What the documents look like
Brand outlet discount operations exist to clear out-of-season inventory. This purpose shapes the working documents: discount approvals, slow-moving inventory lists, price tags, and gross margin calculation sheets. These materials update on weekly or monthly cycles. In cross-border settings, multiple language versions and regional document versions coexist.
A discount approval records a discount ratio and an approval status. A slow-moving inventory list identifies goods and an inventory-age range. A price tag carries terminal price information. A gross margin calculation sheet states cost and selling-price accounting rules. Citation tracing addresses one question: can the source text cited in an answer or handover be matched to a specific material, a specific version, and a specific status. When document versions differ, the same item may carry different discount conclusions, so source labeling becomes a precondition for reconciliation. Update frequency does not change retrieval behavior, and this page does not derive synchronization mechanisms from it.
The confidence level for this category description is roughly indicative, not verified.
Constraints at the citation tracing step
The knowledge base search node can select one or more knowledge bases that share the same vector model. Its output is an array of citations, and the length may be zero. An empty array means the output path still completes; it does not establish that the workflow terminated with an error. Citation content must be passed to the answering step before an answer can be compared line by line against source text.
The minimum relevance value is a filter threshold. It applies only under semantic retrieval or when result reranking is used. It does not perform permission or entity isolation, and retrieval itself is not authorization. Hybrid retrieval merges multiple result paths through RRF, so final citations are not strictly ordered by a single vector similarity score. Question optimization adds one model call before retrieval and increases elapsed time. Image retrieval requires image input and matching model capability. Reranking requires a model and must be enabled by configuration. Paths shown in the overall flow diagram do not all execute on every request. Knowledge bases with different vector models cannot be associated together; during reconciliation, confirm the vector model identifier first and exclude those that do not match.
Hypothetical paper exercise sample: a brand outlet clearance group prepares a cross-border handover note. The source materials are three sentences. "Discount approval A-0715 states: for item group G-12, the discount ratio is 40 percent off, the approval status is pending review, and the applicable period is July 1, 2025 to July 31, 2025." "Slow-moving list B-0715 states: for item group G-12, the inventory-age range is 180 to 270 days, quantity 400 units." "Gross margin calculation sheet C-0715 states: for item group G-12, the gross margin at 40 percent off is negative 3 percent." The draft sentence to be judged is: "The 40 percent discount for item group G-12 has been approved and clearance may proceed." The comparison object is the approval status field. The source value is pending review; the draft sentence claims approved. The two values are mutually exclusive on the same field.
Configuration and implementation checks
The configuration below centers on citation reconciliation for this page's sample. It lists only settings documented in the official material or implementation check items. Numeric values are starting points for this hypothetical exercise, used for comparison against the sample source text, and are not official defaults.
| Configuration or check item | Hypothetical starting point | Reason and comparison object |
|---|---|---|
| Associated knowledge bases | Select only the discount approval base and slow-moving list base whose vector model identifiers match | Compare against each base's vector model identifier; exclude those that do not match |
| Search mode | Hybrid retrieval | Compare against semantic retrieval alone; numbered fields need full-text recall as a supplement |
| Minimum relevance | Hypothetical starting point 0.3 | Compare against recall of the sample source text; observe whether the approval status sentence is filtered out |
| Citation limit | Hypothetical starting point 2000 tokens | Compare against the length of the three sample sentences; observe whether citations are truncated |
| Result reranking | Enabled by configuration | Compare against candidate order without reranking; observe order changes for the approval status sentence |
| Citation output | Passed to the answering step | Compare line by line against the answer; check whether the answer labels the source material number |
Three common errors
- Treating pending review as approved. The source text states the approval status is pending review; the draft sentence says approved. The input is the status field of approval A-0715, the comparison object is the approval wording in the draft sentence, and the observable result is that the two values are mutually exclusive on the same field, so the draft sentence is unsupported.
- Treating a retrieval hit as authorized execution. The search node returns a citation array, which indicates recalled content only. It does not indicate that a discount has been approved or may be executed. The input is the retrieval output, the comparison object is the approval status field, and the observable result is that citations exist while the approval status remains pending review, so execution conditions are not met.
- Associating knowledge bases with different vector models. The input is the vector model identifiers of two knowledge bases, the comparison object is whether the identifiers match, and the observable result is that they cannot be associated when the identifiers differ. Exclude those that do not match and record the gap; do not infer missed recall or redundant results from this.
How to verify the setup
- Compare the draft sentence against the sample source text. The input is the approval status field of approval A-0715 and the draft sentence, the comparison object is the value of the same field, and the observable result is that the draft sentence claims approved while the source states pending review. Judge it unsupported and retain the evidence gap.
- Check downstream handling with an empty array. The input is a paper citation output of
[], the comparison object is the design of the downstream answering step, and the observable result is whether the downstream treats it as zero citations and notes that no source exists. Do not claim that a particular retrieval necessarily returns an empty array. - Check source timeliness against material versions. The input is a historical version and a current version of the same material, the comparison object is the version identifier and applicable period, and the observable result is that a citation must be reviewed against the effective version. When the version is not stated, judge it as pending verification; do not fabricate authorization or effective clauses.
All three verification items use the hypothetical sample as input and were not actually executed. Expected results must be checked within a retrieval scope to which access rights exist.