---
id: ai-rag-corpus
area: ai
level: 3
title: "Artefact — Retrieval corpus and query graph"
claim: "Retrieval is filtered by metadata before it searches — a tagged corpus · a four-node LangGraph query graph · and a deliberate replacement of ChromaDB with Qdrant."
confidence: running
period: "2020–"
tech: [Qdrant, LangGraph, Prefect, n8n, ChromaDB]
metrics: [{label: "retrieval stores used over time", value: 2}]
artefacts: []
public: true
last_verified: 2026-10-26
tags: [ai, retrieval, rag, artefact]
---

Ingest and index are live; the diagram below shows both sides, and the query path is labelled as the design it is until Phase 5 ships.

## What the artefact is

The ingest and query path: documents are chunked and tagged with metadata at ingest, stored in Qdrant, and filtered on that metadata before a similarity search runs. The LangGraph graph has four nodes; the fourth decides whether the answer can be given from what was retrieved.

## What it proves

Retrieval designed around payload filtering and a hard stop, plus the reasoning for moving off ChromaDB — heavier footprint and weaker filtering — recorded as a decision rather than a migration.

## The pipeline

![Two lanes. Ingest reads the content tree and estate notes, excludes secrets, chunks and tags every block, then embeds through the model gateway and upserts into the resume_corpus and resume_graph collections in Qdrant. The query lane runs classify, route, retrieve, compose and verify, and only composes from retrieved context.](../../assets/diagrams/rag-pipeline.svg)

The separating line is the design decision: metadata is written at ingest, so the query can filter by area, level and source before it pays for a similarity search. The fourth node is the hard stop — an answer that cannot be supported by what was retrieved is refused rather than improvised.

## When it is delivered

Ingest is delivered and measured (this site's own corpus, Phase 4). The query path is delivered in Phase 5; the streaming console is the visitor-facing half of it.