What the documents look like
The retrieval subject matter for this category is a set of documents tied to a single trade transaction: the foreign exchange receipt voucher, the trade contract, the invoice, and the foreign exchange business registration materials. These documents commonly carry both Chinese and English text, and the counterparty name, amount, currency, and date for one transaction are spread across them. Reconciliation work concentrates on the authenticity of the foreign exchange funds and the trade background, so the retrieval goal is to link the contract, invoice, and receipt voucher for one transaction to quotable source passages. Records update per transaction and monthly. The retrieval layer handles only text already stored in the knowledge base and does not perform fund crediting or directory registration.
Two characteristics shape this step. First, multilingual retrieval depends on the vector model's ability to map Chinese and English passages with close meaning, while exact matching of numbers such as voucher numbers and contract numbers depends on the full-text retrieval path. Second, a single source data block can carry more than one index, so index content and source content are checked separately, and the tradeoff between index brevity and retrieval coverage is weighed against samples.
Constraints at the vector indexes step
Knowledge bases linked for retrieval must use the same vector model. Before selecting several knowledge bases, check each model identifier and input type; exclude any base whose identifier does not match rather than running a cross-model retrieval comparison. A single source data block may be associated with multiple indexes, and index content is verified against the original content block by block. Whether an image can be retrieved depends on whether an image description or image vector index was generated at ingestion time; uploading an image on the query side does not by itself make an image retrievable. Semantic retrieval and the minimum relevance value affect candidate ordering and filtering only. They do not perform permission or entity isolation, and a retrieval result does not constitute business authorization.
Hypothetical paper exercise sample: an export enterprise retains a foreign exchange receipt voucher whose source text reads "Payer: NORTH HARBOR TRADING LIMITED; Payee: Huadong Import and Export Co., Ltd.; Amount: USD 48,200.00; Value date: 2025-03-12; Transaction remark: GOODS PAYMENT CONTRACT NO. HD-2025-031". The same batch retains a trade contract whose source text reads "Seller: Huadong Import and Export Co., Ltd.; Buyer: NORTH HARBOR TRADING LIMITED; Contract number: HD-2025-031; Amount: USD 48,200.00; Shipment period: April 2025". The draft sentence to be assessed is "This receipt corresponds to contract HD-2025-031, the trade background has been verified, and settlement can be processed". The comparison covers three fields in the draft sentence against the two source documents: counterparty, contract number, and amount.
Configuration and implementation checks
The table lists documented settings or implementation checks relevant to this feature and primary task, using the sample above. The values are starting points for this paper exercise only and are not official defaults.
| Configuration or check item | Starting point for this exercise | Reason and comparison object |
|---|---|---|
| Linked knowledge bases | Include only the receipt and settlement base with a matching model identifier | Compare model identifiers item by item against the other base; exclude any mismatch |
| Search mode | Hybrid retrieval | Compare against semantic retrieval alone for hits on contract numbers |
| Minimum relevance | Set to 0.30 | Compare with 0.50 on candidate count and whether exact numbers are filtered out |
| Citation limit | Set to 2000 tokens | Compare with 4000 tokens on completeness of cited passages |
| Question optimization | Off for this exercise | Compare with the enabled state on short-question completion and elapsed time |
| Index check | Verify each index against its source block | Compare with checking source text alone to confirm the index has not drifted |
Three common errors
- Linking knowledge bases that use different vector models. The input is two bases with non-matching model identifiers; the comparison action is checking each identifier; the observable result is that a base with a mismatched identifier appears in the linked list, which marks the configuration as incorrect.
- Treating a retrieval hit as a verified trade background. The input is the draft sentence and the two source documents; the comparison action is checking counterparty, contract number, and amount field by field; the observable result is that the draft sentence states "has been verified" while the source documents carry no verification conclusion, which marks the sentence as exceeding the evidence.
- Treating the minimum relevance value as a permission filter. The input is a query containing an unrelated enterprise name; the comparison action is observing whether returned candidates are trimmed by the similarity threshold; the observable result is that changing the threshold alters only the candidate count and not the visible scope.
How to verify the setup
- Verification one: input the draft sentence "This receipt corresponds to contract HD-2025-031, the trade background has been verified, and settlement can be processed", compare counterparty, contract number, and amount against the two source documents, and observe that the three fields match the source text while "has been verified" has no source support. The result is recorded as fields matching and the conclusion unsupported.
- Verification two: input the query "HD-2025-031", compare candidates from hybrid retrieval against semantic retrieval alone, and observe that a source passage containing that contract number appears among the hybrid candidates. The result is recorded as the full-text path being active.
- Verification three: input an empty-citation scenario containing no contract number, compare how the downstream node handles a citation array of length zero, and observe that the output path completes while the downstream does not use the empty array to process crediting, settlement, or directory registration. The result is recorded as retrieval and business execution being separate. A retrieval result, a filled form, or a pending review state does not constitute authorization; signing, reaching cooperation, and contract effectiveness are three distinct facts, and missing evidence remains pending verification.