RAG tool

Introduced 2.13

The RAGTool performs retrieval-augmented generation (RAG). For more information about RAG, see Conversational search.

RAG calls a large language model (LLM) and supplements its knowledge by providing relevant OpenSearch documents along with the user question. To retrieve relevant documents from an OpenSearch index, you’ll need a text embedding model that facilitates vector search.

The RAG tool supports the following search methods:

• Neural search: Dense vector retrieval, which uses a text embedding model.
• Neural sparse search: Sparse vector retrieval, which uses a sparse encoding model.

Before you start

To register and deploy a text embedding model and an LLM and ingest data into an index, perform Steps 1–5 of the Agents and tools tutorial.

The following example uses neural search. To configure neural sparse search and deploy a sparse encoding model, see Neural sparse search.

Step 1: Register a flow agent that will run the RAGTool

A flow agent runs a sequence of tools in order and returns the last tool’s output. To create a flow agent, send the following request, providing the text embedding model ID in the embedding_model_id parameter and the LLM model ID in the inference_model_id parameter:

POST /_plugins/_ml/agents/_register
{
  "name": "Test_Agent_For_RagTool",
  "type": "flow",
  "description": "this is a test flow agent",
  "tools": [
  {
    "type": "RAGTool",
    "description": "A description of the tool",
    "parameters": {
      "embedding_model_id": "Hv_PY40Bk4MTqircAVmm",
      "inference_model_id": "SNzSY40B_1JGmyB0WbfI",
      "index": "my_test_data",
      "embedding_field": "embedding",
      "query_type": "neural",
      "source_field": [
        "text"
      ],
      "input": "${parameters.question}",
      "prompt": "\n\nHuman:You are a professional data analyst. You will always answer question based on the given context first. If the answer is not directly shown in the context, you will analyze the data and find the answer. If you don't know the answer, just say don't know. \n\n Context:\n${parameters.output_field}\n\nHuman:${parameters.question}\n\nAssistant:"
    }
  }
]
}

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For parameter descriptions, see Register parameters.

OpenSearch responds with an agent ID:

{
  "agent_id": "9X7xWI0Bpc3sThaJdY9i"
}

To create a conversational agent containing a RAGTool, see Conversational agents.

Step 2: Run the agent

Before you run the agent, make sure that you add the sample OpenSearch Dashboards Sample web logs dataset. To learn more, see Adding sample data.

Then, run the agent by sending the following request:

POST /_plugins/_ml/agents/9X7xWI0Bpc3sThaJdY9i/_execute
{
  "parameters": {
    "question": "what's the population increase of Seattle from 2021 to 2023"
  }
}

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OpenSearch performs vector search and returns the relevant documents:

{
  "inference_results": [
    {
      "output": [
        {
          "name": "response",
          "result": """{"_index":"my_test_data","_source":{"text":"Chart and table of population level and growth rate for the Seattle metro area from 1950 to 2023. United Nations population projections are also included through the year 2035.\\n
          The current metro area population of Seattle in 2023 is 3,519,000, a 0.86% increase from 2022.\\n
          The metro area population of Seattle in 2022 was 3,489,000, a 0.81% increase from 2021.\\n
          The metro area population of Seattle in 2021 was 3,461,000, a 0.82% increase from 2020.\\n
          The metro area population of Seattle in 2020 was 3,433,000, a 0.79% increase from 2019."},"_id":"6","_score":0.8173238}
        {"_index":"my_test_data","_source":{"text":"Chart and table of population level and growth rate for the New York City metro area from 1950 to 2023. United Nations population projections are also included through the year 2035.\\n
        The current metro area population of New York City in 2023 is 18,937,000, a 0.37% increase from 2022.\\n
        The metro area population of New York City in 2022 was 18,867,000, a 0.23% increase from 2021.\\n
        The metro area population of New York City in 2021 was 18,823,000, a 0.1% increase from 2020.\\n
        The metro area population of New York City in 2020 was 18,804,000, a 0.01% decline from 2019."},"_id":"2","_score":0.6641471}
        """
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Register parameters

The following table lists all tool parameters that are available when registering an agent.

Execute parameters

The following table lists all tool parameters that are available when running the agent.