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40 XP

Lesson 6 · 10 min

Hybrid search & rerankers

Pure vector search misses keyword-precise queries. Pure keyword search misses paraphrases. Use both.

When pure vector search fails

A user asks for "error code E_AUTH_4012". Vector embeddings are bad at exact identifiers — "E_AUTH_4012" doesn't have a clean semantic neighborhood. BM25 / keyword search finds it instantly.

Conversely, a user asks "how do I refresh my token". A doc says "renewing access credentials". Keyword search misses it. Vector search nails it.

Hybrid search runs both and combines the scores.