Applied AI

Course map · S2 Retrieval and RAG · Episode 2 of 16

Your first RAG system

S2 E2 Explainer · 26 slides · 18 October 2026

  1. Slide 1 of 26, Cover.
  2. Slide 2 of 26, Why it matters.
  3. Slide 3 of 26, Mental model.
  4. Slide 4 of 26, Mental model.
  5. Slide 5 of 26, Ahead of time.
  6. Slide 6 of 26, Ahead of time.
  7. Slide 7 of 26, Ahead of time.
  8. Slide 8 of 26, Ahead of time.
  9. Slide 9 of 26, Live, every question.
  10. Slide 10 of 26, Live, every question.
  11. Slide 11 of 26, Live, every question.
  12. Slide 12 of 26, Live, every question.
  13. Slide 13 of 26, Live, every question.
  14. Slide 14 of 26, Testing only.
  15. Slide 15 of 26, Key terms.
  16. Slide 16 of 26, Finding.
  17. Slide 17 of 26, Finding.
  18. Slide 18 of 26, Finding.
  19. Slide 19 of 26, What else the run showed.
  20. Slide 20 of 26, Where it breaks.
  21. Slide 21 of 26, For engineers.
  22. Slide 22 of 26, Cost.
  23. Slide 23 of 26, For leaders.
  24. Slide 24 of 26, The scoreboard.
  25. Slide 25 of 26, Decision rule.
  26. Slide 26 of 26, Series map.

Lesson notes

A complete RAG system with the simplest choice at every stage, run on all 520 test questions, shows most wrong answers never reached the model.

Decision rule

Build the simplest complete pipeline and measure it before tuning any stage.

Ideas in this lesson

  • Measuring, not quoting
  • Retrieval