Lesson 1 of 8 · Retrieval Basics: Make AI Use Your Own Documents
In this lesson. The model does not have your docs unless you fetch them.
What you will learn
- Hallucination as missing context
- Retrieve then generate
- What RAG is not
Walkthrough
You will see hallucinations as a missing-retrieval problem. RAG is: find relevant chunks, then generate with those chunks in the prompt. This lesson is the picture on the whiteboard.
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 Retrieval Basics: Make AI Use Your Own Documents 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
Explain RAG in four sentences to a non-engineer and draw the boxes.
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 “Hallucination as missing context” 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.