Source Inventory and Authority
List each source, owner, format, authority, access scope, update frequency, freshness target, and deletion policy. Approved policy should outrank an old draft or informal ticket. Store publication status, effective dates, and version so conflicting sources can be resolved transparently.
Source governance comes before embeddings. It reveals missing permissions, unsupported formats, stale content, and unclear ownership. If no authoritative source exists, the assistant should say so rather than synthesizing certainty from weak evidence.
Implementation example
{
"sourceId":"returns-policy",
"authority":"approved",
"owner":"support-operations",
"accessScope":"tenant",
"freshnessTargetHours":2
}💡 Metadata supports authority, filtering, freshness, and lifecycle management.
Key Takeaways
- Inspect the relevant pipeline stage instead of guessing.
- Preserve source provenance, versions, and access scope.
- Measure quality on representative queries.
Knowledge Check
Which metadata helps resolve conflicting policy documents?