RAG Formation · Reference

Security, permissions, and deployment boundaries

A standalone cheat sheet for learning and testing RAG quality on this site.

$ reference --status
▸ course RAG Formation
▸ mode standalone reference
▸ status Complete
● learn → test → verify

Reference sheet

Security, permissions, and deployment boundaries

The guided RAG Formation course content is complete; this reference is available for self-directed practice.

One-line rule

A factually correct answer is still unacceptable if it exposes a restricted document or secret.

Core terms

Term	Meaning
Least privilege	Give users, services, and tools only the access they need.
Data boundary	A technical separation between demo, staging, and production data and credentials.
Prompt/data injection	Untrusted document or user content trying to change system behavior or expose information.
Workspace scoping	`workspace` genuinely scopes LightRAG's graph store, but never reaches Qdrant or Meilisearch — those two ignore it entirely. Verify with a live two-call test, not an assumption.
CORS	`api/app.py` sets `allow_origins=["*"]` — an observable fact, not something to go verify.

Evidence card

Need	Record	Don't claim
Baseline	Command, configuration, observed result	The baseline is a target.
Change	One hypothesis or decision	You can tell what caused the result when several things changed.
Metric	Record each boundary, its current control, a safe verification command, and any missing enforcement point.	One metric tells you everything about quality.
Safety	A failure and a regression case	A fluent answer proves the system is reliable.

Local command

cd demo
python3 setup_demo.py ingest --dry-run
# then, with the stack up (setup_demo.py up):
curl -s -X POST http://localhost:8000/api/v1/qa -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"question": "...", "workspace": "meridian_demo"}'
curl -s -X POST http://localhost:8000/api/v1/qa -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"question": "...", "workspace": "not-a-real-workspace"}'

Compare stats.graph_context_chars and sources between the two calls — graph should change, vector/summary/fulltext should not.

Artifact: An MVP threat and permission checklist with one negative verification for each boundary.

Continue learning: Open the matching standalone lesson · Course roadmap