the draft sentence rests only on a draft requirement, and the materials record no completion evidence.
Configuration and implementation checks
| Configuration or check item | Hypothetical starting value for this drill | Reason for the choice and comparison method |
|---|---|---|
| Associated knowledge bases | Select the price tag list base and the promotion calendar base, first checking that their vector model identifiers match | The documents require the same vector model before joint association; compare identifiers, exclude any mismatch, and do not run cross-model retrieval |
| Search mode | Hybrid retrieval | Price tag numbers and promotion dates need exact hits while semantically close content also needs recall; compare hit coverage against semantic retrieval alone |
| Minimum relevance | Hypothetical starting value 0.5 for this drill | The value is a 0-1 threshold effective only under semantic retrieval or reranking; compare filtered counts against 0.3 and observe whether valid materials survive |
| Citation limit | Hypothetical starting value 2000 tokens for this drill | The documents control citation limits in tokens; compare against 1000 tokens and observe whether rectification notices and photo descriptions are truncated |
| Result reranking | Enabled, with a reranking model already configured | Reranking performs a second sort when candidates are numerous; compare the ranking position of the same question before and after enabling |
| Citation output handoff | Check whether the search output array is passed to the answering step | The array length may be zero; use a paper input of [] to check downstream design without claiming a fictional rule always returns empty |
Three common errors
- Treating a retrieval hit as authorized execution. Observable error: the draft sentence states "rectification is complete" while the material is only a rectification notice draft. The input is the draft text, the comparison object is completion evidence, and the observable result is that the draft records no completion, so the judgement is pending verification.
- Forcing knowledge bases with different vector models into joint association. Observable error: the price tag list base and promotion calendar base carry mismatched vector model identifiers yet are selected together. The input is the two model identifiers, the comparison is whether they match, and the observable result is that mismatched bases are excluded and recorded, without inferring missed recall or redundancy.
- Treating minimum relevance as a store or permission filter. Observable error: raising the threshold is assumed to exclude records from unrelated stores. The input is the threshold setting and the retrieval results, the comparison is whether other stores' materials still appear, and the observable result is that the threshold affects relevance filtering only, while entity and permission isolation need separate implementation.
How to verify the setup
- Check the draft sentence against the hypothetical sample source text. Input the three source sentences and the draft sentence, compare "rectification is complete" in the draft against the completion state field of the rectification notice draft, and observe that the draft records no completion, so the judgement is pending verification. A contradiction is judged only when mutually exclusive values appear for the same store, the same period and the same field.
- Check that citation output corresponds to source text. Input the search node output array, compare whether each citation traces back to the price tag list or promotion calendar source text, and observe that item-by-item correspondence with matching date, store and price fields satisfies the condition. An empty array is permitted by the documents and is not treated as an error.
- Check the vector model identifiers of associated knowledge bases. Input the candidate knowledge base list and their model identifiers, compare whether they match, and observe that only matching bases may be associated jointly, with mismatched ones excluded and recorded. Cross-model retrieval is not run to compare missed recall.