Santosh Mahale writes that most teams default to vector-database RAG without evaluating whether it fits their data and query patterns, when the retrieval architecture is the primary lever for production success. He compares three options—Traditional (semantic search via embeddings), Vectorless (exact lookups via SQL, BM25, APIs, or graph traversal with no vector store), and Hybrid (both retrieval paths merged and reranked)—and recommends starting with the simplest approach that solves the use case, measuring where it fails, then adding complexity only where data demands it.
- Most RAG failures are retrieval failures (wrong context reaching the LLM), not model failures
- Vectorless RAG is underused; structured-data workloads like log analysis, K8s event lookups, and compliance records often outperform Traditional RAG with far less infrastructure
- Hybrid RAG is the eventual landing spot for most enterprise deployments but adds two retrieval paths, a merge step, and a reranker to maintain
- The article positions RAG variants within a broader stack: LLM → RAG architectures → agents → MCP → agentic systems, each solving a different layer
- Most RAG failures are retrieval failures (wrong context reaching the LLM), not model failures
- Vectorless RAG is underused; structured-data workloads like log analysis, K8s event lookups, and compliance records often outperform Traditional RAG with far less infrastructure
- Hybrid RAG is the eventual landing spot for most enterprise deployments but adds two retrieval paths, a merge step, and a reranker to maintain
- The article positions RAG variants within a broader stack: LLM → RAG architectures → agents → MCP → agentic systems, each solving a different layer
Ashish Vaswani et. al. introduce Transformers and Attention in this classic 2017 paper.
The Transformer architecture relies solely on attention mechanisms, dispensing with recurrence and convolutions entirely for sequence transduction tasks. This new network design improves translation quality while being more parallelizable and significantly faster to train than previous models.
- Achieved 28.4 BLEU on the WMT 2014 English-to-German translation task.
- Reached a state-of-the-art score of 41.8 BLEU for English-to-French using eight GPUs in only 3.5 days.
- Demonstrates successful application to English constituency parsing with both large and limited training data sets.
The Transformer architecture relies solely on attention mechanisms, dispensing with recurrence and convolutions entirely for sequence transduction tasks. This new network design improves translation quality while being more parallelizable and significantly faster to train than previous models.
- Achieved 28.4 BLEU on the WMT 2014 English-to-German translation task.
- Reached a state-of-the-art score of 41.8 BLEU for English-to-French using eight GPUs in only 3.5 days.
- Demonstrates successful application to English constituency parsing with both large and limited training data sets.
Context engineering shifts RAG focus from prompt tuning to structured data assembly for LLM calls. The single-document architecture utilizes four bricks—parsing, question parsing, retrieval, and generation—to produce typed context pieces. These include system prompts, filtered document segments, and structured metadata. This engineering discipline improves auditability, enables caching, and supports scalable component composition.
- Four-brick pipeline: parsing, question parsing, retrieval, generation
- Typed data outputs for LLM context assembly
- Fixed system prompts for caching efficiency
- Filtered document lines and structured metadata
- Improved auditability and cost control
- Four-brick pipeline: parsing, question parsing, retrieval, generation
- Typed data outputs for LLM context assembly
- Fixed system prompts for caching efficiency
- Filtered document lines and structured metadata
- Improved auditability and cost control
This article explains how to distinguish agentic workflows from autonomous agents by focusing on ownership of control flow. It argues that the primary distinction is a spectrum between predictability and autonomy, rather than just whether a large language model is involved. The author breaks down four key stages of system design:
* Deterministic workflows where humans define fixed sequences in advance
* Orchestrated workflows where models choose from predefined branches
* Reactive agents that use reasoning to decide actions at runtime via patterns like ReAct
* Autonomous multi-agent systems where agents act as nested tools for one another
While fully autonomous systems offer high flexibility, the piece concludes that production environments typically favor hybrid architectures that combine structured workflows with targeted autonomy.
* Deterministic workflows where humans define fixed sequences in advance
* Orchestrated workflows where models choose from predefined branches
* Reactive agents that use reasoning to decide actions at runtime via patterns like ReAct
* Autonomous multi-agent systems where agents act as nested tools for one another
While fully autonomous systems offer high flexibility, the piece concludes that production environments typically favor hybrid architectures that combine structured workflows with targeted autonomy.
This article explores the critical architectural decision of where to store conversation history when building AI agents. It examines how different storage strategies impact user experience, privacy, cost, and portability. The author compares service-managed versus client-managed storage models and details how modern APIs support both linear threads and forking/branching capabilities.
Key topics include:
* Service-Managed vs. Client-Managed storage tradeoffs
* Linear (single-threaded) vs. Forking-capable conversation models
* Strategies for context window management and compaction such as truncation, summarization, and sliding windows
* How Microsoft Agent Framework abstracts these patterns using AgentSession and ChatHistoryProvider to ensure provider-agnostic code
* Practical implementation examples for the Responses API in different modes
Key topics include:
* Service-Managed vs. Client-Managed storage tradeoffs
* Linear (single-threaded) vs. Forking-capable conversation models
* Strategies for context window management and compaction such as truncation, summarization, and sliding windows
* How Microsoft Agent Framework abstracts these patterns using AgentSession and ChatHistoryProvider to ensure provider-agnostic code
* Practical implementation examples for the Responses API in different modes
A comprehensive curated collection of Large Language Model (LLM) architecture figures and technical fact sheets. This gallery provides a visual and data-driven overview of modern model designs, ranging from classic dense architectures like GPT-2 to advanced sparse Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) systems and hybrid attention models. Users can explore detailed specifications including parameter scales, context windows, attention mechanisms, and intelligence indices for various prominent models.
Key features include:
* Detailed architecture fact sheets for a wide array of models such as Llama, DeepSeek, Qwen, Gemma, and Mistral.
* An architecture diff tool to compare two different model designs side-by-side.
* Comparative analysis across dense, MoE, MLA, and hybrid decoder families.
* Links to original source articles and technical reports for deeper research.
Key features include:
* Detailed architecture fact sheets for a wide array of models such as Llama, DeepSeek, Qwen, Gemma, and Mistral.
* An architecture diff tool to compare two different model designs side-by-side.
* Comparative analysis across dense, MoE, MLA, and hybrid decoder families.
* Links to original source articles and technical reports for deeper research.
Júlio Falbo argues that integrating AI into engineering organizations is hampered by complex connection methods, proposing a solution centered around “SKILL.md” – Markdown files defining tool usage – and “AI Gateways” for centralized orchestration. This combination fosters an “AI-native architecture” prioritizing ease of use, governance, and scalability over bespoke integrations. Ultimately, this approach shifts the focus from complex coding to clear documentation, democratizing AI tool access and boosting productivity.
* Simplifies AI integration via Markdown-based "skills."
* Utilizes AI Gateways for centralized control and security.
* Promotes a convention-over-configuration approach for AI systems.
* Simplifies AI integration via Markdown-based "skills."
* Utilizes AI Gateways for centralized control and security.
* Promotes a convention-over-configuration approach for AI systems.
Developers are replacing bloated MCP servers with Markdown skill files — cutting token costs by 100x. This article explores a two-layer architecture emerging in production AI systems, separating knowledge from execution. It details how skills (Markdown files) encode stable knowledge, while MCP servers handle runtime API interactions. The piece advocates for a layered approach to optimize context window usage, reduce costs, and improve agent reasoning by prioritizing knowledge representation in a version-controlled, accessible format.
This article explains the differences between Model Context Protocol (MCP), Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), and AI Agents, highlighting that they solve different problems at different layers of the AI stack. It also covers how ChatGPT routes prompts and handles modes, agent skills, architectural concepts for developers, and service deployment strategies.
This article details research into finding the optimal architecture for small language models (70M parameters), exploring depth-width tradeoffs, comparing different architectures, and introducing Dhara-70M, a diffusion model offering 3.8x faster throughput with improved factuality.
