What the documents look like
Cross-border product compliance and labeling work draws on four document families: product test reports, English-language labels, MSDS files, and platform prohibited-item lists. These materials arrive from platform policy centers, testing laboratory reports, destination-country regulation repositories, and supplier documentation. Updates are irregular, and each new product listing requires fresh verification against them.
In store service and internal training, staff search the knowledge base to determine whether a given product's label or test evidence covers the requirements of a specific destination country. Because source documents update on no fixed schedule, knowledge base content may lag behind the latest policy. A retrieval result reflects the state of the material at the time it was indexed, not the current regulatory position.
The practical consequence for retrieval is that a hit confirms presence of a document in the knowledge base. It says nothing about whether that document satisfies a destination-country requirement, whether an authorization has been granted, or whether a listing may proceed. Those determinations require separate verification steps outside the retrieval function.
Constraints at the retrieval step
The knowledge base search node can associate one or more knowledge bases that use the same vector model. Knowledge bases built on different vector models cannot be associated together; staff must check the vector model identifier and exclude those that do not match before running a search.
Search modes include semantic retrieval, full-text retrieval, and hybrid retrieval. Semantic retrieval computes similarity through vector distance and suits natural-language questions. Full-text retrieval suits exact queries such as identifiers, model numbers, and proper nouns. Hybrid retrieval uses both recall paths and merges results through RRF. Minimum relevance is a 0–1 threshold that takes effect only under semantic retrieval or when result reranking is used; it filters low-relevance results and does not isolate records by destination country, store, supplier, or permission. The citation limit is measured in tokens and caps how much content a single search may cite. Question optimization performs coreference resolution and question expansion, adding one model call before retrieval.
Retrieval itself does not constitute authorization. Whether materials in a store handover may be used requires a separate check of authorization status.
Hypothetical drill sample: A store employee receives materials for a product pending listing and intends to search the knowledge base to confirm label compliance status. The source text available for comparison reads: "Product name: portable rechargeable fan. Test report number: STR-2024-0871, issue date: 12 March 2024, test standard: IEC 60335-1. English label version: V2.1, marked input voltage 5V DC." The draft sentence awaiting assessment reads: "The test report and English label for this product cover the destination-country listing requirements and it may be submitted for listing." Assessing this draft requires comparing whether the test standard is one recognized by the destination country, whether the label version is currently valid, and whether the destination-country requirements have a corresponding record in the knowledge base. The materials do not state the destination country name or that country's specific compliance requirements, so the draft's "cover" judgment lacks support.
Configuration and implementation checks
| Configuration item | Relevant setting or check for this page | Relation to the sample |
|---|---|---|
| Associated knowledge bases | Select one or more knowledge bases using the same vector model | Confirm the compliance document base and the label document base share one vector model identifier |
| Search mode | Semantic retrieval, full-text retrieval, or hybrid retrieval | The sample contains identifier STR-2024-0871, so full-text or hybrid retrieval can check whether the identifier is hit |
| Citation limit | Set a limit measured in tokens | The sample materials are short; confirm the limit value covers the test report and label content completely |
| Minimum relevance | A 0–1 value effective only under semantic retrieval or result reranking | The sample question is specific; annotate relevant and irrelevant samples first, then adjust the threshold |
| Question optimization | Used for coreference resolution and question expansion | If the sample question is "is this report compliant," confirm the optimized subject remains STR-2024-0871 |
| Result reranking | Requires a ReRank model and must be enabled per settings | With few candidates in the sample, observe the semantic and full-text recall paths first |
For the citation limit, a hypothetical starting value of 2000 tokens is chosen for this drill because the sample test report and label text together are short and a value in that range allows both to be cited in full; compare it against the actual token length of the indexed material. This is a drill starting point, not an official default.
Three common errors
- Treating a retrieval hit as authorization. Finding test report STR-2024-0871 in the knowledge base shows only that the report exists there. It does not show that the report passed destination-country compliance review, and it does not show that the store has listing authorization. Authorization status requires a separate check; retrieval does not perform that function.
- Treating minimum relevance as a permission or entity filter. Minimum relevance is a 0–1 filtering threshold that removes low-relevance results. It does not separate materials by destination country, store, or supplier. Raising the threshold in the sample does not ensure that only that destination country's compliance requirements are returned.
- Using the expanded question from question optimization as the original question. Question optimization performs coreference resolution and question expansion. If the sample's original question is "is this report compliant," the optimized form may read "does test report STR-2024-0871 meet destination-country listing requirements." Staff must check whether the completed subject and object match the source material, so that optimization does not introduce a wrong subject.
How to verify the setup
- Input the sample source text and the draft sentence, then compare whether the retrieval results contain the STR-2024-0871 test report record and the V2.1 English label record. Observe whether the results return content matching that identifier and whether the returned content includes the test standard and label version fields. If the result is an empty array, check whether the material has completed training and indexing; an empty result does not indicate that the product is non-compliant.
- Input "does test report STR-2024-0871 meet destination-country listing requirements" and compare the returns from full-text retrieval against semantic retrieval. Observe whether full-text retrieval hits the identifier and whether semantic retrieval returns semantically similar reports with different identifiers. If semantic retrieval returns a report with a different identifier, check the identifier field in the returned content to confirm whether it is the target report.
- Input the sample draft sentence "The test report and English label for this product cover the destination-country listing requirements and it may be submitted for listing" and compare the judgment in the draft against what the knowledge base actually states. Observe whether the knowledge base contains a destination-country name, destination-country compliance requirements, or label validity period fields. If the knowledge base does not state the destination-country requirements, the draft's "cover" judgment is unsupported; record the evidence gap and do not submit for listing on that basis.
Across all three checks, retrieval does not grant authorization, and a pending request is not an approval. An offered option is not an execution, and an unsigned termination is not a completed termination. Where evidence is missing, it remains missing.