What the documents look like
Permit handling sits before customs declaration and decides whether a consignment may lawfully cross the border. The working papers for one consignment typically include an automatic import licence, a dual-use item licence, a contract, and a product description. These come from trade authority systems, customs commodity codes, supplier material, and customer statements of use. The material is refreshed per consignment, and a new version can appear for any single shipment.
Citation tracing in this task answers a narrow question: at handover, can the material cited in a draft or a request be checked against its source, is the cited version the effective one, and has a retrieval result been mistaken for an authorisation decision. Retrieval is not authorisation. A form collects values; it does not complete business verification, approval, database writes, or external synchronisation, all of which need their stated downstream implementation.
Constraints at the citation tracing step
The knowledge base search node outputs a citation array, and its length may be zero. When nothing is retrieved, the output path still runs. An associated knowledge base must use the same vector model as the others selected for the same search. The minimum relevance value is a filtering threshold that applies only under semantic retrieval or result re-ranking; it does not act as a permission or entity filter, and it does not exclude unrelated businesses or unauthorised records. RRF is a fusion step for combining multiple retrieval channels; it is not an on or off setting. Re-ranking requires a configured model and must be enabled according to settings. Image retrieval requires actual image input and matching model capability. The optional paths drawn in the overall flow diagram are not all executed on every request.
Hypothetical paper exercise. A consignment is being prepared for an automatic import licence. The source text available for checking consists of three sentences. First: "This consignment consists of used mechanical and electrical products; the import use is self-owned testing equipment." Second: "Contract number HYP-2024-031, signing date 10 March 2024, quotation valid until 30 April 2024." Third: "The product description states equipment power of 15 kilowatts and country of origin Germany." The draft sentence to be assessed is: "The contract took effect on the signing date, and the supply period covers through June 2024." The draft treats signing and effectiveness as one fact. The source states only a signing date; it states no effectiveness clause and no supply period. The draft sentence is therefore unsupported. Signing, reaching agreement, and contract effectiveness are three distinct facts, and a quotation validity date does not indicate a supply period.
Configuration and implementation checks
| Configuration item | Hypothetical starting point for this exercise | Reason and comparison object |
|---|---|---|
| Associated knowledge bases | Select only the permit material base sharing one vector model | Compare the vector model identifier against a base using another vector model; exclude the mismatched base and do not run a cross-model search |
| Search mode | Hybrid retrieval | Compare against a single semantic retrieval path; code-like questions rely more on full-text matching |
| Minimum relevance | Hypothetical starting value 0.3 | Compare against 0.5 and observe whether the number of citations and the source coverage change |
| Citation limit | Hypothetical starting value 2000 tokens | Compare against 1000 tokens and observe whether long material is truncated |
| Question optimisation | Not enabled for the first pass | Compare against an enabled run and check whether citations in a follow-up question include the subject |
| Citation output handling | Check each answer line against the cited source text | Compare against reviewing answer fluency alone, and confirm the source is traceable |
The citation limit uses the documented token unit. The minimum relevance value is a threshold, not a final ordering rule; after question optimisation, hybrid retrieval, image retrieval, or re-ranking, results may be fused from several channels and need not follow a single vector similarity order. A relevance score is not a category, entity, or permission filter.
Three common errors
- Treating a retrieval hit as a completed authorisation. Input: the citation array. Comparison object: the licence approval status field. Observable result: a citation exists while the approval status is not stated, so the item is recorded as an evidence gap.
- Treating the signing date as the contract effectiveness date. Input: the second source sentence. Comparison object: the effectiveness clause field. Observable result: the source states no effectiveness clause, so the draft sentence is judged unsupported.
- Treating minimum relevance as a permission filter. Input: the minimum relevance setting. Comparison object: the material authorisation scope field. Observable result: relevance level and authorisation are unrelated, so the claim does not hold.
How to verify the setup
- Input the three source sentences and the draft sentence given above. Compare the field correspondence between the draft and the source. The observable result is that the draft contains an effectiveness statement and a supply period absent from the source. The condition is met when the draft is judged unsupported and the gap is recorded.
- Input a paper citation array of
[]. Compare whether the downstream handling design processes an empty array. The observable result is that downstream nodes still execute. The condition is met when the empty array is not treated as an error that terminates the workflow. - Input two knowledge base identifiers that use different vector models. Compare whether the identifiers match. The observable result is a mismatch. The condition is met when the mismatched base is excluded and the actual observation is recorded, without inferring missed recall or redundant results from a cross-model association.
A pending request is not an approval, an offered option is not execution, and an unsigned termination is not a completed termination. Where the source does not state a field, that field remains unknown. Verification here compares inputs, comparison objects, and observable results; it does not claim that any test, deployment, approval, or refund has taken place.