Lesson 4: Retrieval, Grounding, and Citations

Learning Outcome

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to:

• Implement basic retrieval-augmented generation (RAG)
• Ground responses in specific knowledge sources
• Add citations to agent outputs
• Identify when retrieval is and isn't needed

Prerequisites

• Read Embeddings and similarity
• Read Chunking and retrieval primitives

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Concept: Why Retrieval?

LLMs have two fundamental limitations:

1. Knowledge cutoff — They don't know about recent events or private data
2. Hallucination — They can generate plausible but incorrect information

When Retrieval Helps

Situation	Retrieval?	Why
Answering questions about your company	✅ Yes	Private knowledge
Recent news or events	✅ Yes	Knowledge cutoff
Technical documentation	✅ Yes	Precise facts needed
General knowledge ("What is Python?")	❌ No	LLM already knows
Creative writing	❌ No	No factual grounding needed

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Concept: The 2-Step RAG Pattern

The classic RAG pattern has two steps:

Retrieval vs. Context Window

Retrieval is often better than stuffing everything into context:

Approach	Pros	Cons
Long context	Simpler implementation	Higher cost, quality degrades
Retrieval	Targeted, cheaper	Additional complexity
Hybrid	Best of both	Most complex

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Concept: Grounding and Citations

Grounding means ensuring answers come from specific sources. Citations make this verifiable.

Grounding Prompt Pattern

grounding_prompt = """
Answer the question using ONLY the provided context.
If the answer is not in the context, say "I don't know based on the provided information."

Context:
---
{retrieved_chunks}
---

Question: {user_question}

Answer with citations: [Source: filename]
"""

Citation Format

Citation Schema

from pydantic import BaseModel
from typing import Optional

class GroundedAnswer(BaseModel):
    answer: str
    sources: list[str]
    confidence: float
    
    # Optional: specific citations with quotes
    citations: Optional[list[dict]] = None

---

Concept: Retrieval Failure Modes

Common Issues

Issue	Cause	Solution
Irrelevant chunks	Poor embeddings	Use better model, add filters
Missed relevant docs	Low recall	Hybrid search, lower threshold
Stale data	Outdated index	Refresh index periodically
Prompt injection	Malicious docs	Sanitize retrieved content

Prompt Injection Risk

⚠️ Never trust retrieved content without sanitization

# ❌ Dangerous: Retained doc content in prompt
prompt = f"""
Answer based on this document:

{doc_content}  # Could contain injected instructions!
"""

# ✅ Safer: Citation only, not raw content
prompt = f"""
Answer based on documents with IDs: {doc_ids}
Cite the source in your response.
"""

---

Example: Building a Q&A System with RAG

Step 1: Define the Schema

from pydantic import BaseModel

class Document(BaseModel):
    content: str
    source: str
    chunk_id: str

class QAResponse(BaseModel):
    answer: str
    sources: list[str]
    confidence: float

Step 2: Index Documents

from agentflow.storage.store import QdrantStore
from agentflow.core.embedding import OpenAIEmbedding

# Initialize embedding model and store
embedding_model = OpenAIEmbedding("text-embedding-3-small")
vector_store = QdrantStore(collection_name="knowledge_base")

def index_documents(documents: list[Document]):
    for doc in documents:
        # Embed the content
        embedding = embedding_model.embed(doc.content)
        
        # Store in vector database
        vector_store.add(
            id=doc.chunk_id,
            vector=embedding,
            payload={
                "content": doc.content,
                "source": doc.source
            }
        )

Step 3: Retrieve and Answer

def rag_query(question: str, top_k: int = 5) -> QAResponse:
    # 1. Embed the question
    query_embedding = embedding_model.embed(question)
    
    # 2. Retrieve relevant chunks
    results = vector_store.search(
        vector=query_embedding,
        top_k=top_k
    )
    
    # 3. Build context
    context = "\n\n".join([
        f"[Source: {r.payload['source']}]\n{r.payload['content']}"
        for r in results
    ])
    
    # 4. Generate answer with grounding
    prompt = f"""
    Answer the question using the provided sources.
    Cite each statement with [Source: filename].
    
    Sources:
    {context}
    
    Question: {question}
    """
    
    response = llm.generate(
        prompt,
        response_format=QAResponse
    )
    
    return response

Step 4: Run the System

# Index some documents
documents = [
    Document(content="AgentFlow was founded in 2024...", source="about.md", chunk_id="1"),
    Document(content="To install AgentFlow: pip install...", source="install.md", chunk_id="2"),
]

index_documents(documents)

# Query
result = rag_query("When was AgentFlow founded?")
print(result.answer)
# "AgentFlow was founded in 2024. [Source: about.md]"

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Exercise: Add Citations to an Existing Agent

Your Task

Take a simple Q&A agent and add:

1. Citation support — Every factual statement includes a source
2. "Don't know" handling — When retrieval returns nothing relevant
3. Confidence scoring — Rate answer confidence based on retrieval quality

Template

class CitationAwareAgent:
    def __init__(self, vector_store, llm):
        self.store = vector_store
        self.llm = llm
    
    def query(self, question: str) -> dict:
        # 1. Retrieve relevant documents
        # 2. Check if retrieval is sufficient
        # 3. Generate answer with citations
        # 4. Calculate confidence
        pass

Test Cases

Question	Expected
"When was AgentFlow founded?"	Answer with source citation
"What is the meaning of life?"	"I don't have information about this"
"Tell me about [undocumented topic]"	"I don't have information about this"

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What You Learned

1. Retrieval grounds knowledge — Use it when LLM knowledge is insufficient
2. Citations build trust — Always cite sources for factual claims
3. Retrieval can fail — Have fallback for when retrieval returns nothing
4. Watch for injection — Never blindly trust retrieved content

---

Common Failure Mode

Retrieval without citation

Retrieving context but not citing sources:

# ❌ No citation
prompt = f"Answer based on: {retrieved_context}"

# ✅ With citation
prompt = f"""
Answer based on [Source: {source}].
{retrieved_context}
Cite sources in your response.
"""

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Next Step

Continue to Lesson 5: State, memory, threads, and streaming to build conversation-aware applications.

Or Explore

• Qdrant Memory Tutorial — Vector store setup
• Memory and Store concepts — Memory architecture