What the documents look like
Central procurement and distribution citation tracing sits with headquarters purchasing and the distribution center. The working materials are centralized procurement contracts, replenishment plans, distribution notes and store requisition forms. Supporting data arrives from ERP purchasing, WMS inventory, store POS and supplier delivery records, updated daily or weekly. These materials carry authorization states that stay separate from retrieval results: a distribution note appearing in search results only shows that its text exists in the selected knowledge base. It does not show that the note has been signed for or authorized for settlement. The three most time-consuming steps are aggregating store demand, arranging distribution waves and coordinating supplier delivery. During handover, each material version and approval state must be checked item by item.
Constraints at the citation tracing step
The knowledge base search node can associate one or more knowledge bases that share the same vector model. Its citation output is an array whose length may be zero, so the downstream chain still runs when nothing is retrieved. The citation limit is counted in tokens per search. The minimum relevance value applies only under semantic retrieval or result reranking. These settings govern recall range and ordering; they do not perform permission filtering or entity isolation. The same-vector-model requirement constrains only which knowledge bases can be associated together. It does not extend to external systems. Hybrid retrieval merges multiple result paths through RRF. Reranking requires a ReRank model and must be enabled by configuration. Image retrieval requires image input and matching model capability. These optional paths do not all execute on every request.
Hypothetical drill sample: a chain enterprise supply chain center plans to hand over one distribution note citation. The source material for checking contains three sentences. First, centralized procurement contract HT-2024-017 states that the supplier is Supplier A and the validity period ends on 31 December 2024. Second, distribution note PS-20240612-03 states that the receiving store is East District Store Three and the status is "dispatched, not signed for." Third, store requisition form YH-20240611-07 states a requested quantity of 200 cases, with the approval field left blank. The draft sentence to be judged: "Distribution note PS-20240612-03 has completed signing and can be used for settlement." This sentence rewrites "dispatched, not signed for" as "completed signing." The two values are mutually exclusive on the same field of the same material, so the draft sentence is judged unsupported.
Configuration and implementation checks
| Configuration item | Documented content | Check action on this page |
|---|---|---|
| Associated knowledge bases | Knowledge bases with the same vector model can be selected | Check selected knowledge base identifiers and material versions; exclude those with a different vector model |
| Citation output | Array format, length may be zero | Use an explicit paper input of [] to check downstream handling design |
| Citation limit | At most n tokens cited per search | Record the hypothetical starting value and comparison target; do not call it a default |
| Minimum relevance | Value from 0 to 1, effective only under semantic retrieval or reranking | Check whether reranking is enabled and record the observed value |
| Result reranking | Requires a ReRank model and must be enabled by configuration | Check the model identifier and enabled state |
| Citation display check | Output citations are passed to the answering step | Compare each answer sentence against the cited source text |
For the citation limit, the hypothetical starting value is 3000 tokens. The reason is that the three sample sentences total roughly 600 characters, and this value is chosen to hold all candidates. The comparison method is to observe whether the total tokens of returned citations exceed this value.
Three common errors
- Treating a retrieval hit as completed authorization. Input: distribution note PS-20240612-03. Compare the material status field "dispatched, not signed for" against the draft sentence "completed signing." The observed result is mutually exclusive values on the same field, so the draft sentence is judged unsupported.
- Treating a pending review as missing operating permission. Input: store requisition form YH-20240611-07 with a blank approval field. Compare "pending review" against "no permission." These are different facts. The observed result is that the authorization state is not stated, and the gap is recorded.
- Treating a quotation validity period as a supply period. Input: centralized procurement contract HT-2024-017 with validity ending 31 December 2024. Compare "contract validity period" against "supply period." The observed result is that the supply period is not stated, and no definite answer can be derived.
How to verify the setup
- Input the three hypothetical source sentences and the draft sentence. Compare the draft sentence against the source text on the same field. Observe whether mutually exclusive values appear. If they do, the draft sentence is judged unsupported; do not call it a negation or a conflict.
- Input an explicit array of []. Compare whether the downstream node continues execution with a zero-length citation. Observe whether the chain runs through. Do not claim that a fictional rule search must return [].
- Input two knowledge base identifiers that use different vector models. Compare whether the identifiers match. Observe whether the non-matching one is excluded. Do not run a cross-model retrieval to compare missed recall, and do not fabricate runtime results.
A pending review does not show missing operating permission. Signing, reaching cooperation and contract effectiveness are three different facts. When a field is not stated, or only related-stage evidence exists, the finding is unsupported or pending verification. Record the evidence gap and do not add authorization clauses to obtain a definite answer.