What Is Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG)? A Practical Breakdown
2025-11-16
RAG is everywhere in modern AI systems.
But most explanations are so abstract they're useless.
Here’s the simple version:
🧠 1. LLMs are smart, but forget everything
They don’t know:
- your documents
- your code
- your data
- your knowledge base
RAG fixes this.
🔍 2. Retrieval finds the relevant information
Before the LLM answers, the system:
- searches a vector database
- finds relevant chunks
- injects them into the prompt
This gives the LLM facts.
🧩 3. Augmentation = Adding context
RAG expands the model’s world.
Instead of:
“Write a summary.”
You give:
“Write a summary using these documents.”
Now the model stops hallucinating.
📚 4. RAG powers:
- document chat
- FAQ bots
- policy compliance systems
- knowledge assistants
- internal team tools
Even GhostFrog could eventually use RAG for classified product notes.
🚀 5. Why RAG matters
A chatbot is dumb.
A chatbot with your documents is useful.