> RAG_COMPARISON_MATRIX_v1.0
24 Architecture Families Comparison Matrix
Compare 72 maturity configurations across p99 latency, compute token cost, topology, and component bills of materials.
ID / CODE | ARCHITECTURE FAMILY | MATURITY | LATENCY PROFILE | COST | COMPONENTS | ACTION |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| rc-arch-fam-01 | Naive Direct RAG Linear single-step dense retrieval pipeline directly feeding context into generator. Configured for production maturity target. | PRODUCTION | p95: 350ms | Medium ($0.015/query) | 4 components | Inspect |
| rc-arch-fam-02 | Two-Stage Cross-Encoder Reranked RAG Dense vector retrieval followed by deep cross-encoder token-level reranking. Configured for production maturity target. | PRODUCTION | p95: 350ms | Medium ($0.015/query) | 4 components | Inspect |
| rc-arch-fam-03 | Hybrid Sparse-Dense (BM25 + Dense) RAG Dual parallel retrieval querying lexical inverted index and dense embeddings merged via RRF. Configured for production maturity target. | PRODUCTION | p95: 350ms | Medium ($0.015/query) | 4 components | Inspect |
| rc-arch-fam-04 | ColBERT Late-Interaction Token RAG Fine-grained token-level late interaction computing MaxSim similarity across token vectors. Configured for production maturity target. | PRODUCTION | p95: 350ms | Medium ($0.015/query) | 4 components | Inspect |
| rc-arch-fam-05 | Hierarchical Parent-Child Chunking RAG Indexes small child chunks for granular search precision while retrieving parent sections for context. Configured for production maturity target. | PRODUCTION | p95: 350ms | Medium ($0.015/query) | 4 components | Inspect |
| rc-arch-fam-06 | Graph-Augmented RAG (GraphRAG) Extracts knowledge graph entities and Leiden community clusters for global corpus summarization. Configured for production maturity target. | PRODUCTION | p95: 350ms | Medium ($0.015/query) | 4 components | Inspect |
| rc-arch-fam-07 | Multi-Query Expansion RAG Generates diverse alternative query formulations to bridge vocabulary mismatches. Configured for production maturity target. | PRODUCTION | p95: 350ms | Medium ($0.015/query) | 4 components | Inspect |
| rc-arch-fam-08 | Contextual Conversational Query Rewriting RAG Resolves coreferences and dialogue history into standalone search queries. Configured for production maturity target. | PRODUCTION | p95: 350ms | Medium ($0.015/query) | 4 components | Inspect |
| rc-arch-fam-09 | Self-Querying Structured Filter Extraction RAG Parses natural language into structured relational metadata filters combined with vector search. Configured for production maturity target. | PRODUCTION | p95: 350ms | Medium ($0.015/query) | 4 components | Inspect |
| rc-arch-fam-10 | Dynamic Propositional Chunking RAG Decomposes complex text into atomic factual propositions prior to embedding and indexing. Configured for production maturity target. | PRODUCTION | p95: 350ms | Medium ($0.015/query) | 4 components | Inspect |
| rc-arch-fam-11 | Self-RAG (Self-Reflective Adaptive RAG) Uses reflection tokens to dynamically retrieve, critique relevance, and verify support. Configured for production maturity target. | PRODUCTION | p95: 350ms | Medium ($0.015/query) | 4 components | Inspect |
| rc-arch-fam-12 | Corrective RAG (CRAG) with Fallback Evaluates retrieval confidence and triggers web search or document refinement on low confidence. Configured for production maturity target. | PRODUCTION | p95: 350ms | Medium ($0.015/query) | 4 components | Inspect |
| rc-arch-fam-13 | Adaptive Query-Routed Multi-Index RAG Classifies incoming query intent to dynamically route to specialized domain vector or SQL indices. Configured for production maturity target. | PRODUCTION | p95: 350ms | Medium ($0.015/query) | 4 components | Inspect |
| rc-arch-fam-14 | ReAct Autonomous Tool-Augmented RAG Interleaves reasoning thoughts and tool actions in an iterative loop until answer convergence. Configured for production maturity target. | PRODUCTION | p95: 350ms | Medium ($0.015/query) | 4 components | Inspect |
| rc-arch-fam-15 | Plan-and-Execute Agentic RAG Formulates an explicit multi-step plan before delegating sub-queries to retrieval agents. Configured for production maturity target. | PRODUCTION | p95: 350ms | Medium ($0.015/query) | 4 components | Inspect |
| rc-arch-fam-16 | Reflection & Self-Critique Agentic RAG Generates initial responses, evaluates factual consistency, and recursively edits errors. Configured for production maturity target. | PRODUCTION | p95: 350ms | Medium ($0.015/query) | 4 components | Inspect |
| rc-arch-fam-17 | Hierarchical Supervisor-Worker Multi-Agent RAG Supervisor agent coordinates specialized domain worker agents across partitioned document corpuses. Configured for production maturity target. | PRODUCTION | p95: 350ms | Medium ($0.015/query) | 4 components | Inspect |
| rc-arch-fam-18 | Debate & Adversarial Consensus Multi-Agent RAG Independent adversarial agents challenge retrieved claims to eliminate hallucinated consensus. Configured for production maturity target. | PRODUCTION | p95: 350ms | Medium ($0.015/query) | 4 components | Inspect |
| rc-arch-fam-19 | Generator-Critic-Auditor Triad RAG Three-agent architecture separating response drafting, factual criticism, and regulatory auditing. Configured for production maturity target. | PRODUCTION | p95: 350ms | Medium ($0.015/query) | 4 components | Inspect |
| rc-arch-fam-20 | Long-Context In-Memory RAG with KV Caching Leverages large LLM context windows with prefix KV cache reuse for low-latency multi-document reasoning. Configured for production maturity target. | PRODUCTION | p95: 350ms | Medium ($0.015/query) | 4 components | Inspect |
| rc-arch-fam-21 | Edge & On-Device Embedded RAG Executes lightweight quantized embeddings and vector search fully local on edge/mobile devices. Configured for production maturity target. | PRODUCTION | p95: 350ms | Medium ($0.015/query) | 4 components | Inspect |
| rc-arch-fam-22 | Multi-Modal Vision-Document RAG Extracts and embeds visual charts, diagrams, and figures alongside textual paragraphs. Configured for production maturity target. | PRODUCTION | p95: 350ms | Medium ($0.015/query) | 4 components | Inspect |
| rc-arch-fam-23 | Privacy-Preserving Encrypted Vector RAG Executes vector similarity search over homomorphically encrypted shards or differential privacy noise. Configured for production maturity target. | PRODUCTION | p95: 350ms | Medium ($0.015/query) | 4 components | Inspect |
| rc-arch-fam-24 | Regulated Enterprise Compliance-Locked RAG Strict zero-retention air-gapped pipeline with cryptographic provenance, audit trails, and PII masking. Configured for production maturity target. | PRODUCTION | p95: 350ms | Medium ($0.015/query) | 4 components | Inspect |