RAG Question Decomposition
Decompose questions to obtain clearer, more reliable answers from RAG systems.
The Problem
Many user questions bundle multiple assumptions, constraints, or reasoning steps into a single query. In a standard RAG pipeline:
Diffuse retrieval
Multiple topics blur search focus.
Hard to trace errors
No visibility into failure points.
Coarse-grained evaluation
Only final answer is measured.
Unpredictable failures
System behaves like a black box.
What qa-tools Produces
Using question decomposition, qa-tools produces:
Explicit sub-questions
Derived from the original query.
Clear dependency structure
Between reasoning steps.
Per-step retrieval
Focused search for each sub-question.
Intermediate signals
Inspectable and evaluatable.
Why This Matters
Question decomposition turns RAG from a single opaque step into a structured reasoning process. It enables:
Better retrieval precision
Easier debugging
Step-level evaluation
Predictable behavior