Start With Retrieval Intent
Define a vector-search use case as an information need, success metric, corpus scope, and user-visible failure cost.
A vector-search project starts as a retrieval contract, not an embedding job. Intent Name what the user is trying to accomplish. Lookup asks for one known thing. Exploration asks for adjacent ideas. Troubleshooting asks for likely causes. These intents should not share the same evaluation target. Corpus Decide what counts as evidence. Include source of truth, freshness rules, access rules, and document types that should be excluded. If the corpus is muddy, the nearest neighbors will be muddy too. Metric Choose the measure that matches the work. Support triage often needs precision in the first few results. Legal or safety…
Sign up free — one personalized lesson every day, matched to your role and goals.
Already have an account? Sign in