Retrieval Footprint

What a document costs the window

Library › Context Problems

1. The Context Window

2. Window Occupancy

3. Growth per Turn

4. Remaining Space

5. Turn Budget

6. Retrieval Footprint

7. Retrieval per Turn

8. Search Rounds

9. Window Sizing

10. Truncation

11. Compaction

12. The Compaction Bill

13. Compacted Retrieval

14. The Compaction Threshold

15. Verbatim Tail

16. Stateless API

17. Retrieval Cost

18. Context Tax

19. Quadratic Cost

20. Cost Forecast

Retrieval does not add a document to the conversation, it adds the document to the window. Whatever comes back from the store competes for the same cells as the system prompt, the question, and the answer. A retrieved document is split into fixed chunks, and every chunk takes a cell whether the model needs it or not, so a generous retrieval is quietly the largest thing in the window. [[rag-chunks-in-the-budget]] asks the next question: what happens when the chunks do not fit.

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⬇ Retrieval Footprint worksheet (2 pages)

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Next:
7. Retrieval per Turn