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A tutorial on building local agent

using LangGraph, LLaMA3 and
Elasticsearch vector store
from scratch
In this tutorial we are going to see how we can create a reliable agent using LangGraph,
LLaMA3 and Elasticsearch Vector Store from scratch. We will be combining ideas from 3
Advanced RAG papers:
Adaptive RAG for Routing: Which directs questions to a vector store or web search
based on the content
Corrective RAG for Fallback: Using this we will introduce a Fallback retrival where if a
question isn't relevant to the vector store, we will use a web-search instead.
Self RAG for Self Correction: Additonally, we will add self-correction to check
generations for hallucinations and relevance, and if they're not suitable, we'll fallback to
web search again.
Hence what we are aiming to build is a complex RAG flow and demonstrate its reliability and
local execution on our system.
Background information
What is an LLM Agent?
An LLM-powered agent can be described as a system that leverages a Large Language
Model (LLM) to reason through problems, devise plans to solve them, and execute these
plans using a set of tools.
In essence, these agents possess complex reasoning abilities, memory, and the means to
carry out tasks.
Building agents with an LLM as the core controller is an exciting concept. Several proof-of-
concept demonstrations, such as AutoGPT, GPT-Engineer, and BabyAGI, serve as inspiring
examples. The potential of LLMs extends beyond generating well-written text, stories,
essays, and programs; they can be framed as powerful general problem solvers.

Agent System Overview

In an LLM-powered autonomous agent system, the LLM functions as the agent’s brain,
complemented by several key components:

Planning
 Subgoal and decomposition: The agent breaks down large tasks into smaller,
manageable subgoals, enabling efficient handling of complex tasks.
Reflection and refinement: The agent engages in self-criticism and self-reflection over
past actions, learns from mistakes, and refines future steps, thereby improving the
quality of final results.

Memory
Short-term memory: Serves as a dynamic repository of the agent's current actions
and thoughts, akin to its "train of thought," as it endeavors to respond to a user's query
in real-time. It allows the agent to maintain a contextual understanding of the ongoing
interaction, enabling seamless and coherent communication.
Long-term memory: Acts as a comprehensive logbook, chronicling the agent's
interactions with users over an extended period, spanning weeks or even months. It
captures the history of conversations, preserving valuable context and insights gleaned
from past exchanges. This repository of accumulated knowledge enhances the agent's
ability to provide personalized and informed responses, drawing upon past experiences
to enrich its interactions with users.
Hybrid memory: It combines the advantages of both STM and LTM to enhance the
agent's cognitive abilities. STM ensures that the agent can quickly access and
manipulate recent data, maintaining context within a conversation or task. LTM
expands the agent's knowledge base by storing past interactions, learned patterns,
and domain-specific information, enabling it to provide more informed responses and
make better decisions over time.

Tool Use
In the context of LLM (Large Language Model) agents, tools refer to external resources,
services, or APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) that the agent can utilize to perform
specific tasks or enhance its capabilities. These tools serve as supplementary components
that extend the functionality of the LLM agent beyond its inherent language generation
capabilities.
Tools could also include databases, knowledge bases, and external models.
As an illustration, agents can employ a RAG pipeline for producing contextually relevant
responses, a code interpreter for addressing programming challenges, an API for
conducting internet searches, or even utilize straightforward API services such as those for
weather updates or instant messaging applications.

Types of LLM Agents and Use Cases

Conversational Agents: Engage users in natural language dialogues to provide
information, answer questions, and assist with tasks. They utilize LLMs to generate
human-like responses.
Task-Oriented Agents: Focus on completing specific tasks or objectives by
understanding user needs and executing relevant actions. Examples include virtual
assistants and automation tools.
Creative Agents: Generate original content such as artwork, music, or writing. They
use LLMs to understand human preferences and artistic styles, producing content that
appeals to audiences.
Collaborative Agents: Work with humans to achieve shared goals by facilitating
communication and cooperation. LLMs help these agents assist in decision-making,
report generation, and providing insights.
Approach: ReAct/Langchain Agent vs
LangGraph ?
Now, let's consider using an agent to build a corrective RAG (Retrieval-Augmented
Generation) system, represented by that middle blue component that can bee seen in the
diagram above. When people think about agents, they often mention "ReAct"—a popular
framework for building agents (not to be confused with the React.js framework). The typical
flow in a ReAct agent looks like this:
The LLM (Language Learning Model) plans by selecting an action, observing the result,
reflecting on it, and then choosing the next action. ReAct agents usually leverage
memories, such as chat history or a vector store, and can utilize various tools. If we
were to implement this flow as a ReAct agent, it would look something like this:

The agent would receive a question and perform an action, such as using its vector
store to retrieve relevant documents.
 It would then observe the retrieved documents and decide to grade them. The agent
would go back to its action phase and select the grading tool.
This process would repeat in a loop, following a defined trajectory until the task is
complete.
This is how ReAct-based agents typically function.
However, this approach can be quite complex and involve a lot of decision-making. Instead,
we’ll use a different method to implement this system. Rather than having the agent make
decisions at every step in the loop, we’ll define a "control flow" in advance. As engineers,
we can lay out the exact sequence of steps we want our agent to follow each time it runs,
effectively taking the planning responsibility away from the LLM. This predefined control
flow allows the LLM to focus on specific tasks within each step.
In terms of memory, we can use what’s called a "graph state" to persist information across
the control flow, making it relevant to the RAG process (e.g., documents and questions). For
tool usage, each graph node can utilize a different tool: the Vectorstore Retrieval node
(depicted in grey) will use a retriever tool, the Grade Documents node (depicted in blue) will
use a grading tool, and the Web Search node (depicted in red) will use a web search tool:
This method simplifies decision-making for the LLM, making the system more reliable,
especially when using smaller LLMs.

Prerequisites
Before diving into the code, we need to set up the necessary tools:
1. Elasticsearch: In this tutorial, we’ll use Elasticsearch as our data store because it offers
more than just a vector database for a superior search experience. Elasticsearch
provides a complete vector database, multiple retrieval methods (text, sparse and
dense vector, hybrid), and the flexibility to choose your machine learning model
architectures. There’s a reason it’s the world’s most downloaded database! To follow
along, you’ll need to deploy an Elasticsearch Cluster, which can be done in under 3
minutes as part of our 14-day free trial (no credit card required). Get started by clicking
here.
2. Ollama: Ollama is a platform that simplifies local development with open-source large
language models (LLMs). It packages everything you need to run an LLM—model
weights and configurations—into a single Modelfile, similar to how Docker works for
containers. You can download Ollama for your machine by clicking here.
After installation, verify it by running the following command:
% ollama --version
ollama version is 0.3.4

Next, install the llama3 model, which will serve as our local LLM for this tutorial:
% ollama pull llama3
 Just one small thing here to note is that the llama3 comes with a particular prompt
format, that one needs to pay attention to.
3. Tavily Search: Tavily's Search API is a specialized search engine designed for AI agents
(LLMs), providing real-time, accurate, and factual results with impressive speed. To use
this API in your tutorial, you'll need to sign up on the Tavily platform and obtain an API
key. The good news is that this powerful tool is free to use. You can get started by
clicking here.
Great!! So now that your environment is ready, we can move on to the fun part—writing our
Python code!

Python Code
1. Install Required Packages: To begin, install all the necessary packages by running the
following command:
%pip install langchain-nomic langchain_community tiktoken langchainhu

2. Set Up the Local LLM and the Tavily Search API: After the installation is complete, set
the variable local_llm to "llama3" . This will define the local LLM you’ll be using in
this tutorial. Feel free to change this parameter later if you want to experiment with
other local LLMs on your system, and also define the Tavily Search API key obtained in
the Prerequisites in your environment variable like below:
import os

os.environ["TAVILY_API_KEY"] = "xxx"

# LLM
 local_llm = "llama3"

1. Indexing
First we will need to load, process, and index our targetted data into our Vector Store. In this
tutorial we will be indexing documents from these respective Blog posts:
"https://lilianweng.github.io/posts/2023-06-23-agent/",
"https://lilianweng.github.io/posts/2023-03-15-prompt-engineering/",
"https://lilianweng.github.io/posts/2023-10-25-adv-attack-llm/",
Into our vector store, which will then add as a data source for our RAG implementation, as
the index is the key component of our RAG flow without which we won't be able to retrive
the documents.
# Index

from langchain_community.document_loaders import WebBaseLoader

from langchain_nomic.embeddings import NomicEmbeddings
from langchain_elasticsearch import ElasticsearchStore
from langchain_text_splitters import RecursiveCharacterTextSplitter

urls = [
"https://lilianweng.github.io/posts/2023-06-23-agent/",
"https://lilianweng.github.io/posts/2023-03-15-prompt-engineering/",
"https://lilianweng.github.io/posts/2023-10-25-adv-attack-llm/",
]

docs = [WebBaseLoader(url).load() for url in urls]

docs_list = [item for sublist in docs for item in sublist]

text_splitter = RecursiveCharacterTextSplitter.from_tiktoken_encoder(
chunk_size=250, chunk_overlap=0
 )
doc_splits = text_splitter.split_documents(docs_list)
documents=doc_splits

embeddings=NomicEmbeddings(model="nomic-embed-text-v1.5", inference_mode=

db = ElasticsearchStore.from_documents(
documents,
embeddings,
es_url="https://pratikrana23.es.us-central1.gcp.cloud.es.io",
es_user="elastic",
es_password="9Y9Xwz0J65gPCbJeUoSPdzHO",
index_name="rag-elastic",
)
retriever = db.as_retriever()

Code Description:
A list of URLs is defined, pointing to three different blog posts on Lilian Weng's website.
urls = [
"https://lilianweng.github.io/posts/2023-06-23-agent/",
"https://lilianweng.github.io/posts/2023-03-15-prompt-engineering
"https://lilianweng.github.io/posts/2023-10-25-adv-attack-llm/",
]

The content from each URL is loaded using WebBaseLoader , and the result is stored in
the docs list.
docs = [WebBaseLoader(url).load() for url in urls]

The loaded documents are stored as a list of lists (each containing one or more
documents). These lists are flattened into a single list using a list comprehension.
 docs_list = [item for sublist in docs for item in sublist]

The RecursiveCharacterTextSplitter is initialized with a specific chunk size (250

characters) and no overlap. This is used to split the documents into smaller chunks.
text_splitter = RecursiveCharacterTextSplitter.from_tiktoken_encoder(
chunk_size=250, chunk_overlap=0
)
doc_splits = text_splitter.split_documents(docs_list)

The split chunks are stored in the documents variable.

An instance of NomicEmbeddings is created to generate embeddings for the document
chunks. The model used is specified as "nomic-embed-text-v1.5" , and inference is
done locally.
embeddings=NomicEmbeddings(model="nomic-embed-text-v1.5", inference_m

The documents, along with their embeddings, are stored in an Elasticsearch database.
The connection details (URL, username, password) and the index name are provided.
db = ElasticsearchStore.from_documents(
documents,
embeddings,
es_url="url",
es_user="username",
es_password="password",
index_name="rag-elastic",
)

Finally, a retriever object is created from the Elasticsearch database, which can be used
to query and retrieve documents based on their embeddings.
 retriever = db.as_retriever()

2. Retrieval Grader
Once we index our respective documents into the data store will need to create a grader
that evaluates the relevance of our retrieved document to a given user question. Now this is
where llama3 comes in, I set my local_llm to llama3 and llama has "json" mode
which confirm the output from LLM is also json, so my prompt basically says grade a
document and return a json with score yes / no
# Retrieval Grader

from langchain_community.chat_models import ChatOllama

from langchain_core.output_parsers import JsonOutputParser
from langchain_core.prompts import PromptTemplate

# LLM
llm = ChatOllama(model=local_llm, format="json", temperature=0)

prompt = PromptTemplate(
template="""<|begin_of_text|><|start_header_id|>system<|end_header_id
of a retrieved document to a user question. If the document contains
grade it as relevant. It does not need to be a stringent test. The go
Give a binary score 'yes' or 'no' score to indicate whether the docum
Provide the binary score as a JSON with a single key 'score' and no p
<|eot_id|><|start_header_id|>user<|end_header_id|>
Here is the retrieved document: \n\n {document} \n\n
Here is the user question: {question} \n <|eot_id|><|start_header_id
""",
input_variables=["question", "document"],
)

retrieval_grader = prompt | llm | JsonOutputParser()

question = "agent memory"
 docs = retriever.invoke(question)
doc_txt = docs[1].page_content
print(retrieval_grader.invoke({"question": question, "document": doc_txt

Code Description:
LLM Initialization: The ChatOllama model is instantiated with a specific configuration.
The model is set to output responses in JSON format with a temperature of 0, meaning
the output is deterministic (no randomness).
llm = ChatOllama(model=local_llm, format="json", temperature=0)

Prompt Template:
A PromptTemplate is defined, which sets up the instructions that will be sent to
the LLM. This prompt instructs the LLM to act as a grader that assesses whether a
retrieved document is relevant to a user’s question.
The grader’s task is simple: if the document contains keywords related to the user
question, it should return a binary score ( yes or no ) indicating relevance.
The response is expected in a JSON format with a single key score .
prompt = PromptTemplate(
template="""<|begin_of_text|><|start_header_id|>system<|end_heade
of a retrieved document to a user question. If the document conta
grade it as relevant. It does not need to be a stringent test. Th
Give a binary score 'yes' or 'no' score to indicate whether the d
Provide the binary score as a JSON with a single key 'score' and
<|eot_id|><|start_header_id|>user<|end_header_id|>
Here is the retrieved document: \n\n {document} \n\n
Here is the user question: {question} \n <|eot_id|><|start_header
""",
input_variables=["question", "document"],
)
 Retrieval Grader Pipeline: The retrieval_grader is created by chaining the prompt ,
llm , and JsonOutputParser together. This forms a pipeline where the user’s
question and the document are first formatted by the PromptTemplate , then
processed by the LLM, and finally, the output is parsed by JsonOutputParser .
retrieval_grader = prompt | llm | JsonOutputParser()

Example Usage:
A sample question ("agent memory") is defined.
The retriever.invoke(question) method is used to fetch documents related to
the question.
The content of the second retrieved document ( docs[1] ) is extracted.
The retrieval_grader pipeline is then invoked with the question and document
as inputs. The output is the JSON-formatted binary score indicating whether the
document is relevant.
question = "agent memory"
docs = retriever.invoke(question)
doc_txt = docs[1].page_content
print(retrieval_grader.invoke({"question": question, "document": doc_

3. Generator
Moving on we need to script a code that can generate a concise answer to user's question
using context from retrieved documents.
# Generate

from langchain_core.output_parsers import StrOutputParser

from langchain_core.prompts import PromptTemplate
 # Prompt
prompt = PromptTemplate(
template="""<|begin_of_text|><|start_header_id|>system<|end_header_id
Use the following pieces of retrieved context to answer the question
Use three sentences maximum and keep the answer concise <|eot_id|><|s
Question: {question}
Context: {context}
Answer: <|eot_id|><|start_header_id|>assistant<|end_header_id|>""",
input_variables=["question", "document"],
)

llm = ChatOllama(model=local_llm, temperature=0)

# Post-processing
def format_docs(docs):
return "\n\n".join(doc.page_content for doc in docs)

# Chain
rag_chain = prompt | llm | StrOutputParser()

# Run
question = "agent memory"
docs = retriever.invoke(question)
generation = rag_chain.invoke({"context": docs, "question": question})
print(generation)

Code Description:
prompt : This is a PromptTemplate object that defines the structure of the prompt
sent to the language model (LLM). The prompt instructs the LLM to act as an assistant
for answering questions. The LLM is provided with a question and context (retrieved
documents) and is instructed to generate a concise answer in three sentences or
fewer. If the LLM doesn't know the answer, it is told to simply say that it doesn't know.
 prompt = PromptTemplate(
template="""...""",
input_variables=["question", "context"],
)

llm : This initializes the LLM using the ChatOllama model with a temperature of 0,
which ensures that the output is more deterministic and less random.
llm = ChatOllama(model=local_llm, temperature=0)

format_docs(docs) : This function takes a list of document objects and concatenates

their content ( page_content ) into a single string, with each document's content
separated by a double newline ( \n\n ). This formatted string is then used as the
context in the prompt.

def format_docs(docs):
return "\n\n".join(doc.page_content for doc in docs)

rag_chain : This creates a processing chain that combines the prompt , the LLM
( llm ), and the StrOutputParser . The prompt is filled with the question and
context , sent to the LLM for processing, and the output is parsed into a string using
StrOutputParser .

rag_chain = prompt | llm | StrOutputParser()

Running the Chain :

question = "agent memory"
docs = retriever.invoke(question)
generation = rag_chain.invoke({"context": format_docs(docs), "questio
print(generation)
 question : The user's question, in this case, "agent memory."
docs : A list of documents retrieved using the retriever.invoke(question)
function, which retrieves documents relevant to the question .
format_docs(docs) : Formats the retrieved documents into a single string of
context, separated by double newlines.
rag_chain.invoke({"context": format_docs(docs), "question": question}) :
This line executes the chain. It passes the formatted context and question into the
rag_chain , which processes the input through the LLM and returns the
generated answer.
print(generation) : Outputs the generated answer to the console.

4. Hallucination Grader and Answer Grader

This code snippet defines two separate graders—one for assessing hallucination in a
generated answer and another for evaluating the usefulness of the answer in resolving a
question. Both graders use a language model (LLM) to provide binary scores ("yes" or "no")
based on specific criteria
# Hallucination Grader

# LLM
llm = ChatOllama(model=local_llm, format="json", temperature=0)

# Prompt
prompt = PromptTemplate(
template=""" <|begin_of_text|><|start_header_id|>system<|end_header_
an answer is grounded in / supported by a set of facts. Give a binary
whether the answer is grounded in / supported by a set of facts. Prov
single key 'score' and no preamble or explanation. <|eot_id|><|start_
Here are the facts:
\n ------- \n
{documents}
 \n ------- \n
Here is the answer: {generation} <|eot_id|><|start_header_id|>assist
input_variables=["generation", "documents"],
)

hallucination_grader = prompt | llm | JsonOutputParser()

hallucination_grader.invoke({"documents": docs, "generation": generation

### Answer Grader

# LLM
llm = ChatOllama(model=local_llm, format="json", temperature=0)

# Prompt
prompt = PromptTemplate(
template="""<|begin_of_text|><|start_header_id|>system<|end_header_id
answer is useful to resolve a question. Give a binary score 'yes' or
useful to resolve a question. Provide the binary score as a JSON with
<|eot_id|><|start_header_id|>user<|end_header_id|> Here is the answe
\n ------- \n
{generation}
\n ------- \n
Here is the question: {question} <|eot_id|><|start_header_id|>assista
input_variables=["generation", "question"],
)

answer_grader = prompt | llm | JsonOutputParser()

answer_grader.invoke({"question": question, "generation": generation})

Hallucination Grader
Code Description:
LLM Initialization:
llm = ChatOllama(model=local_llm, format="json", temperature=0)
 llm: Initializes the ChatOllama language model with a JSON output format and a
temperature of 0, making the model's output deterministic.
Prompt Creation:
prompt = PromptTemplate(
template="""...""",
input_variables=["generation", "documents"],
)

prompt : A PromptTemplate is created to define the structure of the prompt sent

to the LLM. The prompt instructs the LLM to assess whether a given answer
( generation ) is grounded in or supported by a set of facts ( documents ). The
model is instructed to output a binary score ( "yes" or "no" ) in JSON format,
indicating whether the answer is factual according to the provided documents.
Hallucination Grader Setup:
hallucination_grader = prompt | llm | JsonOutputParser()

hallucination_grader : This is a pipeline combining the prompt , the LLM, and

the JsonOutputParser . The prompt is filled with the input variables
( generation and documents ), processed by the LLM, and the output is parsed
into a JSON format by JsonOutputParser .
Running the Hallucination Grader:
hallucination_grader.invoke({"documents": docs, "generation": generat

hallucination_grader.invoke(...) : Executes the hallucination grader by

passing in the documents (facts) and the generation (the answer being
 assessed). The LLM then evaluates whether the answer is grounded in the
provided facts and returns a binary score in JSON format.

Answer Grader
Code Description:
LLM Initialization:
llm = ChatOllama(model=local_llm, format="json", temperature=0)

llm : Similar to the hallucination grader, this initializes the ChatOllama model
with the same settings for deterministic output.
Prompt Creation:
prompt = PromptTemplate(
template="""...""",
input_variables=["generation", "question"],
)

prompt: A PromptTemplate is created for evaluating the usefulness of an

answer. This prompt instructs the LLM to assess whether a given answer
( generation ) is useful in resolving a specific question ( question ). Again, the
LLM outputs a binary score ( "yes" or "no" ) in JSON format, indicating whether
the answer is useful.
Answer Grader Setup:
answer_grader = prompt | llm | JsonOutputParser()
 answer_grader : This pipeline combines the prompt , the LLM, and the
JsonOutputParser , similar to the hallucination grader.

Running the Answer Grader:

answer_grader.invoke({"question": question, "generation": generation}

answer_grader.invoke(...) : Executes the answer grader by passing in the

question and generation (the answer being evaluated). The LLM assesses
whether the answer is useful in resolving the question and returns a binary score in
JSON format.

5. Router
This code snippet defines a "Router" system designed to determine whether a user’s
question should be directed to a vectorstore or a web search for further information
retrieval. Here’s a detailed explanation of each par:
# Router

from langchain_community.chat_models import ChatOllama

from langchain_core.output_parsers import JsonOutputParser
from langchain_core.prompts import PromptTemplate

# LLM
llm = ChatOllama(model=local_llm, format="json", temperature=0)

prompt = PromptTemplate(
template="""<|begin_of_text|><|start_header_id|>system<|end_header_id
user question to a vectorstore or web search. Use the vectorstore fo
prompt engineering, and adversarial attacks. You do not need to be st
in the question related to these topics. Otherwise, use web-search. G
or 'vectorstore' based on the question. Return the a JSON with a sing
 no premable or explanation. Question to route: {question} <|eot_id|><
input_variables=["question"],
)

question_router = prompt | llm | JsonOutputParser()

question = "llm agent memory"
docs = retriever.get_relevant_documents(question)
doc_txt = docs[1].page_content
print(question_router.invoke({"question": question}))

Code Description:
LLM Initialization:
llm = ChatOllama(model=local_llm, format="json", temperature=0)

llm: Initializes the ChatOllama language model with a JSON output format and a
temperature of 0, ensuring deterministic (non-random) results from the model.
Prompt Creation:
prompt = PromptTemplate(
template="""...""",
input_variables=["question"],
)

prompt : A PromptTemplate is created to define the structure of the input prompt

sent to the LLM. This prompt instructs the LLM to act as an expert in routing user
questions to the appropriate datasource: either a vectorstore or a web search. The
decision is based on the content of the question:
If the question relates to topics like "LLM agents," "prompt engineering," or
"adversarial attacks," it should be routed to a vectorstore.
 Otherwise, the question should be routed to a web search.
The LLM is instructed to return a binary choice: either "vectorstore" or "web_search" .
The response should be in JSON format with a single key "datasource" .
Router Setup:
question_router = prompt | llm | JsonOutputParser()

question_router : This is a processing chain that combines the prompt , the

LLM, and the JsonOutputParser . The prompt is populated with the question,
processed by the LLM to make the routing decision, and the output is parsed into
JSON format by the JsonOutputParser .
Running the Router:
question = "llm agent memory"
docs = retriever.get_relevant_documents(question)
doc_txt = docs[1].page_content
print(question_router.invoke({"question": question}))

question : The user's query, in this case, "llm agent memory."

docs : A list of documents retrieved using the
retriever.get_relevant_documents(question) function, which fetches
documents relevant to the question. This part of the code appears to retrieve
documents but is not directly involved in the routing decision.
question_router.invoke({"question": question}) : This line executes the
router. The question is passed to the question_router , which processes it
through the LLM and returns a JSON object with a key "datasource" indicating
whether the question should be routed to a "vectorstore" or "web_search" .
 print(question_router.invoke(...)) : Outputs the routing decision (either
"vectorstore" or "web_search" ) to the console.

6. Web Search
The code sets up a web search tool that can be used to query the web and retrieve a limited
number of search results (in this case, 3). This is useful in scenarios where you want to
integrate external web search capabilities into a system, enabling it to fetch information
from the internet and use that information for further processing or decision-making.
# Search
from langchain_community.tools.tavily_search import TavilySearchResults
web_search_tool = TavilySearchResults(k=3)

Code Description:
Imports:
from langchain_community.tools.tavily_search import TavilySearchResul

TavilySearchResults : This is a class imported from the

langchain_community.tools.tavily_search module. It is used to perform web
searches and retrieve search results.
Web Search Tool Initialization:
web_search_tool = TavilySearchResults(k=3)

web_search_tool : This variable is an instance of the TavilySearchResults

class. It represents a tool configured to perform web searches.
 k=3 : This parameter specifies that the tool should return the top 3 search results
for any given query. The k value determines how many results are fetched and
processed by the search tool.

7. Control Flow
This code defines a stateful, graph-based workflow for processing user queries. It retrieves
documents, generates answers, grades relevance, and routes the process based on the
current state. This system is highly modular, allowing each step in the process to be
independently defined and controlled, making it flexible and scalable for various use cases
involving document retrieval, question answering, and ensuring the quality and relevance of
generated content.
from pprint import pprint
from typing import List

import time

from langchain_core.documents import Document

from typing_extensions import TypedDict

from langgraph.graph import END, StateGraph

# State

class GraphState(TypedDict):
"""
Represents the state of our graph.

Attributes:
question: question
generation: LLM generation
web_search: whether to add search
 documents: list of documents
"""

question: str
generation: str
web_search: str
documents: List[str]

# Nodes

def retrieve(state):
"""
Retrieve documents from vectorstore

Args:
state (dict): The current graph state

Returns:
state (dict): New key added to state, documents, that contains re
"""
print("---RETRIEVE---")
question = state["question"]

# Retrieval
documents = retriever.invoke(question)
return {"documents": documents, "question": question}

def generate(state):
"""
Generate answer using RAG on retrieved documents

Args:
state (dict): The current graph state
 Returns:
state (dict): New key added to state, generation, that contains
"""
print("---GENERATE---")
question = state["question"]
documents = state["documents"]

# RAG generation
generation = rag_chain.invoke({"context": documents, "question": ques
return {"documents": documents, "question": question, "generation": g

def grade_documents(state):
"""
Determines whether the retrieved documents are relevant to the quest
If any document is not relevant, we will set a flag to run web search

Args:
state (dict): The current graph state

Returns:
state (dict): Filtered out irrelevant documents and updated web_s
"""

print("---CHECK DOCUMENT RELEVANCE TO QUESTION---")

question = state["question"]
documents = state["documents"]

# Score each doc

filtered_docs = []
web_search = "No"
for d in documents:
score = retrieval_grader.invoke(
{"question": question, "document": d.page_content}
)
grade = score["score"]
# Document relevant
 if grade.lower() == "yes":
print("---GRADE: DOCUMENT RELEVANT---")
filtered_docs.append(d)
# Document not relevant
else:
print("---GRADE: DOCUMENT NOT RELEVANT---")
# We do not include the document in filtered_docs
# We set a flag to indicate that we want to run web search
web_search = "Yes"
continue
return {"documents": filtered_docs, "question": question, "web_search

def web_search(state):
"""
Web search based based on the question

Args:
state (dict): The current graph state

Returns:
state (dict): Appended web results to documents
"""

print("---WEB SEARCH---")
question = state["question"]
documents = state["documents"]

# Web search
docs = web_search_tool.invoke({"query": question})
web_results = "\n".join([d["content"] for d in docs])
web_results = Document(page_content=web_results)
if documents is not None:
documents.append(web_results)
else:
documents = [web_results]
return {"documents": documents, "question": question}
# Conditional edge

def route_question(state):
"""
Route question to web search or RAG.

Args:
state (dict): The current graph state

Returns:
str: Next node to call
"""

print("---ROUTE QUESTION---")
question = state["question"]
print(question)
source = question_router.invoke({"question": question})
print(source)
print(source["datasource"])
if source["datasource"] == "web_search":
print("---ROUTE QUESTION TO WEB SEARCH---")
return "websearch"
elif source["datasource"] == "vectorstore":
print("---ROUTE QUESTION TO RAG---")
return "vectorstore"

def decide_to_generate(state):
"""
Determines whether to generate an answer, or add web search

Args:
state (dict): The current graph state
 Returns:
str: Binary decision for next node to call
"""

print("---ASSESS GRADED DOCUMENTS---")

state["question"]
web_search = state["web_search"]
state["documents"]

if web_search == "Yes":
# All documents have been filtered check_relevance
# We will re-generate a new query
print(
"---DECISION: ALL DOCUMENTS ARE NOT RELEVANT TO QUESTION, INC
)
return "websearch"
else:
# We have relevant documents, so generate answer
print("---DECISION: GENERATE---")
return "generate"

# Conditional edge

def grade_generation_v_documents_and_question(state):
"""
Determines whether the generation is grounded in the document and ans

Args:
state (dict): The current graph state

Returns:
str: Decision for next node to call
"""

print("---CHECK HALLUCINATIONS---")
 question = state["question"]
documents = state["documents"]
generation = state["generation"]

score = hallucination_grader.invoke(
{"documents": documents, "generation": generation}
)
grade = score["score"]

# Check hallucination
if grade == "yes":
print("---DECISION: GENERATION IS GROUNDED IN DOCUMENTS---")
# Check question-answering
print("---GRADE GENERATION vs QUESTION---")
score = answer_grader.invoke({"question": question, "generation"
grade = score["score"]
if grade == "yes":
print("---DECISION: GENERATION ADDRESSES QUESTION---")
return "useful"
else:
print("---DECISION: GENERATION DOES NOT ADDRESS QUESTION---"
return "not useful"
else:
pprint("---DECISION: GENERATION IS NOT GROUNDED IN DOCUMENTS, RE
return "not supported"

workflow = StateGraph(GraphState)

# Define the nodes

workflow.add_node("websearch", web_search) # web search
workflow.add_node("retrieve", retrieve) # retrieve
workflow.add_node("grade_documents", grade_documents) # grade documents
workflow.add_node("generate", generate) # generatae

State Definition
 class GraphState(TypedDict):
question: str
generation: str
web_search: str
documents: List[str]

GraphState : A TypedDict that defines the structure of the state that the graph will
manage. It includes:
question : The user's query.

generation : The answer generated by the LLM.

web_search : A flag indicating whether a web search should be added.

documents : A list of documents retrieved during the process.

Node Functions
Each of the following functions represents a node in the graph, performing a specific task
within the workflow.
retrieve(state)

def retrieve(state):
print("---RETRIEVE---")
question = state["question"]
documents = retriever.invoke(question)
return {"documents": documents, "question": question}

Purpose: Retrieves documents from a vectorstore based on the user's question.

Returns: Updates the state with the retrieved documents.
generate(state)
 def generate(state):
print("---GENERATE---")
question = state["question"]
documents = state["documents"]
generation = rag_chain.invoke({"context": documents, "question":
return {"documents": documents, "question": question, "generation

Purpose: Generates an answer using a Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG)

model on the retrieved documents.
Returns: Updates the state with the generated answer.
grade_documents(state)

def grade_documents(state):
print("---CHECK DOCUMENT RELEVANCE TO QUESTION---")
question = state["question"]
documents = state["documents"]

filtered_docs = []
web_search = "No"
for d in documents:
score = retrieval_grader.invoke({"question": question, "docum
grade = score["score"]
if grade.lower() == "yes":
print("---GRADE: DOCUMENT RELEVANT---")
filtered_docs.append(d)
else:
print("---GRADE: DOCUMENT NOT RELEVANT---")
web_search = "Yes"
continue
return {"documents": filtered_docs, "question": question, "web_se

Purpose: Grades the relevance of each retrieved document to the question and
filters out irrelevant documents. If any document is irrelevant, it sets a flag to
 indicate that a web search is needed.
Returns: Updates the state with the filtered documents and the web search flag.
web_search(state)

def web_search(state):
print("---WEB SEARCH---")
question = state["question"]
documents = state["documents"]
docs = web_search_tool.invoke({"query": question})
web_results = "\n".join([d["content"] for d in docs])
web_results = Document(page_content=web_results)
if documents is not None:
documents.append(web_results)
else:
documents = [web_results]
return {"documents": documents, "question": question}

Purpose: Conducts a web search based on the user's question and appends the
results to the list of documents.
Returns: Updates the state with the web search results.

Conditional Edges
These functions determine the next step in the workflow based on the current state.
route_question(state)

def route_question(state):
print("---ROUTE QUESTION---")
question = state["question"]
source = question_router.invoke({"question": question})
if source["datasource"] == "web_search":
print("---ROUTE QUESTION TO WEB SEARCH---")
 return "websearch"
elif source["datasource"] == "vectorstore":
print("---ROUTE QUESTION TO RAG---")
return "vectorstore"

Purpose: Routes the question to either a web search or vectorstore retrieval based
on its content.
Returns: The next node to execute, either "websearch" or "vectorstore" .
decide_to_generate(state)

def decide_to_generate(state):
print("---ASSESS GRADED DOCUMENTS---")
web_search = state["web_search"]
if web_search == "Yes":
print("---DECISION: ALL DOCUMENTS ARE NOT RELEVANT TO QUESTIO
return "websearch"
else:
print("---DECISION: GENERATE---")
return "generate"

Purpose: Decides whether to generate an answer or perform a web search based

on the relevance of the graded documents.
Returns: The next node to execute, either "websearch" or "generate" .
grade_generation_v_documents_and_question(state)

def grade_generation_v_documents_and_question(state):
print("---CHECK HALLUCINATIONS---")
question = state["question"]
documents = state["documents"]
generation = state["generation"]

score = hallucination_grader.invoke({"documents": documents, "gen

 grade = score["score"]

if grade == "yes":
print("---DECISION: GENERATION IS GROUNDED IN DOCUMENTS---")
score = answer_grader.invoke({"question": question, "generati
grade = score["score"]
if grade == "yes":
print("---DECISION: GENERATION ADDRESSES QUESTION---")
return "useful"
else:
print("---DECISION: GENERATION DOES NOT ADDRESS QUESTION-
return "not useful"
else:
pprint("---DECISION: GENERATION IS NOT GROUNDED IN DOCUMENTS,
return "not supported"

Purpose: Grades the generated answer for hallucinations (whether it is grounded

in the provided documents) and checks if the answer addresses the user's
question.
Returns: The next node to execute, based on whether the answer is grounded and
useful.

Workflow Definition

workflow = StateGraph(GraphState)

workflow.add_node("websearch", web_search)
workflow.add_node("retrieve", retrieve)
workflow.add_node("grade_documents", grade_documents)
workflow.add_node("generate", generate)

StateGraph : Initializes a graph that will manage the state transitions.

 add_node : Adds the nodes (functions) to the graph, associating each node with a
name that can be used to call it in the workflow.

8. Build Graph
This code builds the logic and flow of the stateful workflow using a state graph. It
determines how the process should move from one node (operation) to the next based on
the conditions and results at each step.
The workflow starts by deciding whether to retrieve documents from a vectorstore or
perform a web search based on the user's question.
It then assesses the relevance of the retrieved documents, deciding whether to
generate an answer or conduct further web searches if the documents aren't relevant.
Finally, it generates an answer and checks whether it is well-supported and useful,
repeating steps or ending the workflow based on the outcome.
This structure ensures that the workflow is dynamic, able to adjust based on the results at
each stage, and ultimately aims to produce a well-supported and relevant answer to the
user's question.
# Build graph
workflow.set_conditional_entry_point(
route_question,
{
"websearch": "websearch",
"vectorstore": "retrieve",
},
)

workflow.add_edge("retrieve", "grade_documents")
workflow.add_conditional_edges(
"grade_documents",
decide_to_generate,
 {
"websearch": "websearch",
"generate": "generate",
},
)
workflow.add_edge("websearch", "generate")
workflow.add_conditional_edges(
"generate",
grade_generation_v_documents_and_question,
{
"not supported": "generate",
"useful": END,
"not useful": "websearch",
},
)

Code Description:
Set the Conditional Entry Point
workflow.set_conditional_entry_point(
route_question,
{
"websearch": "websearch",
"vectorstore": "retrieve",
},
)

set_conditional_entry_point : This method sets the starting point of the

workflow based on a conditional decision.
route_question : The function that determines whether the question should be
routed to a web search or a vectorstore retrieval.
"websearch": "websearch" : If route_question decides that the question
should be routed to a web search, the workflow starts with the websearch node.
 "vectorstore": "retrieve" : If route_question decides that the question
should be routed to the vectorstore, the workflow starts with the retrieve node.
Add an Edge Between Nodes
workflow.add_edge("retrieve", "grade_documents")

add_edge : This method creates a direct transition from one node to another in the
workflow.
"retrieve" -> "grade_documents" : After the documents are retrieved in the
retrieve node, the workflow moves to the grade_documents node, where the
retrieved documents are assessed for relevance.
Add Conditional Edges
workflow.add_conditional_edges(
"grade_documents",
decide_to_generate,
{
"websearch": "websearch",
"generate": "generate",
},
)

add_conditional_edges : This method creates conditional transitions between

nodes based on the result of a decision function.
"grade_documents" : The node where the relevance of retrieved documents is
assessed.
decide_to_generate : The function that decides the next step based on the
relevance of the documents.
 "websearch": "websearch" : If decide_to_generate determines that a web
search is necessary (because the documents are not relevant), the workflow
transitions to the websearch node.
"generate": "generate" : If the documents are relevant, the workflow transitions
to the generate node, where an answer is generated using the documents.
Add an Edge Between Nodes
workflow.add_edge("websearch", "generate")

"websearch" -> "generate" : After performing a web search, the workflow

moves to the generate node to generate an answer using the results from the
web search.
Add Conditional Edges for Final Decision
workflow.add_conditional_edges(
"generate",
grade_generation_v_documents_and_question,
{
"not supported": "generate",
"useful": END,
"not useful": "websearch",
},
)

"generate" : The node where an answer is generated using the documents

(retrieved or from the web search).
grade_generation_v_documents_and_question : The function that checks
whether the generated answer is grounded in the documents and relevant to the
question.
 "not supported": "generate" : If the generated answer is not well-supported by
the documents, the workflow loops back to the generate node to attempt
generating a better answer.
"useful": END : If the generated answer is both grounded in the documents and
addresses the question, the workflow ends ( END ).
"not useful": "websearch" : If the generated answer is grounded in the
documents but does not address the question adequately, the workflow transitions
back to the websearch node to gather more information and try again.

All Done !!
Now that our implementation is complete, let's test the graph by compiling and executing it
as a whole, the good thins is this will also print out the steps as we go:
Test 1 : Lets write a question which is relevant to the Blog Posts with respect to which
we created our index in the data store?
from pprint import pprint

# Compile
app = workflow.compile()
inputs = {"question": "What is agent memory?"}
for output in app.stream(inputs):
for key, value in output.items():
pprint(f"Finished running: {key}:")
pprint(value["generation"])

Test 2 : Lets write another question related to current affairs i.e completely out of
context to the data that we indexed from the blog posts ?
 from pprint import pprint

# Compile
app = workflow.compile()
inputs = {"question": "Who are the LA Lakers expected to draft first in t
for output in app.stream(inputs):
for key, value in output.items():
pprint(f"Finished running: {key}:")
pprint(value["generation"])

What do you see in the output of both

these tests?
For Test 1
The output shows the step-by-step execution of the workflow and the decisions made at
each stage:
---ROUTE QUESTION---
What is agent memory?
{'datasource': 'vectorstore'}
vectorstore
---ROUTE QUESTION TO RAG---
---RETRIEVE---
'Finished running: retrieve:'
---CHECK DOCUMENT RELEVANCE TO QUESTION---
---GRADE: DOCUMENT RELEVANT---
---GRADE: DOCUMENT RELEVANT---
---GRADE: DOCUMENT RELEVANT---
---GRADE: DOCUMENT RELEVANT---
---ASSESS GRADED DOCUMENTS---
 ---DECISION: GENERATE---
'Finished running: grade_documents:'
---GENERATE---
---CHECK HALLUCINATIONS---
---DECISION: GENERATION IS GROUNDED IN DOCUMENTS---
---GRADE GENERATION vs QUESTION---
{'score': 'yes'}
---DECISION: GENERATION ADDRESSES QUESTION---
'Finished running: generate:'
('Based on the provided context, Agent Memory refers to a long-term memo
"module that records a comprehensive list of agents' experiences in natu
'language. This allows the agent to retain and recall information over
'extended periods, leveraging an external vector store and fast retrieva

1. Routing the Question:

Output: ---ROUTE QUESTION---
Question: "What is agent memory?"
Decision: The workflow determines that the question should be routed to the
vectorstore based on the question's content.

Result: {'datasource': 'vectorstore'} and ---ROUTE QUESTION TO RAG--- .

2. Retrieving Documents:
Output: ---RETRIEVE---
The workflow retrieves documents related to the question from the vectorstore.
3. Grading Document Relevance:
Output: ---CHECK DOCUMENT RELEVANCE TO QUESTION---
The workflow grades each retrieved document to determine if it is relevant to the
question.
 Results: All retrieved documents are graded as relevant ( ---GRADE: DOCUMENT
RELEVANT--- repeated four times).

4. Deciding to Generate an Answer:

Output: ---ASSESS GRADED DOCUMENTS---
Since the documents are relevant, the workflow decides to proceed with
generating an answer ( ---DECISION: GENERATE--- ).
5. Generating the Answer:
Output: ---GENERATE---
The workflow generates an answer using the relevant documents.
6. Checking for Hallucinations:
Output: ---CHECK HALLUCINATIONS---
The workflow checks if the generated answer is grounded in the documents.
Result: The answer is grounded ( ---DECISION: GENERATION IS GROUNDED IN
DOCUMENTS--- ).

7. Grading the Answer Against the Question:

Output: ---GRADE GENERATION vs QUESTION---
The workflow evaluates whether the generated answer addresses the question.
Result: The answer is useful ( {'score': 'yes'} and ---DECISION: GENERATION
ADDRESSES QUESTION--- ).

8. Final Output:
Output: 'Finished running: generate:'
Generated Answer:
 'Based on the provided context, Agent Memory refers to a long-term me
"module that records a comprehensive list of agents' experiences in n
'language. This allows the agent to retain and recall information ove
'extended periods, leveraging an external vector store and fast retri

For Test 2
This output follows the same workflow as the previous example but with a different question
related to the NBA draft and the LA Lakers. Here's a breakdown of what happened during
this run:
---ROUTE QUESTION---
Who are the LA Lakers expected to draft first in the NBA draft?
{'datasource': 'web_search'}
web_search
---ROUTE QUESTION TO WEB SEARCH---
---WEB SEARCH---
'Finished running: websearch:'
---GENERATE---
---CHECK HALLUCINATIONS---
---DECISION: GENERATION IS GROUNDED IN DOCUMENTS---
---GRADE GENERATION vs QUESTION---
{'score': 'yes'}
---DECISION: GENERATION ADDRESSES QUESTION---
'Finished running: generate:'
('According to the provided context, the LA Lakers are expected to draft
'Dalton Knecht at number 17 overall in the first round of the NBA draft

1. Routing the Question:

Output: ---ROUTE QUESTION---
Question: "Who are the LA Lakers expected to draft first in the NBA
draft?"
 Decision: The workflow determines that the question should be routed to a web
search ( 'datasource': 'web_search' ), as it likely requires up-to-date
information that isn't stored in the vectorstore.
Result: web_search and ---ROUTE QUESTION TO WEB SEARCH--- .
2. Web Search:
Output: ---WEB SEARCH---
The workflow performs a web search to gather the most current and relevant
information regarding the Laker's draft picks.
Result: 'Finished running: websearch:' indicates that the web search step is
complete.
3. Generating the Answer:
Output: ---GENERATE---
Using the information retrieved from the web search, the workflow generates an
answer to the question.
4. Checking for Hallucinations:
Output: ---CHECK HALLUCINATIONS---
The workflow checks if the generated answer is grounded in the retrieved web
search documents.
Result: The answer is well-supported ( ---DECISION: GENERATION IS GROUNDED
IN DOCUMENTS--- ).

5. Grading the Answer Against the Question:

Output: ---GRADE GENERATION vs QUESTION---
The workflow evaluates whether the generated answer directly addresses the
question.
 Result: The answer is useful and relevant ( {'score': 'yes'} and ---
DECISION: GENERATION ADDRESSES QUESTION--- ).

6. Final Output:
Output: 'Finished running: generate:'
Generated Answer:
'According to the provided context, the LA Lakers are expected to dra
'Dalton Knecht at number 17 overall in the first round of the NBA dra

Key Points of the Workflow for Test 1 vs Test 2

Routing to Web Search: The workflow correctly identified that the question needed
current information, so it directed the query to a web search rather than a vectorstore.
Answer Generation: The workflow successfully used the latest information from the
web to generate a coherent and relevant response about the Lakers' expected draft
pick.
Grounded and Useful Answer: The workflow validated that the generated answer was
both grounded in the search results and directly addressed the question.

Conclusion
In a relatively short amount of time, we've managed to build a sophisticated Retrieval-
Augmented Generation (RAG) workflow that includes routing, retrieval, grading, and various
decision points such as fallback to web search and dual-criteria grading of generated
content. What’s particularly impressive is that this complex RAG flow, incorporating
concepts from multiple research papers, can run reliably on a local machine. The key to
achieving this lies in the well-defined control flow, which ensures that the local agent
operates smoothly and effectively.
We encourage you to experiment with different queries and implementations, as this
approach provides a powerful foundation for creating more advanced RAG agents.
Hopefully, this serves as a useful guide for developing your own RAG workflows.
Ready to try this out on your own? Start a free trial.
Elasticsearch has integrations for tools from LangChain, Cohere and more. Join our Beyond
RAG Basics webinar to build your next GenAI app!

Pratik Rana

25 min read
2 September 2024
How To
Generative AI
Vector Database

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