What to build
Add a cross-encoder reranker to the query pipeline. After RRF fusion (#81), run a small cross-encoder model on the top 20-50 results to re-rank them. Cross-encoders see (query, chunk) as a pair, enabling interaction-aware scoring that dense embeddings miss.
Decision: Defer implementation
- Now: Skip (C). RRF + header-lex boost provides strong baseline.
- Later: Evaluate
tiny-reranker-v1 (upcoming, ~70-90 MB ONNX INT8, distilled from Qwen3-8B). If benchmarks show >10% quality gain over RRF alone, integrate.
- Alternative:
Qwen3-Reranker-0.6B (573 MB) is available now but too large for MVP.
Acceptance criteria (for future implementation)
Blocked by
What to build
Add a cross-encoder reranker to the query pipeline. After RRF fusion (#81), run a small cross-encoder model on the top 20-50 results to re-rank them. Cross-encoders see (query, chunk) as a pair, enabling interaction-aware scoring that dense embeddings miss.
Decision: Defer implementation
tiny-reranker-v1(upcoming, ~70-90 MB ONNX INT8, distilled from Qwen3-8B). If benchmarks show >10% quality gain over RRF alone, integrate.Qwen3-Reranker-0.6B(573 MB) is available now but too large for MVP.Acceptance criteria (for future implementation)
config.reranker.enabled(default: false)Blocked by
tiny-reranker-v1or equivalent lightweight model