Quest 08 · Developers
The Guild Library
RAG: making an AI find documents and answer from them
- Time
- 7 min
- Max XP
- 100
- Skill earned
- RAG: answering from documents
1 / 50 XP
The librarian's request
Client
I am the guild librarian. Members ask me about the rules every day, but the rulebook is 300 pages, so even I take ages to find things.
Client
It would be wonderful if Ari could read the rulebook and answer for me. The rules change every few months.
Ari
I have never learned the guild rulebook. As in request 3, you would have to hand me the material. But if I am handed 300 pages every time…
Summary
What this request teaches
How do you get an AI to answer from a 300-page rulebook? Through the guild library's request, learn the structure of RAG, which cuts documents into pieces and finds the right ones, and where to look first when an answer is wrong.
Show the key points (best read after finishing the request)
- RAG stores documents cut into pieces, finds only the pieces related to a question, and hands them to the AI with the question.
- Pieces are turned into embeddings (lists of numbers that stand for meaning) and stored in a vector database, and pieces close in meaning are found.
- For facts that change often or answers that must cite a source, RAG fits better than fine-tuning.
- Instructing "Answer only from these documents and cite the source" lets a person check the original.
- When an answer is wrong, look at finding and answering separately. You can only find the cause if you record the pieces found for each question.
- When you change documents, delete the old pieces or tag them with information such as an effective date.
Try it yourself
Pick a document you have (a manual, rules, meeting notes), remove personal details, and paste it into an AI with the request below. It is a small RAG done by hand.
Answer my question using only the document below. - Quote the part your answer is based on, word for word. - If the document has no basis for an answer, reply only "Not in the document". Question: [question] Document: [paste the document here]