Langchain4j RAG Implementation Patterns

<dependency>
    <groupId>dev.langchain4j</groupId>
    <artifactId>langchain4j-spring-boot-starter</artifactId>
    <version>1.8.0</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
    <groupId>dev.langchain4j</groupId>
    <artifactId>langchain4j-open-ai</artifactId>
    <version>1.8.0</version>
</dependency>

@Configuration
public class RAGConfiguration {

    @Bean
    public EmbeddingModel embeddingModel() {
        return OpenAiEmbeddingModel.builder()
            .apiKey(System.getenv("OPENAI_API_KEY"))
            .modelName("text-embedding-3-small")
            .build();
    }

    @Bean
    public EmbeddingStore<TextSegment> embeddingStore() {
        return new InMemoryEmbeddingStore<>();
    }
}

@Service
@RequiredArgsConstructor
public class DocumentIngestionService {

    private final EmbeddingModel embeddingModel;
    private final EmbeddingStore<TextSegment> embeddingStore;

    public void ingestDocument(String filePath, Map<String, Object> metadata) {
        Document document = FileSystemDocumentLoader.loadDocument(filePath);
        document.metadata().putAll(metadata);

        DocumentSplitter splitter = DocumentSplitters.recursive(
            500, 50, new OpenAiTokenCountEstimator("text-embedding-3-small")
        );

        List<TextSegment> segments = splitter.split(document);
        List<Embedding> embeddings = embeddingModel.embedAll(segments).content();
        embeddingStore.addAll(embeddings, segments);

        // Validation: verify embedding count matches segments
        if (embeddings.size() != segments.size()) {
            throw new IllegalStateException("Embedding count mismatch: expected " + segments.size() + ", got " + embeddings.size());
        }
    }

    public boolean validateIngestion(String testQuery) {
        // Validation: test retrieval with sample query
        Embedding queryEmbedding = embeddingModel.embed(testQuery).content();
        List<EmbeddingMatch<TextSegment>> results = embeddingStore.search(
            EmbeddingSearchRequest.builder()
                .queryEmbedding(queryEmbedding)
                .maxResults(1)
                .build()
        ).matches();
        return !results.isEmpty();
    }
}

@Configuration
public class ContentRetrieverConfiguration {

    @Bean
    public ContentRetriever contentRetriever(
            EmbeddingStore<TextSegment> embeddingStore,
            EmbeddingModel embeddingModel) {

        return EmbeddingStoreContentRetriever.builder()
            .embeddingStore(embeddingStore)
            .embeddingModel(embeddingModel)
            .maxResults(5)
            .minScore(0.7)
            .build();
    }
}

interface KnowledgeAssistant {
    @SystemMessage("""
        You are a knowledgeable assistant with access to a comprehensive knowledge base.

        When answering questions:
        1. Use the provided context from the knowledge base
        2. If information is not in the context, clearly state this
        3. Provide accurate, helpful responses
        4. When possible, reference specific sources
        5. If the context is insufficient, ask for clarification
        """)
    String answerQuestion(String question);
}

@Service
@RequiredArgsConstructor
public class KnowledgeService {

    private final KnowledgeAssistant assistant;

    public KnowledgeService(ChatModel chatModel, ContentRetriever contentRetriever) {
        this.assistant = AiServices.builder(KnowledgeAssistant.class)
            .chatModel(chatModel)
            .contentRetriever(contentRetriever)
            .build();
    }

    public String answerQuestion(String question) {
        return assistant.answerQuestion(question);
    }
}

public class BasicRAGExample {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        var embeddingStore = new InMemoryEmbeddingStore<TextSegment>();

        var embeddingModel = OpenAiEmbeddingModel.builder()
            .apiKey(System.getenv("OPENAI_API_KEY"))
            .modelName("text-embedding-3-small")
            .build();

        var ingestor = EmbeddingStoreIngestor.builder()
            .embeddingModel(embeddingModel)
            .embeddingStore(embeddingStore)
            .build();

        ingestor.ingest(Document.from("Spring Boot is a framework for building Java applications with minimal configuration."));

        var retriever = EmbeddingStoreContentRetriever.builder()
            .embeddingStore(embeddingStore)
            .embeddingModel(embeddingModel)
            .build();
    }
}

interface MultiDomainAssistant {
    @SystemMessage("""
        You are an expert assistant with access to multiple knowledge domains:
        - Technical documentation
        - Company policies
        - Product information
        - Customer support guides

        Tailor your response based on the type of question and available context.
        Always indicate which domain the information comes from.
        """)
    String answerQuestion(@MemoryId String userId, String question);
}

@Service
@RequiredArgsConstructor
public class HierarchicalRAGService {

    private final EmbeddingStore<TextSegment> chunkStore;
    private final EmbeddingStore<TextSegment> summaryStore;
    private final EmbeddingModel embeddingModel;

    public String performHierarchicalRetrieval(String query) {
        List<EmbeddingMatch<TextSegment>> summaryMatches = searchSummaries(query);
        List<TextSegment> relevantChunks = new ArrayList<>();

        for (EmbeddingMatch<TextSegment> summaryMatch : summaryMatches) {
            String documentId = summaryMatch.embedded().metadata().getString("documentId");
            List<EmbeddingMatch<TextSegment>> chunkMatches = searchChunksInDocument(query, documentId);
            chunkMatches.stream()
                .map(EmbeddingMatch::embedded)
                .forEach(relevantChunks::add);
        }

        return generateResponseWithChunks(query, relevantChunks);
    }
}

@RequiredArgsConstructor
@Service
public class SimpleRAGPipeline {

    private final EmbeddingModel embeddingModel;
    private final EmbeddingStore<TextSegment> embeddingStore;
    private final ChatModel chatModel;

    public String answerQuestion(String question) {
        Embedding queryEmbedding = embeddingModel.embed(question).content();
        EmbeddingSearchRequest request = EmbeddingSearchRequest.builder()
            .queryEmbedding(queryEmbedding)
            .maxResults(3)
            .build();

        List<TextSegment> segments = embeddingStore.search(request).matches().stream()
            .map(EmbeddingMatch::embedded)
            .collect(Collectors.toList());

        String context = segments.stream()
            .map(TextSegment::text)
            .collect(Collectors.joining("\n\n"));

        return chatModel.generate(context + "\n\nQuestion: " + question + "\nAnswer:");
    }
}

@Service
@RequiredArgsConstructor
public class HybridSearchService {

    private final EmbeddingStore<TextSegment> vectorStore;
    private final FullTextSearchEngine keywordEngine;
    private final EmbeddingModel embeddingModel;

    public List<Content> hybridSearch(String query, int maxResults) {
        // Vector search
        List<Content> vectorResults = performVectorSearch(query, maxResults);

        // Keyword search
        List<Content> keywordResults = performKeywordSearch(query, maxResults);

        // Combine and re-rank using RRF algorithm
        return combineResults(vectorResults, keywordResults, maxResults);
    }
}