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Dictionary

Reranking

A second-pass model that reorders retrieved chunks by true relevance to the query.

1 min readupdated 2026-06-22

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In RAG, vector search returns a candidate set that's fast but noisy. A reranker (usually a cross-encoder like Cohere Rerank or bge-reranker) scores each candidate against the query and reorders them, dramatically improving answer quality. A second-pass model that reorders retrieved chunks by true relevance to the query.

A second-pass model that reorders retrieved chunks by true relevance to the query. In RAG, vector search returns a candidate set that's fast but noisy. A reranker (usually a cross-encoder like Cohere Rerank or bge-reranker) scores each candidate against the query and reorders them, dramatically improving answer quality. In practice: Retrieve top 50 chunks by vector similarity → rerank down to top 5 → send only those to the LLM. Latency +200ms, accuracy often +20–40%. This dictionary node is part of the Onexial knowledge graph and links to related concepts, workflows and tools below.
Definition
In RAG, vector search returns a candidate set that's fast but noisy. A reranker (usually a cross-encoder like Cohere Rerank or bge-reranker) scores each candidate against the query and reorders them, dramatically improving answer quality.
Example
Retrieve top 50 chunks by vector similarity → rerank down to top 5 → send only those to the LLM. Latency +200ms, accuracy often +20–40%.
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What is Reranking?

In RAG, vector search returns a candidate set that's fast but noisy. A reranker (usually a cross-encoder like Cohere Rerank or bge-reranker) scores each candidate against the query and reorders them, dramatically improving answer quality.

What is an example of Reranking?

Retrieve top 50 chunks by vector similarity → rerank down to top 5 → send only those to the LLM. Latency +200ms, accuracy often +20–40%.

Why does Reranking matter for AI and automation?

A second-pass model that reorders retrieved chunks by true relevance to the query. It connects to the workflows, prompts and tool stacks linked on this page, so you can move from definition to execution without leaving Onexial.

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Related concepts

The vocabulary this page depends on.

  • Chunking

    Splitting documents into retrievable pieces before embedding them for RAG.

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Turn this into a repeatable process.

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The tools that run it in production.

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