The short answer
Gate retrieved sources by identity, authority, version, effective period, last verification, supersession status, property or entity scope, and conflict state. Define what the workflow must do when freshness cannot be proven—refresh, abstain, escalate, or use a safe deterministic fallback—before the model sees the content.
Operational checklist
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Key takeaways
Write a freshness contract by source class
Inventory leases, policies, vendor documents, work records, payment states, owner instructions, building information, and external reference material. For each, name the authority, stable identity, version mechanism, effective date, expected update signal, allowed age where meaningful, scope, and unavailable-source response.
Some facts need event-driven confirmation rather than a time-to-live. A payment state checked five minutes ago may still be uncertain; an executed lease may remain authoritative for years until amended.
Evaluate retrieval before generation or tool use
Treat retrieved text as untrusted data and preserve provenance. OWASP notes retrieval-specific trust and prompt-injection risks; its guidance is a security reference, not a completeness guarantee.
| Check | Pass evidence | Failure behavior |
|---|---|---|
| Identity | Stable source and object ID | Reject ambiguous match |
| Authority | Approved system/owner for this fact | Use alternate authority or escalate |
| Version/effective time | Current version covers decision time | Refresh or abstain |
| Scope | Correct property, entity, user, and purpose | Exclude out-of-scope content |
| Supersession/conflict | No later source or conflict resolved | Present conflict to reviewer |
| Integrity/trust | Protected provenance and safe content handling | Quarantine or restrict use |
Retain enough evidence to reproduce the decision context
Record source IDs and versions, retrieval time, gate results, excluded sources, conflicts, model/workflow version, and action outcome without copying unnecessary sensitive content. Test expiration, replacement, access revocation, missing sources, and malicious instructions.
Monitor how often workflows abstain or use stale-source exceptions. A high refresh burden may indicate the source integration or ownership model needs repair rather than a longer arbitrary age limit.
Edge cases
Sources and references
Follow each source to check the underlying claim. Access checks and professional review are different steps.