Grounded Answer Sign-Off (Delivery)
A checklist with 8 steps: Freeze the retrieval configuration used for the client build.
By InnovaAI ResearchPublished
What are the steps?
Grounded Answer Sign-Off (Delivery)
- 01
Freeze the retrieval configuration used for the client build
Record the index version, chunking parameters, connector sync state, and embedding model in the delivery ticket so the signed-off answer set can be reproduced after any provider change.
- 02
Assemble a 50-question golden set from the client's real support and sales queries
Pull verbatims from the last 90 days of client tickets or chat logs rather than inventing prompts; a set the client recognizes makes the sign-off conversation concrete.
- 03
Run every golden question and capture the answer plus the cited passage
Store the returned source snippet alongside each answer. Verification layers such as CiteLLM exist precisely because a plausible answer with no highlighted passage is unverifiable.
- 04
Score each answer on groundedness, completeness, and citation accuracy
Three-point scale per dimension is enough. Flag any answer where the cited passage does not actually support the claim, since that failure mode survives casual client review.
- 05
Trace every miss back to ingestion or retrieval, not the prompt
Agnos-style document cleaning exists because stripped or malformed source content degrades output before the model is ever involved; check the parsed text before rewriting prompts.
- 06
Re-run the golden set against a second retrieval provider before the client sees results
Swapping the retrieval engine on the same index takes hours, not weeks, and the delta tells you whether a weak score is your pipeline or the vendor's ranking.
- 07
Log token and per-query cost against the retainer's AI line item
Forrester's tokenomics warning is blunt: agentic workflows billed by consumption can erase margin if nobody audits cost at design time. Attach a per-answer cost figure to the sign-off.
- 08
Ship the scored golden set to the client as the delivery acceptance artifact
A table of 50 questions with pass or fail and linked source passages converts an abstract accuracy claim into something a procurement reviewer can sign.