RAG freshness and reindexing
Keeping retrieval indexes up to date when docs change—schedules, incremental updates, and tombstones for deletes.
What it is
Keeping retrieval indexes up to date when docs change—schedules, incremental updates, and tombstones for deletes.
Why it matters
Stale RAG confidently cites yesterday’s policy. Freshness is a product requirement.
How it works (plain)
Detect changes → re-chunk/embed → upsert → delete removed docs → smoke-test golden queries → monitor lag SLOs.
Try it
Define a freshness SLO for your KB (e.g., updates visible within 24h).
Myths
- ⚠️ Myth: Embed once at launch is fine forever.
- ✓ Reality: Docs drift; so must indexes.
Sources
- Course 09 RAG; Course 17 MLOps monitoring
- https://www.ainerdnetwork.com/learn/rag-retrieval-augmented-generation ↗