Retrieval

Definition

Selecting relevant material from an identified corpus before generation or decision support.

Practical test

Does the workflow select relevant, authorized, and current material from a defined corpus before generation?

Example

Searching the approved policy index with document-level permissions is retrieval; relying on model memory is not.

What to record

For retrieval to be operational rather than a reassuring label, record the query, corpus, access decision, selected passages, versions, dates, and missing evidence. If those facts cannot be observed or tested, do not treat the term itself as evidence that the workflow is safe.