ModelRefs / Contextual Retrieval — AI Glossary
Contextual Retrieval — AI Glossary
An Anthropic-developed RAG enhancement that prepends chunk-specific context (generated by an LLM) before embedding each chunk.
Overview
Contextual retrieval significantly reduces retrieval failures by adding document context that would otherwise be lost when chunks are split. Combined with hybrid search and reranking, it reduces top-20 retrieval failures by ~70% vs naive RAG.
Reference details
| Topic | rag |
|---|---|
| Last reviewed | 2026-06-24 |
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Frequently asked questions
What is Contextual Retrieval?
An Anthropic-developed RAG enhancement that prepends chunk-specific context (generated by an LLM) before embedding each chunk.
What concepts are related to Contextual Retrieval?
Closely related concepts include rag, chunking, embedding, hybrid search.