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Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG)
RAG is a technique that retrieves relevant information from your own sources and gives it to a language model to ground its answer.
Written by Reflective Data experts · updated Oct 5, 2026
Instead of relying on what the model memorised, the system searches your documents or data first and passes the best matches along with the question. Answers become more accurate, current and traceable to sources.
The quality of retrieval, chunking and permissions is usually what decides whether a RAG system works well.
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