Retrieval Models

Cite or Abstain

A no-support retrieval result should abstain or mark unknown. Honesty note: simplified toy corpus; jurisdictions vary; the pinned first step states the as-of date; not legal advice; retrieval points to sources and does not answer the legal question.

Structured Visual

Jurisdiction: US; as of 2026-06-24; not legal advice; Code encodes a stated structural model, not the law itself. RENDER STRUCTURE · REFUSE INTERPRETATION · CITE · ABSTAIN · HAND-OFF.

RENDER STRUCTURE · REFUSE INTERPRETATION · CITE · ABSTAIN · HAND-OFF: render structure, refuse interpretation, cite provenance, abstain when unsupported, and hand off to human review.

Cite or abstainrowfieldvaluequerytokenspatent,venuequerycount2supportcount0supportabstainTruerecord supremacyrank-record supremacymatch0 of 2record supremacyfilterpassrecord supremacyciteUS Const. art. VI cl. 2record supremacysnippetToy corpus record for constitution source citation supremacy law and judges.record diversityrank-record diversitymatch0 of 2record diversityfilterpassrecord diversitycite28 U.S.C. sec. 1332record diversitysnippetToy corpus record for diversity jurisdiction amount citizenship and statute search.record rule6rank-record rule6match0 of 2record rule6filterpassrecord rule6citeFed. R. Civ. P. 6(a)(1)record rule6snippetToy corpus record for deadline counting calendar day trigger and rule search.record brownrank-record brownmatch0 of 2record brownfilterpassrecord browncite347 U.S. 483record brownsnippetToy corpus record for case citation reporter lookup and provenance search.
highlighted = computed this step

Retrieval honesty note

Honesty note: simplified toy corpus; jurisdictions vary; as of June 24, 2026; not legal advice; retrieval points to sources and does not answer the legal question.

toy corpus as of June24,2026\text{toy corpus as of }June 24, 2026

Require cited support

The stated process is cite or abstain. If the toy corpus has no supporting record, the model marks an abstention path.

no support→abstain\text{no support}\to\text{abstain}

Example unsupported query

The example query is patent venue. The corpus records do not contain matching support for that query.

support rows=0\text{support rows}=0

The model refuses the unsupported path

When the corpus has 0 supporting rows, the model marks abstain or unknown instead of generating an unsupported response.

support rows=0,abstain flag=1\text{support rows}=0,\quad \text{abstain flag}=1

Diagram note

The diagram shows every corpus row with zero support for the query, then displays the abstain flag.

zero support is visible\text{zero support is visible}

Jurisdiction: US; as of 2026-06-24; not legal advice; Code encodes a stated structural model, not the law itself. RENDER STRUCTURE · REFUSE INTERPRETATION · CITE · ABSTAIN · HAND-OFF.

RENDER STRUCTURE · REFUSE INTERPRETATION · CITE · ABSTAIN · HAND-OFF: render structure, refuse interpretation, cite provenance, abstain when unsupported, and hand off to human review.

Cite or abstainrowfieldvaluequerytokenspatent,venuequerycount2supportcount0supportabstainTruerecord supremacyrank-record supremacymatch0 of 2record supremacyfilterpassrecord supremacyciteUS Const. art. VI cl. 2record supremacysnippetToy corpus record for constitution source citation supremacy law and judges.record diversityrank-record diversitymatch0 of 2record diversityfilterpassrecord diversitycite28 U.S.C. sec. 1332record diversitysnippetToy corpus record for diversity jurisdiction amount citizenship and statute search.record rule6rank-record rule6match0 of 2record rule6filterpassrecord rule6citeFed. R. Civ. P. 6(a)(1)record rule6snippetToy corpus record for deadline counting calendar day trigger and rule search.record brownrank-record brownmatch0 of 2record brownfilterpassrecord browncite347 U.S. 483record brownsnippetToy corpus record for case citation reporter lookup and provenance search.

Summary

The safe retrieval behavior is to show the lack of support and hand off instead of inventing a cited answer.

abstain protects provenance\text{abstain protects provenance}