Retrieval Models

Corpus Records

Treat each searchable item as an exact corpus record. 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.

Corpus recordsrowfieldvaluequerytokenscitation,source,recordquerycount3supportcount4supportabstainFalserecord supremacyrank1record supremacymatch3 of 3record supremacyfilterpassrecord supremacyciteUS Const. art. VI cl. 2record supremacysnippet...for constitution source citation supremacy law and judges.record diversityrank3record diversitymatch1 of 3record diversityfilterpassrecord diversitycite28 U.S.C. sec. 1332record diversitysnippetToy corpus record for diversity jurisdiction amount citizenship and statute search.record rule6rank4record rule6match1 of 3record rule6filterpassrecord rule6citeFed. R. Civ. P. 6(a)(1)record rule6snippetToy corpus record for deadline counting calendar day trigger and rule search.record brownrank2record brownmatch2 of 3record brownfilterpassrecord browncite347 U.S. 483record brownsnippet...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

Start with fixed source records

The process rule is record first. Each searchable item carries a source label, citation, jurisdiction, as-of date, source type, and body text before any query runs.

record model=source plus citation plus body\text{record model}=\text{source plus citation plus body}

Example corpus and query

The toy corpus has 4 records. The example query is citation source record, and the first record cites US Const. art. VI cl. 2.

records=4\text{records}=4

The engine recomputes record tokens

The query normalizes to citation, source, record. The first body has 11 normalized tokens, recomputed from the body text.

first body tokens=11\text{first body tokens}=11

Diagram note

The table shows records and recomputed token metadata. A row is a source pointer, not a legal answer.

support rows=4\text{support rows}=4

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.

Corpus recordsrowfieldvaluequerytokenscitation,source,recordquerycount3supportcount4supportabstainFalserecord supremacyrank1record supremacymatch3 of 3record supremacyfilterpassrecord supremacyciteUS Const. art. VI cl. 2record supremacysnippet...for constitution source citation supremacy law and judges.record diversityrank3record diversitymatch1 of 3record diversityfilterpassrecord diversitycite28 U.S.C. sec. 1332record diversitysnippetToy corpus record for diversity jurisdiction amount citizenship and statute search.record rule6rank4record rule6match1 of 3record rule6filterpassrecord rule6citeFed. R. Civ. P. 6(a)(1)record rule6snippetToy corpus record for deadline counting calendar day trigger and rule search.record brownrank2record brownmatch2 of 3record brownfilterpassrecord browncite347 U.S. 483record brownsnippet...corpus record for case citation reporter lookup and provenance search.

Summary

A retrieval book begins with exact corpus rows. Later matching can only point back to these pinned records.

retrieval starts with records\text{retrieval starts with records}