What the documents look like
After-sales repair and reship work aims to restore a product to usable condition. Case closure differs from refund-only disputes, because the goal is restored use rather than a direct refund. This makes inventory procurement and supplier records a continuous evidence chain that runs across four document types: repair requests, reship orders, inspection reports and accessory outbound notes. Source data arrives from the after-sales system, the order system, repair sites and the accessory warehouse WMS. Records update per order and daily. When procurement and supplier material becomes detached from a specific repair order, the practical risks are repeated complaints, repair delays beyond schedule, and uncontrolled accessory cost.
Citation tracing at this step means confirming that each statement in a draft or handover request can be traced to a specific field in a specific source document, within that document's stated authorization boundary. A repair request may still be pending a decision between repair and reship. An accessory outbound note may record only a warehouse-level registration. Neither document authorizes a supplier confirmation, a completed reship, or any downstream business action.
Constraints at the citation tracing step
The knowledge base search node outputs a citation array, and the length may be zero. An empty array still passes the output path; it does not mean the workflow has errored or terminated. The minimum relevance value takes effect only under semantic retrieval or result reranking, and it acts as a filter threshold. It does not perform permission isolation or entity separation, and it does not exclude unauthorized records or unrelated businesses. Retrieval is not authorization. Linked knowledge bases must share the same vector model; knowledge bases with different vector models cannot be linked together. During checking, confirm the model identifier first, exclude non-matching bases, and record the actual observation. Do not run cross-model retrieval to compare missed recalls.
A relevance score is not a category, entity or permission filter. The citation array is an output, not an approval. A pending repair status is not a completed repair. An accessory outbound note is not a supplier confirmation.
Hypothetical drill sample. Source text one: "Repair request WX-2024-0917, subject is a brand after-sales site, object is a model A complete unit, status is pending a decision between repair and reship, registration date 17 September 2024." Source text two: "Accessory outbound note CK-2024-0918, subject is the accessory warehouse, object is a model A power module, quantity 2 units, outbound date 18 September 2024, authorization scope is warehouse outbound registration." Draft sentence to be judged: "This repair order has completed the reship, and the accessory has been confirmed in sync by the supplier." Check whether the subject, object, status and effective scope in that sentence match the two source texts.
Configuration and implementation checks
| Configuration item | Assumed starting point for this page | Reason and comparison object |
|---|---|---|
| Linked knowledge bases | Select only knowledge bases with the same vector model | Compare the vector model identifier against another candidate base; exclude when identifiers differ |
| Search mode | Hybrid retrieval | Compare recall scope against semantic retrieval used alone; numbered queries need keyword hits |
| Citation upper limit | Assumed starting point 3000 tokens | Adjust after comparing against actual candidate chunk length; this is not an official default |
| Minimum relevance | Assumed starting point 0.4 | Compare against the returned 0-1 score; takes effect only under semantic retrieval or reranking |
| Result reranking | Enable per settings when a rerank model is available | Compare ranking scores against the disabled state; rerank scores can be used for filtering |
| Citation handover check | Manual line-by-line comparison of the answer against cited source text | Compare against checking answer fluency alone, which does not constitute source evidence |
Hybrid retrieval combines vector retrieval and full-text retrieval through RRF, and this is a fusion process rather than a switch. Reranking requires a rerank model and must be enabled per settings. Image retrieval requires corresponding image input and model capability. The optional paths in the overall retrieval flow diagram are not all executed on every request. The citation upper limit is measured in tokens, and it is a separate control from any thinking budget; a thinking budget is a reasoning budget and must not be reused as a citation token limit.
The empty-result handover can be checked with an explicit paper input of an empty array, comparing against the downstream design. Do not claim that a fictional rule makes retrieval return an empty array.
Three common errors
- Treating retrieval output as authorized execution. Input is outbound note CK-2024-0918. The comparison object is the warehouse outbound registration scope stated in that note. If the draft sentence claims the supplier has confirmed in sync, that exceeds the source authorization boundary and is unsupported.
- Writing a pending review status as completed. Input is WX-2024-0917 with status pending a decision between repair and reship. The comparison object is the fact of a completed reship. These differ, and the draft sentence is unsupported.
- Forcing linkage of knowledge bases with different vector models. Input is the vector model identifiers of two knowledge bases. Compare whether they are identical. When identifiers differ, exclude and record the observation. Do not fabricate missed-recall results from the linkage.
How to verify the setup
- Input hypothetical source text one and the draft sentence. Compare subject, object, status and date against the same fields in the source. The claimed completed reship has no corresponding field in the source text, so the judgment is unsupported.
- Input source text two and the draft sentence. Compare the authorization scope field. The source records only warehouse outbound registration, and supplier sync confirmation has no corresponding record. The judgment is unsupported, and the evidence gap is recorded.
- Input the vector model identifiers of two knowledge bases. Compare whether they are identical. Only identical identifiers permit joint linkage. When identifiers differ, exclude and record the observation, without claiming hit or missed-recall results.
For each check, the expected outcome is stated, and no test has been run. Missing evidence remains missing. A pending request is not approval, an offered option is not execution, and an unsigned termination is not a completed termination.