3 posts
Do you really need a reranker? When reranking adds value and when it is unnecessary in a RAG retrieval pipeline, cross-encoders, benchmarking, and a decision guide.
What is a reranker? A reranker is a model that re-orders the candidate documents retrieved in the first stage of a search or RAG system according to their true relevance to the query. This guide: a clear definition, why it is needed, how it works, the cross-encoder architecture, two-stage retrieval, its place in the RAG pipeline, retrieval quality, and FAQs.
If your RAG talks nonsense, the problem is usually retrieval, not generation. How to lift quality with BM25 + dense hybrid search, RRF, and cross-encoder reranking.