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ModelForge/docs/architecture/RETRIEVAL_PIPELINE_IDENTITY.md
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Retrieval Pipeline Identity

A retrieval pipeline is behaviorally identified by:

  • embedding-space identity;
  • sparse and fusion configuration digests;
  • optional reranker deployment and reranker configuration digest;
  • candidate-k and output-k semantics.

The canonical identity digest covers every field. An embedding-only control and the same embedding plus reranker are distinct pipelines even when dimensions and source collection are equal. A reranker profile/configuration change also creates a new identity. Reranker addition is classified behavioral; an embedding-space change remains requires_reindex.

Pipeline comparisons consume immutable fixed-pool runs. They do not overwrite embedding evaluation runs and cannot be compared as though they were embedding deployments.