What the documents look like
Closure settlement runs opposite to headquarters site selection and store opening: it handles exit and asset recovery. The main data sources are POS inventory, the fixed-asset system, lease contracts and financial ledgers. The daily documents are closure approvals, inventory clearance forms, lease termination agreements and asset count sheets. For one store, the lease termination agreement may be in a foreign language, the inventory clearance form in Chinese, and the landlord contact may work in a third language, so retrieval must reach the same store and the same period across languages. Documents update irregularly, per store, and retrieval settings are chosen from the document shape, not from update frequency. Typical roles are chain operations, finance, legal and the landlord contact. Retrieved content is reference material only and does not constitute authorization.
Constraints at the retrieval step
The knowledge base search node can associate one or more knowledge bases that use the same vector model. Bases built on different vector models cannot be associated together; the model identifier must be checked first and non-matching bases excluded. Search mode is compared across semantic, full-text and hybrid retrieval against the same test question; no single mode is presumed suitable for every document. Hybrid retrieval merges multiple result paths through RRF, and RRF is a fusion process, not an on/off switch. The citation limit is measured in tokens, so documents of different lengths should be used to test whether the cited content stays complete. Minimum relevance takes effect only under semantic retrieval or when result reranking is used; it is a filter threshold, not a sorting rule, and it does not perform permission or entity isolation. Question optimization performs coreference resolution and question expansion, so the original question and the optimized question must be compared and the subject checked for distortion. Image retrieval requires an image input and the corresponding model capability, and reranking requires a rerank model enabled by configuration; optional paths do not all execute on every request. The node outputs cited content as an array whose length may be 0, and the downstream chain still runs on an empty result.
Hypothetical paper exercise sample: a chain brand's operations staff member plans to hand a set of materials to legal for review. The source text to be checked consists of three sentences. Sentence 1: "The store lease contract expires on 31 March 2026, and the parties have not signed a renewal document." Sentence 2: "The landlord issued a deposit refund letter of intent on 10 April 2026, stating that the refund amount will be confirmed after the asset count is completed." Sentence 3: "The store closure approval form status is pending review by the regional manager." The draft sentence to be judged is: "The store lease has been terminated, the deposit has been refunded, and the closure approval has been granted." The retrieval scope is limited to Chinese and English materials for this store from March to April 2026. Judgment must hold the same subject, the same period and the same field: contract expiry and lease termination are different facts, a letter of intent does not indicate an executed refund, and a pending review does not indicate an approved closure.
Configuration and implementation checks
The table below concerns the sample above and lists only settings documented in the official material or implementation checks. The hypothetical starting values are used only for this paper comparison and are not official defaults.
| Configuration item | Hypothetical starting value for this exercise | Reason and comparison method |
|---|---|---|
| Associated knowledge bases | One Chinese base and one English base for this store | Check the vector model identifier of both bases first; associate only if identical, otherwise exclude |
| Search mode | Hybrid retrieval | Run the same test question under pure semantic, pure full-text and hybrid, then compare what is hit |
| Citation limit | 2000 tokens for this exercise | Test with clearance forms and agreements of different lengths, then compare whether cited content is truncated |
| Minimum relevance | 0.4 for this exercise | Label relevant and irrelevant samples first, then compare filtering results at different thresholds |
| Question optimization | Off for this exercise | Compare the original question with the optimized question under on and off states, and check whether the subject is distorted |
| Result reranking | Not enabled for this exercise | Compare second-pass ranking scores only after a rerank model is available and enabled by configuration |
Three common errors
- Treating a retrieval hit as an authorization status. In the sample, the approval form status is pending review by the regional manager. If the draft sentence says "the closure approval has been granted," the input is the approval form text returned by retrieval, the compared field is approval status, and the observed result is that the value in the source text and the draft sentence do not match; the statement is unsupported.
- Treating a letter of intent as an executed refund. In the sample, the deposit refund letter of intent states that the amount awaits confirmation from the asset count. If the draft sentence says "the deposit has been refunded," the input is the letter of intent text, the compared field is refund status, and the observed result is that the source text does not state a completed refund; the statement remains to be verified.
- Treating contract expiry as lease termination. In the sample, the contract expires and no renewal document has been signed. If the draft sentence says "the lease has been terminated," the input is the contract text, the compared field is contract status, and the observed result is that the source text does not record a signed termination; the statement is unsupported.
How to verify the setup
- For the draft sentence "the store lease has been terminated," the input is the source text of sentence 1, the compared field is contract status, and the observed result is that the source text records only expiry and non-renewal, with no termination recorded. The judgment is unsupported, and the evidence gap must be recorded.
- For the draft sentence "the deposit has been refunded," the input is the source text of sentence 2, the compared field is refund status, and the observed result is that the source text states the amount awaits confirmation. The judgment is pending verification, and no refund clause may be supplied by the reviewer.
- For the draft sentence "the closure approval has been granted," the input is the source text of sentence 3, the compared field is approval status, and the observed result is that the source text says pending review. The judgment is unsupported. Separately, use a paper input of an empty array to check the downstream design, confirming that the empty-citation chain runs through, without claiming that a given rule necessarily returns an empty array.