---
id: KONT-WP-0007
type: workplan
title: "Governed Retrieval And Context Graph"
domain: markitect
repo: kontextual-engine
status: todo
owner: codex
topic_slug: markitect
planning_priority: high
planning_order: 7
created: "2026-05-05"
updated: "2026-05-05"
state_hub_workstream_id: "64352515-9677-46bb-909a-9e2db4915dc7"
---

# KONT-WP-0007: Governed Retrieval And Context Graph

## Purpose

Build retrieval as a governed operational capability: stable query contracts,
text search, metadata and lifecycle filtering, contextual entities,
relationship traversal, source-grounded snippets, permission checks, and
quality feedback.

## Requirement Coverage

Primary: FR-040 to FR-050 and FR-060 to FR-071.

Supporting: FR-120 to FR-126, FR-143 to FR-146, FR-163, FR-200 to FR-204.

## Architecture Constraint

Implement retrieval through retrieval services, search ports, repository ports,
and policy checks described in `docs/architecture-blueprint.md`. Search indexes
and ranking backends are adapters; they must not define the stable query or
result contracts.

## markitect-tool Boundary Remark

For Markdown-backed assets, retrieval adapters may use Markitect selectors,
extraction helpers, local index concepts, and context-package source spans to
produce grounded units and snippets. Engine retrieval contracts, result
envelopes, policy filtering, pagination, feedback, and cross-format search
remain engine-owned.

## R7.1 - Implement query contracts pagination sorting and result envelopes

```task
id: KONT-WP-0007-T001
status: todo
priority: high
state_hub_task_id: "5a1b0661-ce22-4ee6-a9e7-0aedce9d4356"
```

Define query requests, result envelopes, deterministic pagination, sorting,
diagnostics, and correlation IDs.

Acceptance:

- Repeated equivalent queries return stable ordering within documented limits.
- Results include asset IDs, representation references, metadata, source
  references, and diagnostics.
- Invalid queries return structured validation errors.

## R7.2 - Implement lexical search over normalized content

```task
id: KONT-WP-0007-T002
status: todo
priority: high
state_hub_task_id: "5ec90dcb-473c-4d01-85f2-8db18de0b7d1"
```

Implement MVP lexical search over normalized representations without making
semantic/vector search a blocker.

Acceptance:

- Text search returns matching assets with relevance metadata.
- Search indexes can be refreshed after ingestion or update.
- p95 latency and zero-result rate can be measured in smoke tests.

## R7.3 - Implement metadata lifecycle and source-context filters

```task
id: KONT-WP-0007-T003
status: todo
priority: high
state_hub_task_id: "9e7d0a5c-71d4-44ca-9b71-70f2206e4a02"
```

Support filters by asset type, collection, source, owner, tags,
classification, sensitivity, lifecycle state, timestamps, and custom metadata.

Acceptance:

- Text search and metadata filters can be combined.
- Lifecycle and sensitivity filters participate in permission checks.
- Filter behavior is covered across in-memory and durable backends where
  supported.

## R7.4 - Implement contextual entity model and relationship retrieval

```task
id: KONT-WP-0007-T004
status: todo
priority: high
state_hub_task_id: "b3358059-ac58-4e37-985c-6e8c1cc6df30"
```

Represent contextual entities such as people, teams, projects, cases, topics,
source systems, processes, products, and generated artifacts.

Acceptance:

- Assets can be linked to contextual entities.
- Relationship direction, type, validity, confidence, actor, and provenance are
  represented where available.
- Callers can retrieve assets by project, case, topic, source, workflow run, or
  related asset.

## R7.5 - Enforce permission-aware retrieval and fail-closed semantics

```task
id: KONT-WP-0007-T005
status: todo
priority: high
state_hub_task_id: "c6c93713-3ab1-41fb-bf35-15dd860b66fa"
```

Apply authorization and policy checks before returning content, metadata,
snippets, relationships, derived artifacts, or context packages.

Acceptance:

- Unauthorized assets do not leak through result lists, snippets, relationship
  traversal, or derived answer packages.
- Missing or stale permission context fails closed according to policy.
- Retrieval audit events capture actor, query scope, outcome, and policy
  context.

## R7.6 - Return source-grounded snippets citations and explanation data

```task
id: KONT-WP-0007-T006
status: todo
priority: medium
state_hub_task_id: "1a6d5a95-d87a-447a-a186-cb73162cd9a1"
```

Return matched regions, snippets, source references, representation IDs,
relationship context, and citation-ready data for grounded AI workflows.

Acceptance:

- Results explain why they were returned and where they originated.
- Snippets are permission filtered.
- Retrieval packages are suitable for later grounded answer generation.
- Markdown snippets can reference Markitect selector matches or context-package
  spans as adapter provenance.

## R7.7 - Capture retrieval feedback and KPI measurement hooks

```task
id: KONT-WP-0007-T007
status: todo
priority: medium
state_hub_task_id: "e17e2839-400f-4348-98e3-f77acc0b2fde"
```

Capture relevance feedback and quality signals for retrieval improvement.

Acceptance:

- Feedback can mark results useful, irrelevant, missing, unsafe, or low
  confidence.
- Query context and result metadata are stored with feedback.
- Precision@k, zero-result rate, permission-filter latency, and citation
  precision have measurement hooks.

## Definition Of Done

- Retrieval tests cover text, metadata, lifecycle, relationship, contextual
  entity, pagination, permission, snippet, and feedback behavior.
- Retrieval does not bypass policy or source provenance.
- Search, relationship, and context retrieval contracts follow
  `docs/architecture-blueprint.md`.
- `python3 -m pytest` passes.