RAG Evolution: Comparing Self, Corrective, and Adaptive Architectures
goyalshaliniuk · x · 2026-08-24
A breakdown of the three generations of Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG):
- Self RAG: The foundation. Retrieves documents, grades relevance, and generates answers based on available data. Risks partial answers or hallucinations if data is missing.
- Corrective RAG: Adds correction. When retrieved data is irrelevant or insufficient, the system performs an additional web search to fetch better context, reducing hallucinations.
- Adaptive RAG: The most advanced. Uses a router to dynamically choose between internal retrievers and web searches, continuously evaluating relevance and adapting behavior for complex queries.
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