Lesson 2 of 8 · Build a RAG Pipeline from Scratch
In this lesson. What you load, how you update, and deletes.
What you will learn
- Load
- Update
- Deletes
Walkthrough
You will plan incremental updates and tombstones. Stale indexes are the silent RAG failure. Freshness is a pipeline feature.
Work through the ideas in order. After each point, pause and connect it to a task you already do — a document, a workflow, or a feature you own. The goal of Build a RAG Pipeline from Scratch is usable skill, not a pile of notes.
If something is unclear, rewrite it in your own words before you continue. Teaching the step back to yourself is the fastest way to see gaps.
Practice
Write the freshness rule for one corpus (how often, who triggers).
Keep the first attempt small. A finished example you can reuse beats a perfect plan you never run.
Check your understanding
- Can you explain the goal of this lesson in one sentence to a teammate?
- Where would you apply “Load” in your own work this week?
- What would you change on a second pass of the practice?
Next. Continue to the following lesson when the practice has a real artifact, even a rough one.