Impact
347traces
28%of all failures
Outdated document version retrieved over latest
Root Causes
1
No time-decay scoring
All document versions share similar embeddings. Older documents with more indexed chunks accumulate higher aggregate similarity scores.
2
Missing effective_date filter
The effective_date metadata field exists on 78% of documents but is not used in retrieval queries or reranking.
3
No version supersession marking
When a new version is uploaded, the old version is not marked as superseded. Both compete equally in retrieval.
Most Affected Documents
refund_policy_2024_v2.pdf142 hitsSTALE
sla_guide_2023.pdf89 hitsSTALE
billing_faq_2023.pdf67 hitsSTALE
hr_handbook_2023.pdf49 hitsSTALE
Example Traces
View all tracesRecommended Fixes
Enable effective_date metadata filter
+18% RagScoreLow
Add metadata filter effective_date >= 2025-01-01 to all retrieval queries.
Mark superseded document versions
+8% FreshnessLow
Automatically set status: superseded on previous versions when a new version is uploaded.
Apply time-decay scoring in reranker
+12% RecallMedium
Multiply reranker scores by exponential decay: score × e^(-λ × age_months), λ=0.1.
If All Fixes Applied
RagScore
6482
Stale Source
347~15
Freshness
74%96%
Citation
61%79%