What the documents look like
Brand concession counters in shopping malls settle sales through the mall's unified cashier and deduction process. The brand ERP and the mall POS record the same transaction with different timing and different field definitions. Store service and internal training work with four recurring document types: the joint-operation deduction contract, the mall activity letter, the sales receipt, and the monthly reconciliation statement. These materials sit across three parties: brand retail, mall operations, and the concession store manager.
Daily updates and monthly settlement coexist, so a citation must point to a specific material version. The same sale may appear with different fields in the mall POS, the brand ERP, and the monthly reconciliation statement. If training material cites only one of these, a handover cannot determine which material is in an effective state. Retrieval or a form only locates candidate materials. It does not confirm the validity, authorization state, or settlement result of those materials.
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 a citation array whose length may be zero. Whether a cited item is adopted depends on the downstream answer step and on manual comparison against the source text. The minimum relevance value is a filter threshold. It does not perform permission or entity isolation. Semantic recall and relevance scores do not separate concession counters, malls, or contract parties. The same-vector-model requirement applies only to knowledge base association. It does not extend to business registration sites or other external systems.
Image retrieval, question optimization, and reranking are optional paths in the overall document flow. They execute only when the corresponding input and model capability are present. They do not all run on every request.
Hypothetical exercise sample: A brand concession store manager plans to submit an activity resource application note to mall operations and needs to check the source text of the following materials. Material A (excerpt from the joint-operation deduction contract): "The deduction rate under this contract is eighteen percent of the monthly tax-inclusive sales amount. The contract is valid from January 1, 2024 to December 31, 2025." Material B (excerpt from the mall activity letter): "The registration deadline for this anniversary event is March 10, 2025. The concession must submit its participation confirmation letter before this date." Material C (excerpt from the monthly reconciliation statement): "The tax-inclusive sales amount of the concession for February 2025 is RMB 120,000." Draft sentence: "This concession has confirmed participation in the anniversary event, the deduction follows the contract, and the February sales amount has been checked and is correct." To be determined: whether this draft sentence is consistent with the materials above, and what authorization state the act of submitting the confirmation letter is in.
Configuration and implementation checks
| Configuration item | Hypothetical starting point for this exercise | Reason for selection and comparison method |
|---|---|---|
| Associated knowledge bases | Select knowledge bases containing the contract, activity letter, and reconciliation statement | First check the vector model identifier of each base, exclude bases with different vector models, and do not perform cross-model retrieval |
| Search mode | Hybrid search | Use full-text search for exact fields such as contract number, activity date, and amount; use semantic search for natural-language questions; compare recall differences between the two question types |
| Citation limit | Hypothetical starting point set to a token amount that can hold excerpts of the three materials | This value is a starting point for this exercise, not an official default; compare it against the source text length to confirm the excerpts are not truncated |
| Minimum relevance | Keep the default initially; do not preset a numeric value | This value takes effect only in semantic search or when reranking is used; compare filtering behavior across different question types |
| Result reranking | Enable according to settings when a rerank model is available | The rerank score can be used for filtering and must be observed together with question completeness |
| Citation output handling | Check whether the retrieval output is passed to the answer step | Compare each answer item against the cited source text; observe the downstream design when the array is empty |
Three common errors
- Treating a retrieval hit as authorization confirmation. Finding the activity letter only shows the material exists. Whether the act of submitting the confirmation letter has been authorized must be judged from separate authorization records. A pending review state does not demonstrate that operating permission is absent.
- Forcing association of knowledge bases with different vector models. Check the vector model identifier of each base, exclude those that do not match, and do not invent missed recalls or redundant results from a combined association.
- Treating minimum relevance as a permission or entity filter. This value only filters low-relevance results. It does not distinguish concession counters, malls, or contract parties, and it does not exclude unauthorized records.
How to verify the setup
- Input the source text of Materials A, B, and C and the draft sentence. Compare whether "the deduction follows the contract" in the draft sentence matches Material A on the same party, the same period, and the same field for deduction rate and validity. If the contract validity in Material A does not cover the activity date, this item is unsupported and the evidence gap must be recorded.
- Input the source text of Material B and the statement "has confirmed participation." Compare whether the confirmation letter has been submitted. Material B states only the registration deadline and does not state the submission status of the confirmation letter. This statement is unsupported. The authorization state of submitting the confirmation letter must be verified against separate authorization records.
- Input the source text of Material C and "the February sales amount has been checked and is correct." Compare whether the reconciliation statement amount and the draft sentence refer to the same field. If the draft sentence does not give a specific amount, a same-field comparison against RMB 120,000 cannot be made. The amount must be supplied or the item marked as pending verification.