rasa-setting-up-enterprise-search

name	rasa-setting-up-enterprise-search
description	Adds knowledge base search to a Rasa CALM assistant using EnterpriseSearchPolicy, connects vector stores (Faiss, Milvus, Qdrant), and configures generative or extractive search modes. Use when setting up RAG, connecting a vector store, overriding pattern_search, or implementing a custom information retriever.
license	Apache-2.0
metadata	{"author":"rasa","version":"0.1.0","rasa_version":">=3.13.0","docs-url":"https://rasa.com/docs/pro/build/configuring-enterprise-search"}

Setting Up Enterprise Search

Enterprise Search lets a Rasa assistant answer informational questions by retrieving relevant documents from a knowledge base and generating (or extracting) answers. It is powered by the EnterpriseSearchPolicy and triggered via the built-in pattern_search pattern.

Workflow

1. Check the existing project — does it already have EnterpriseSearchPolicy configured? If not, add EnterpriseSearchPolicy to policies in config.yml with the desired vector store type and options (see "Enterprise Search Policy").
2. Switch the command generator in config.yml to SearchReadyLLMCommandGenerator (see "Command generator").
3. Add vector store connection details to endpoints.yml if using Milvus or Qdrant (see "Connecting vector stores").
4. Add model groups for the LLM and embeddings used by the policy (see rasa-configuring-model-groups skill).
5. Override pattern_search in a flows file to trigger action_trigger_search (see "Triggering Enterprise Search").
6. Place documents in the knowledge base — ./docs for Faiss, or ingest into your vector database for Milvus/Qdrant.
7. Validate and train.

Command generator

Enterprise Search requires SearchReadyLLMCommandGenerator in the pipeline. This is the search-aware variant of CompactLLMCommandGenerator — it produces SearchAndReply commands when the LLM within the Command Generator detects an informational question.

If the project currently uses CompactLLMCommandGenerator, replace it.

# config.yml
pipeline:
  - name: SearchReadyLLMCommandGenerator
    llm:
      model_group: command_generator_llm    # defined in endpoints.yml

Enterprise Search Policy

Add EnterpriseSearchPolicy to policies in config.yml. The policy supports two modes:

• Generative (default) — uses an LLM to produce a context-aware answer from retrieved documents. When check_relevancy is enabled and the answer is not relevant, the policy triggers pattern_cannot_handle.
• Extractive — set use_generative_llm: false to return a pre-authored answer directly with no LLM generation. Documents must be ingested in Q&A format (see example below). Use vector_store.threshold so only high-confidence matches are returned.

The embedding model used for querying must match the model used to embed documents during ingestion.

# config.yml
policies:
  - name: FlowPolicy
  - name: EnterpriseSearchPolicy
    llm:
      model_group: enterprise_search_llm           # LLM for answer generation
    embeddings:
      model_group: enterprise_search_embeddings     # must match ingestion model
    vector_store:
      type: "faiss"                                 # faiss | milvus | qdrant | custom module path
      source: "./docs"                              # Faiss only: path to .txt files
    # threshold: 0.0                                # Milvus/Qdrant only: minimum similarity (0–1)
    # use_generative_llm: true                      # false for extractive search
    citation_enabled: true                           # append source references to the answer
    check_relevancy: true                            # trigger pattern_cannot_handle if irrelevant
    max_messages_in_query: 2                         # conversation turns in search query (default: 2)
    include_date_time: true                          # current date/time in prompt (default: true)
    timezone: "UTC"                                  # IANA timezone for date/time context

Corresponding model groups in endpoints.yml:

# endpoints.yml
model_groups:
  - id: enterprise_search_llm
    models:
      - provider: <your-provider>                    # e.g. openai, azure, self-hosted
        model: <your-llm-model>

  - id: enterprise_search_embeddings
    models:
      - provider: <your-provider>
        model: <your-embedding-model>                # must match ingestion model

Extractive search Q&A ingestion format — page_content holds the question (vectorized for similarity), metadata.answer holds the response text:

[
  {
    "page_content": "What is the return policy?",
    "metadata": {
      "title": "return_policy",
      "type": "faq",
      "answer": "Items can be returned within 30 days of purchase."
    }
  }
]

Triggering Enterprise Search

By default, pattern_search responds with utter_no_knowledge_base (denying the request). Override it to trigger document search instead.

Automatic triggering via pattern_search

When the command generator detects an informational question, it pushes pattern_search onto the dialogue stack. Override this pattern to call action_trigger_search:

# data/pattern_search.yml (or any flows file)
flows:
  pattern_search:
    description: handle a knowledge-based question or request
    name: pattern search
    steps:
      - action: action_trigger_search

Triggering from within a flow

action_trigger_search is a default action that can also be used as a step in any flow. This is useful when a specific point in a business process needs to pull knowledge base content:

flows:
  troubleshoot_device:
    description: Guides users through troubleshooting their device.
    steps:
      - collect: device_model
      - action: action_trigger_search    # search KB for device-specific help
      - action: utter_anything_else

Connecting vector stores

Rasa supports three built-in vector stores. Choose based on your environment.

Faiss (development only)

In-memory index built from .txt files during rasa train. Not meant for production. Use Milvus or Qdrant for production workloads.

# config.yml
- name: EnterpriseSearchPolicy
  vector_store:
    type: "faiss"
    source: "./docs"           # directory of .txt files, indexed at train time

No endpoints.yml configuration needed — the index is stored on disk.

Milvus

Connect to a self-hosted Milvus instance. Documents must already be ingested with the same embedding model.

# config.yml
- name: EnterpriseSearchPolicy
  vector_store:
    type: "milvus"
    threshold: 0.7             # minimum similarity score (0–1)

# endpoints.yml
vector_store:
  type: milvus
  host: localhost              # required
  port: 19530                  # required
  collection: rasa             # required
  # user: ""
  # password: ""

Qdrant

Connect to a self-hosted or Qdrant Cloud instance.

Adjust content_payload_key and metadata_payload_key to match how documents were ingested into Qdrant.

# config.yml
- name: EnterpriseSearchPolicy
  vector_store:
    type: "qdrant"
    threshold: 0.5

# endpoints.yml
vector_store:
  type: qdrant
  collection: rasa                       # required
  host: 0.0.0.0
  port: 6333
  content_payload_key: page_content      # key for document text during ingestion
  metadata_payload_key: metadata         # key for document metadata during ingestion
  # api_key: ${QDRANT_API_KEY}          # for Qdrant Cloud
  # prefer_grpc: false
  # grpc_port: 6334

Prompt customization

Override the default prompt with a Jinja2 template file. Available variables:

• docs,
• slots,
• current_conversation,
• current_datetime.

# config.yml
- name: EnterpriseSearchPolicy
  prompt_template: prompts/enterprise-search-template.jinja2

See the Rasa docs on Generative Search prompts for the default template and all available variables.

Custom information retrievers

For proprietary search engines, slot-based filtering, re-ranking, or unsupported vector stores, implement a custom retriever class.

Subclass rasa.core.information_retrieval.InformationRetrieval and implement connect and search:

from rasa.utils.endpoints import EndpointConfig
from rasa.core.information_retrieval import SearchResultList, InformationRetrieval

class MyRetriever(InformationRetrieval):
    def connect(self, config: EndpointConfig) -> None:
        # config.kwargs contains keys from endpoints.yml vector_store block
        pass

    async def search(
        self, query: str, tracker_state: dict, threshold: float = 0.0
    ) -> SearchResultList:
        # query: user message; tracker_state: full conversation state
        # self.embeddings: langchain Embeddings object from Rasa config
        pass

Reference the class in config.yml:

- name: EnterpriseSearchPolicy
  vector_store:
    type: "addons.custom_retrieval.MyRetriever"

Connection parameters in endpoints.yml are passed to connect via config.kwargs:

# endpoints.yml
vector_store:
  api_key: ${SEARCH_API_KEY}
  collection: my_collection