Grounding and retrieval

The practical distinction

Grounding connects an answer to identifiable evidence; retrieval selects evidence before generation. Retrieval chooses candidate evidence; grounding requires the answer to stay faithful to that evidence. Good retrieval can still produce an unsupported answer, and polished citations can still point to irrelevant passages.

Worked example

A policy assistant retrieves the current leave policy, shows the effective date and exact passage, and abstains when an exception is not covered. Returning a plausible answer with only a document title is not sufficient grounding.

Apply it

Use retrieval only when the corpus and freshness requirements are explicit.

1. Define the corpus, access rules, authority order, and freshness window.
2. Retrieve passages before generation and preserve source identity and version.
3. Verify each material answer claim against the cited passage, not merely the document.

Evidence to collect

• Measure whether the required evidence was retrieved at all.
• Test citation entailment, conflicting sources, superseded documents, and access leakage.
• Confirm that insufficient evidence produces abstention or escalation.

Common mistake

Calling a workflow grounded because it displays links, even when the links do not directly support the generated claims.

Scope limit

This guidance on grounding and retrieval helps define a task and its review evidence. It does not certify a model, source, reviewer, environment, legal position, or residual-risk level.