The outcome

Learn the interaction loop using a small task with a clear outcome.

LlamaIndex is a open-source data framework for retrieval-augmented generation and agent workflows. Loading and indexing private data, building source-grounded retrieval applications, composing workflows and agents, and evaluating retrieval and response quality. This guide narrows that broad capability into one repeatable outcome, with checkpoints that keep the source material and your judgment in the loop.

Before you begin

Set the boundary before the tool starts.

Choose one real task, identify who will use the result, and decide what evidence or test will make the result acceptable. Gather only the source material needed for that task. If the work contains confidential, personal, regulated, or client-owned information, confirm that the platform and account are approved before sharing it.

Troiana principle

AI should make the work easier to inspect. If the workflow removes the source, the owner, or the review step, redesign the workflow.

Step by step

A workflow you can repeat.

  1. 01

    Define a small approved document corpus, access rules, expected questions, and a benchmark with expected source IDs.

  2. 02

    Load documents with stable metadata, choose chunking and embeddings, and build a persistent index.

  3. 03

    Query the index and inspect retrieved nodes and citations before judging the generated answer.

  4. 04

    Measure retrieval relevance and response faithfulness, then version the corpus and settings before iteration.

Working standard

What good use looks like.

  • State the outcome before the background.
  • Provide the real source material.
  • Review the result before expanding the task.

RAG can retrieve irrelevant, stale, private, or malicious content and still produce fluent answers. Enforce access during retrieval, sanitize sources, preserve citations, separate retrieval and response evaluation, and protect traces and model credentials.

Official references

Check the current product documentation.

Features, plan limits, availability, and data controls change. These official pages are the starting points used for this collection.