Comprehensive logging is a core architectural requirement for production RAG systems. The Blueprint specifies what must be logged across user inputs, retrieval operations, and model outputs — and why this telemetry is essential for security, compliance, and cost management.
Text-based guardrails are insufficient for production RAG systems that accept multimodal inputs. The Blueprint covers the six risk event categories guardrails must address and the three critical integration points: input handling, output sanitisation, and ingestion pipeline screening.
Post-retrieval filtering and re-ranking determine what content reaches the generation model. The Blueprint covers deduplication, inappropriate content filtering, privacy protection, and re-ranking techniques including cross-encoders and ensemble models.
Pre-retrieval filtering and query transformation are the primary defence against adversarial inputs and the primary mechanism for retrieval relevance. The Blueprint covers input validation, entity recognition, query rewriting, and conversation stacking.
Chunking is the most underappreciated determinant of RAG retrieval quality. The Blueprint covers fixed-length, sentence-based, and logical chunking approaches, and how to match strategy to use case.
The data pipeline is the foundation of every RAG system. The Blueprint examines reliable ingestion, data transformation, normalisation, lineage tracking, and provenance controls for regulated enterprise environments.
Vector database selection determines RAG retrieval accuracy, security posture, and scalability ceiling. The Blueprint covers KNN vs ANN trade-offs, distance metrics, authentication requirements, and enterprise readiness.
Model selection for production RAG is a systems engineering decision with legal, ethical, and operational dimensions. The Blueprint examines use case alignment, licensing, quantisation trade-offs, and embedding strategy.
The foundational infrastructure decision for production RAG systems: comparing API-based model access against self-hosted deployments across security, compliance, cost, and operational dimensions.
A comprehensive enterprise blueprint across nine critical decision domains for deploying production-grade RAG systems — from model infrastructure to multimodal guardrails.