Metadata Usage

Metadata is structured information attached to each chunk, such as:

• Title: The section or page title.

• Document name: Source identifier.

• Timestamp: When the content was written.

• Tags: Category, topic, or relevance labels.

• Chunk index: Position of the chunk in the document.

Why Metadata Matters:

1. Improved filtering

   Enables scoped searches (e.g., “search only in policy documents”).

2. Better reranking

   Use metadata features to boost certain types of results.

3. Transparency

   Makes it easier to display source context in the output (e.g., citations).

4. Routing

   Can help guide queries to specialized retrievers (e.g., legal vs. medical corpora).

Summary

This chapter covered foundational techniques to optimize retrieval in RAG systems:

• Chunking: How you split your data matters. Sliding windows and semantic chunking improve quality.

• Embedding: Choose the right model for your use case; accuracy vs. speed trade-off.

• Metadata: Use it for better control, filtering, and relevance.