RAG Architecture: Components, Timing & Design Patterns › Data Flow Visualization

Michael BrenndoerferJanuary 21, 20262 min read
Language AI HandbookAll chapters
Part 44 of 67Retrieval-Augmented Generation
Chapter 333RAG Architecture: Components, Timing & Design Patterns › Data Flow Visualization
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The following diagram illustrates how data flows through a RAG system:

Out[19]:
Visualization
Flowchart showing query entering retriever, documents being retrieved, context combined with query, and generator creating response.
Data flow within a standard RAG pipeline. A user query triggers document retrieval from an indexed knowledge base, giving the necessary context for the language model generator to synthesize a grounded response. Numbers indicate the sequential steps: query to retriever (1), documents from knowledge base (2), query plus context to generator (3), and final response (4).

The numbers indicate the sequence: (1) the query goes to the retriever, (2) relevant documents return from the knowledge base, (3) the query and retrieved context combine into a prompt, and (4) the generator produces the final response.