Technical Specifications
For technical decision-makers, architects, and engineering teams.
This page provides detailed technical information about TeraContext.AI’s implementation architecture, infrastructure requirements, and integration capabilities. For business-focused content, see Solutions or Use Cases.
Architecture Overview
Core Technology Stack
Document Processing Pipeline:
- Chunking: Semantic and structural chunking with configurable overlap
- Embedding Models: Multi-modal embeddings for text, tables, diagrams, and scanned PDFs
- Vector Stores: ChromaDB, Milvus, Lance, Elasticsearch, Infinity, Neo4j, Supabase, or custom
- Graph Databases: Neo4j, TigerGraph, Neptune (for GraphRAG implementations)
- Search: Hybrid semantic + keyword search with configurable ranking
LLM Integration:
- Commercial APIs: OpenAI (GPT-4, GPT-4 Turbo), Anthropic (Claude 3+ family), Google (Gemini), Cohere
- Open Source Models: Llama 3+ (8B-405B), Mistral (7B-8x22B), Qwen (7B-72B), Gemma, Command R
- Model Serving: vLLM, TGI (Text Generation Inference), Ollama, LMStudio, or custom inference servers
- Quantization: 4-bit, 8-bit, FP16, BF16 support for memory optimization
Frontend Options:
- Custom web applications (React, Vue, Svelte)
- RAGFlow (open-source RAG UI)
- OpenWebUI (conversational interface)
- AnythingLLM (all-in-one platform)
- API-only (headless integration)
Implementation Approaches
RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation)
Technical Components:
1. Document Ingestion
Input → Parsing → Chunking → Embedding → Indexing → Vector Store
Parsing Support:
- Formats: PDF, DOCX, PPTX, XLSX, TXT, Markdown, HTML, XML, JSON
- OCR: Tesseract, PaddleOCR, or cloud OCR services for scanned documents
- Table Extraction: Camelot, Tabula, or LLM-based extraction
- Diagram Understanding: Multi-modal vision models (GPT-4V, Claude 3, Qwen-VL)
Chunking Strategies:
- Fixed Size: 500-1000 token chunks with 50-100 token overlap
- Semantic: Sentence/paragraph boundaries with coherence scoring
- Structural: Section-based chunking respecting document hierarchy
- Hybrid: Domain-optimized (e.g., CSI MasterFormat for construction, legal clause boundaries)
Embedding Models:
- Commercial: OpenAI text-embedding-3-large (3072 dimensions), Cohere embed-v3
- Open Source: BAAI/bge-large-en-v1.5, sentence-transformers/all-mpnet-base-v2, Instructor embeddings
- Multi-Modal: CLIP variants, SigLIP, OpenAI CLIP for vision+text
- Performance: 1,000-10,000 documents/hour depending on model and hardware
Vector Database Configuration:
- Index Types: HNSW (Hierarchical Navigable Small World), IVF (Inverted File), Annoy, FAISS
- Distance Metrics: Cosine similarity, dot product, L2 (Euclidean)
- Scaling: Horizontal sharding for 10M+ document collections
- Performance: <100ms retrieval for top-k (k=5-20) from millions of chunks
2. Retrieval Process
Query → Embedding → Vector Search → Reranking → Context Assembly → LLM
Retrieval Strategies:
- Dense: Pure vector similarity search
- Sparse: BM25 or TF-IDF keyword search
- Hybrid: Weighted combination of dense + sparse (configurable weights)
- Reranking: Cross-encoder models for precision (e.g., ms-marco-MiniLM-L-12-v2)
Context Assembly:
- Max Context: Configurable per LLM (typically 4K-128K tokens)
- Deduplication: Remove redundant chunks
- Citation: Preserve source metadata (file, page, section)
- Ordering: Relevance-based or document-order based
Performance Benchmarks:
- Latency: 500ms-2s (embedding + retrieval + LLM generation)
- Throughput: 10-100 concurrent queries depending on infrastructure
- Accuracy: 85-95% relevance for domain-optimized implementations
GraphRAG
Technical Components:
1. Knowledge Graph Construction
Documents → Entity Extraction → Relationship Mapping → Graph Building → Graph Store
Entity Extraction:
- Methods: LLM-based (GPT-4, Claude), SpaCy NER, Stanford NER, custom fine-tuned models
- Ontology: Domain-specific entity types (legal: parties, clauses, obligations; construction: specs, materials, standards)
- Accuracy: 90-95% precision with LLM-based extraction, 80-85% with NER models
- Performance: 100-1,000 pages/hour depending on complexity
Relationship Extraction:
- Methods: LLM reasoning, dependency parsing, pattern matching, relation classifiers
- Relationship Types: References, dependencies, contradicts, modifies, implements, inherits
- Validation: Confidence scoring, human-in-the-loop for critical relationships
Graph Database:
- Options: Neo4j (Cypher query language), TigerGraph, Amazon Neptune, ArangoDB
- Schema: Property graph model with typed nodes and edges
- Indexing: Full-text search on node properties, relationship indexing
- Scaling: Distributed graphs for 100M+ node deployments
2. Graph-Based Retrieval
Query → Entity Detection → Graph Traversal → Subgraph Extraction → Context Assembly → LLM
Graph Traversal Strategies:
- Depth-limited: Explore N hops from query entities
- PageRank: Prioritize important nodes in relevant subgraphs
- Community Detection: Find related entity clusters
- Path Finding: Shortest paths, all paths, or semantic paths between entities
Performance Benchmarks:
- Latency: 1-5s (entity detection + graph traversal + LLM generation)
- Thoroughput: 5-50 concurrent queries depending on graph size
- Recall: 15-30% improvement over RAG for relationship-heavy queries
Multi-Layer Summarization (RAPTOR)
Technical Components:
1. Hierarchical Construction
Documents → Chunk Embedding → Clustering → Summarization → Recursive Clustering → Layer N
Clustering Algorithm:
- Methods: K-means, HDBSCAN, hierarchical clustering
- Similarity: Cosine similarity on embeddings
- Cluster Size: 5-20 chunks per cluster (configurable)
- Validation: Silhouette score, coherence metrics
Summarization:
- Models: GPT-4, Claude 3.5 Sonnet, Llama 3 70B+ with custom prompts
- Compression: 5-10x reduction per layer (e.g., 10 pages → 1 page summary)
- Preservation: Entity linking across layers, key fact retention
- Quality: Human evaluation 85-90% accuracy on information preservation
Layer Construction:
- Depth: Typically 3-5 layers for 1,000-10,000 page document sets
- Layer 0: Original chunks (~500-1000 tokens each)
- Layer 1: Cluster summaries (~1,000-2,000 tokens each)
- Layer 2: Meta-summaries (~2,000-5,000 tokens each)
- Layer N: Document/collection overview (~5,000-10,000 tokens)
2. Query-Aware Retrieval
Query → Abstraction Level Detection → Layer Selection → Retrieval → LLM
Layer Selection:
- Heuristics: Question word analysis (what/how/why), scope detection (specific vs. broad)
- Learned: Classification model trained on query patterns
- Multi-Layer: Retrieve from multiple layers for complex queries
Performance Benchmarks:
- Build Time: 2-10x slower than standard RAG (one-time upfront cost)
- Query Latency: 1-3s (similar to RAG)
- Storage: 2-5x overhead for multi-layer representations
- Quality: 20-40% better user satisfaction on varied abstraction queries
Infrastructure Requirements
Cloud Deployment (API-Based)
Recommended Configuration:
Low Volume (<10K queries/month):
- LLM: Commercial APIs (OpenAI, Anthropic)
- Vector DB: Managed service (Pinecone, Weaviate Cloud, Qdrant Cloud)
- Compute: 2-4 vCPU, 8-16GB RAM
- Cost: $500-1,500/month
Medium Volume (10K-100K queries/month):
- LLM: Commercial APIs or self-hosted quantized models
- Vector DB: Self-managed (ChromaDB, Milvus on VM)
- Compute: 8-16 vCPU, 32-64GB RAM, optional 24GB GPU
- Cost: $1,500-5,000/month
High Volume (100K+ queries/month):
- LLM: Self-hosted models on GPU cluster
- Vector DB: Distributed vector store
- Compute: GPU cluster (4-8x A100/H100), 128-256GB RAM
- Cost: $10,000-30,000/month
On-Premise Deployment
Minimum Configuration (Pilot/Small Deployment):
- CPU: 16-core server (Intel Xeon, AMD EPYC)
- RAM: 64GB DDR4/DDR5
- GPU: 1x NVIDIA RTX 6000 Ada (48GB VRAM) or A40 (48GB)
- Storage: 1TB NVMe SSD (documents + embeddings)
- Network: 10Gb Ethernet
- Cost: $30,000-50,000 hardware
Recommended Configuration (Production Deployment):
- CPU: 32-64 core server
- RAM: 256GB DDR5
- GPU: 2-4x NVIDIA A100 (80GB) or H100 (80GB)
- Storage: 5-10TB NVMe SSD, 50TB HDD for archival
- Network: 25Gb Ethernet, redundant switches
- Cost: $150,000-300,000 hardware
Enterprise Configuration (Large-Scale):
- CPU: Multi-node cluster (128+ cores total)
- RAM: 512GB-1TB per node
- GPU: 8-16x A100/H100 distributed across nodes
- Storage: 20TB+ NVMe, 100TB+ distributed storage (Ceph, MinIO)
- Network: 100Gb Ethernet, InfiniBand for GPU interconnect
- Cost: $500,000-2,000,000+ hardware
Software Stack:
- OS: Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, RHEL 8/9, or similar
- Containerization: Docker, Kubernetes for orchestration
- Monitoring: Prometheus, Grafana, ELK stack
- Security: Network isolation, encryption at rest/transit, RBAC
Hybrid Deployment
Architecture:
- Sensitive Documents: On-premise processing (air-gapped or private network)
- Public Documents: Cloud API processing (cost-effective)
- Routing Layer: Document classification and intelligent routing
- Fallback: On-premise failover for cloud unavailability
Benefits:
- Cost optimization (use cloud when appropriate)
- Security compliance (keep sensitive data on-premise)
- Flexibility (scale cloud usage as needed)
Complexity: Moderate (requires routing logic and data classification)
Integration Capabilities
Data Sources
Document Management Systems:
- SharePoint (Online and On-Premise)
- Confluence
- Google Drive / Google Workspace
- Box, Dropbox, OneDrive
- iManage, NetDocuments (legal)
- ProjectWise, Autodesk Docs (engineering/construction)
File Servers & Storage:
- SMB/CIFS network shares
- NFS
- S3-compatible object storage (AWS S3, MinIO, Wasabi)
- Azure Blob Storage, Google Cloud Storage
Databases:
- PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQL Server
- MongoDB, DynamoDB (document stores)
- Custom ODBC/JDBC connections
Email & Collaboration:
- Microsoft Exchange / Outlook
- Gmail / Google Workspace
- Slack message history
- Microsoft Teams files and messages
Integration Methods:
- APIs: RESTful APIs, GraphQL
- Webhooks: Real-time document updates
- Sync Agents: Scheduled polling or filesystem watchers
- Manual Upload: Drag-and-drop, bulk import
Authentication & Access Control
Authentication Methods:
- Single Sign-On (SSO): SAML 2.0, OAuth 2.0, OpenID Connect
- Identity Providers: Okta, Azure AD, Google Workspace, Auth0, Keycloak
- Legacy: Active Directory (LDAP), Kerberos
- MFA: TOTP (Google Authenticator), SMS, hardware tokens (YubiKey)
Authorization:
- Role-Based Access Control (RBAC): Admins, users, viewers, API clients
- Document-Level Permissions: Inherit from source systems or custom ACLs
- Attribute-Based Access Control (ABAC): Context-aware policies (location, time, device)
Security Features:
- Encryption at Rest: AES-256 for stored documents and embeddings
- Encryption in Transit: TLS 1.3 for all network communications
- Audit Logging: Complete access logs, query history, admin actions
- Data Isolation: Multi-tenant deployments with tenant isolation
API Specifications
RESTful API Endpoints:
Document Management:
POST /api/v1/documents # Upload documents
GET /api/v1/documents/{id} # Retrieve document metadata
DELETE /api/v1/documents/{id} # Remove document
GET /api/v1/documents # List documents (paginated)
POST /api/v1/documents/bulk-upload # Batch upload
Query & Search:
POST /api/v1/query # Submit natural language query
GET /api/v1/query/{id} # Retrieve query results
POST /api/v1/search # Advanced search with filters
Administration:
GET /api/v1/stats # System statistics
GET /api/v1/health # Health check
POST /api/v1/reindex # Trigger re-indexing
GET /api/v1/users # User management
Response Format:
{
"query_id": "uuid",
"answer": "Generated response text",
"citations": [
{
"document_id": "doc-123",
"document_name": "Specifications Vol 3.pdf",
"page": 142,
"section": "03 30 00 Cast-in-Place Concrete",
"excerpt": "Concrete strength shall be 4,000 psi..."
}
],
"confidence": 0.92,
"latency_ms": 1250
}
SDKs Available:
- Python (requests, httpx-based)
- JavaScript/TypeScript (axios, fetch-based)
- .NET (C#)
- Java
- cURL examples for any language
Rate Limiting:
- Configurable per client/tenant
- Typical: 100 requests/minute for standard tier, 1000/minute for premium
Performance & Scalability
Benchmark Results
Document Ingestion:
- PDFs (text): 500-2,000 pages/hour per CPU core
- PDFs (OCR): 50-200 pages/hour depending on quality
- DOCX/TXT: 2,000-10,000 pages/hour
- Embedding Generation: 1,000-5,000 chunks/minute on GPU, 100-500 on CPU
Query Performance:
- RAG: 500ms-2s median latency
- GraphRAG: 1-5s median latency
- Multi-Layer: 1-3s median latency
- p95 Latency: <5s for 95% of queries
- Concurrent Users: 10-100+ depending on infrastructure
Scaling Characteristics:
- Document Corpus: Linear scaling with distributed vector stores (tested to 50M+ documents)
- Concurrent Queries: Horizontal scaling via load balancing (tested to 500+ concurrent)
- Index Building: Embarrassingly parallel (near-linear scaling with CPU cores)
Accuracy Metrics (Domain-Optimized):
- Retrieval Recall@5: 85-92%
- Retrieval Precision@5: 88-95%
- End-to-End Answer Accuracy: 85-93% (human evaluation)
- Citation Accuracy: 95-98%
Compliance & Security
Certifications & Standards
Security Frameworks:
- SOC 2 Type II ready architectures
- ISO 27001 compliance support
- NIST Cybersecurity Framework alignment
Data Privacy:
- GDPR compliant (data residency, right to deletion, data portability)
- CCPA compliant
- HIPAA compliance support (for healthcare deployments)
- FERPA compliance (for education deployments)
Government/Defense:
- FedRAMP pathways available
- ITAR compliance for controlled technical data
- CUI (Controlled Unclassified Information) handling
- Air-gapped deployment support for classified environments
Data Handling
Data Retention:
- Documents: Configurable retention policies (indefinite, time-based, or manual)
- Queries: Logged for analytics (optional, configurable retention)
- Embeddings: Persistent or regenerated on-demand
- Audit Logs: 90-day default, configurable up to 7 years
Data Deletion:
- Hard Delete: Complete removal from all stores (documents, embeddings, caches)
- Verification: Cryptographic verification of deletion
- Timeline: <24 hours for complete purge
No Training on Customer Data:
- Customer documents never used for model training
- Embeddings and queries remain private
- Optional telemetry for performance monitoring only (no document content)
Support & Maintenance
Deployment Support
Included in Implementation:
- Architecture design and sizing
- Infrastructure provisioning assistance
- Installation and configuration
- Integration with existing systems
- Performance tuning and optimization
- Initial training (admin and end-user)
Timeline:
- Discovery: 2-3 weeks
- Implementation: 4-8 weeks
- Deployment: 2-4 weeks
- Total: 8-15 weeks
Ongoing Support Tiers
Standard Support (Included for 90 days post-launch):
- Email support (24-48 hour response)
- Bug fixes and security patches
- Performance monitoring
- Monthly usage reports
Premium Support (Optional):
- Priority email/phone support (4-hour response SLA)
- Dedicated support contact
- Quarterly optimization reviews
- Custom feature development
- On-call support for critical issues
Managed Services (Optional):
- Full system management and monitoring
- Proactive performance optimization
- Document ingestion as a service
- 24/7 monitoring and incident response
- Capacity planning and scaling
Getting Started
Technical Evaluation Process
Phase 1: Discovery (Week 1-2)
- Document corpus analysis
- Use case validation
- Infrastructure assessment
- Architecture recommendation
Phase 2: Proof of Concept (Week 3-6)
- Pilot deployment (limited scope)
- Integration testing
- Performance validation
- User feedback collection
Phase 3: Production Deployment (Week 7-12)
- Full-scale implementation
- Production integration
- User training
- Go-live support
Technical Requirements for Evaluation
Provide for Optimal Assessment:
- Sample documents (representative 100-1,000 pages)
- Typical query examples (10-20 questions)
- Infrastructure constraints (on-premise, cloud, hybrid preference)
- Integration requirements (source systems, authentication)
- Performance expectations (SLAs, concurrency, latency)
Contact Technical Sales
For detailed technical discussions, architecture consultations, or custom requirements:
Contact Us - Mention “Technical Evaluation” for priority routing to our solutions architects.
What to Expect:
- 30-60 minute technical discovery call
- Custom architecture proposal
- Performance estimates for your workload
- Detailed implementation timeline
- No obligation, no sales pressure—just technical expertise
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