Smerdoff
Smerdoff / AI Development

Custom RAG Pipeline Development, Built to Be Yours

Some teams want a managed assistant. Others want to own the pipeline outright — the ingestion process, the vector index, the retrieval logic — so it can be extended, self-hosted, and integrated deep into their own product. We build that pipeline end to end and hand you something your team can actually run.

Data IngestionVector IndexingQuery TestingFull Ownership
RAG pipeline architecture diagram showing ingestion, vector index, and query testing
65%
of support queries are now resolved without a human — up from 52% in 2023
LiveChatAI
21×
more likely a lead qualifies when contacted within 5 minutes — AI replies instantly
MIT / InsideSales

Why build a RAG pipeline instead of buying a managed one

When retrieval needs to be embedded deep in your product, owning the pipeline matters.

Full control over retrieval logic

Tune chunking, embeddings, and ranking to your specific data instead of a one-size-fits-all managed config.

Deploy anywhere

Self-hosted, in your cloud, or wherever your compliance and infrastructure requirements demand.

Deep product integration

Embed retrieval directly into your application's core logic, not as a bolted-on chat widget.

No recurring service fee

One build you own outright, running on your own infrastructure costs.

Extensible by your team

Well-documented, testable pipeline your engineers can modify without depending on us for every change.

Tested against real queries

We validate retrieval quality against your actual questions before calling it done, not just a demo dataset.

What's included in a RAG pipeline build

Every stage of the pipeline, engineered and documented for your team to own.

Data ingestion pipeline

Automated ingestion from your documents, databases, and internal systems into a clean, chunked format.

Vector index setup

Embedding model selection and vector store configuration tuned to your data's structure and scale.

Retrieval and ranking logic

Custom retrieval strategy — hybrid search, re-ranking, filtering — built for your query patterns.

Query testing suite

A test set of real queries used to validate retrieval accuracy before launch and after every change.

Integration layer

API or SDK your team uses to call the pipeline from your existing application.

Documentation and handoff

Clear documentation so your engineers can maintain and extend the pipeline independently.

FAQ

Those toolkits are exactly what we use under the hood — the value isn't avoiding them, it's the engineering time to tune chunking, retrieval, and ranking for your specific data, plus a tested query suite that proves it actually works before you ship it. DIY often means months of trial and error to get retrieval quality acceptable.

You need someone who can maintain a standard application — we document the pipeline clearly and avoid exotic dependencies, but this is a self-hosted asset, not a zero-maintenance service.

RAG-as-a-service is a managed product we host and run for you. This is a custom pipeline you own outright, deployed on your infrastructure, built for teams that need deep control or have compliance reasons to self-host.

We build a test set from your real, historical queries and measure retrieval accuracy against it, tuning chunking and ranking until results meet an agreed bar.

Related

Get a free estimate for your RAG pipeline

Tell us what data it needs to retrieve from and how it plugs into your product — we'll scope a pipeline your team can own.