`_compact_old_tool_returns`, `PRIOR_TURN_NOTICE` and `turn_start` leave `RAGCapabilityBase`, along with its `wrap_model_request` hook. The evidence capabilities now retrieve and validate, and nothing else. Registering the compaction capability is what rewrites a request; leaving it out sends the transcript untouched, which was never a choice a host could make before. The boundary is the recorded question identity rather than message shape, so a resumption compacts what lies below the question in progress instead of switching compaction off for the whole run. The newest earlier evidence return carries the capsule and every other becomes a receipt, so one capsule exists by construction and every return stays paired with its call. Pictures of cited evidence are fetched through the capability that retrieved them and re-attached beside the capsule with fresh labels. Ownership of a picture on the wire requires the machine tag we write and an image directly after it, since neither position nor prose is proof: several tools' results can arrive in one request, and a user quoting our wording above their own picture had it removed. A picture that cannot be fetched or decoded is emitted with neither its image nor its label. The chat TUI and the example backend register the compactor, being multi-turn. `client.ask`, `client.analyze` and the MCP tools do not: a single-shot question has nothing earlier to compact.
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Capabilities
haiku.rag provides native Pydantic AI capabilities:
| Capability | Use it for |
|---|---|
RAGCapability |
Grounded document search and citations. |
AnalysisCapability |
Corpus computation and structural analysis with sandboxed Python. |
EvidenceCompactionCapability |
Optional. Shrinking a conversation's history to the evidence that was cited. |
The two evidence capabilities are deferred by default. An agent initially sees only their descriptions and the standard load_capability tool. Instructions and tools enter the model context only when the model loads a capability.
Compose an agent
from pydantic_ai import Agent
from haiku.rag.capabilities.rag import create_capability
rag = create_capability(db_path="my.lancedb")
agent = Agent("openai:gpt-5", capabilities=[rag])
result = await agent.run("What does the knowledge base say about X?")
print(result.output)
Attach both capabilities when an agent should choose between retrieval and computation:
from haiku.rag.capabilities.analysis import create_capability as analysis
from haiku.rag.capabilities.rag import create_capability as rag
agent = Agent(
"openai:gpt-5",
capabilities=[rag(db_path="my.lancedb"), analysis(db_path="my.lancedb")],
)
Multi-turn conversations
Every question adds its search results to the history, so requests grow turn after turn, and can degrade answers or exceed a provider's limits as they do. Register the compaction capability to replace earlier questions' evidence with the evidence that was actually cited:
from haiku.rag.capabilities.compaction import create_capability as compaction
from haiku.rag.capabilities.rag import create_capability as rag
agent = Agent(
"openai:gpt-5",
capabilities=[rag(db_path="my.lancedb"), compaction()],
)
Cited text and cited page images are kept in full, grouped by the question that cited them, and stay citable by the same chunk ids. Everything else earlier becomes a short receipt. Registering the capability is the only switch: leave it out and the transcript reaches the model untouched. There is nothing to configure.
Compaction rewrites the request, never the stored history, so all_messages() still
holds everything the run gathered. Retained evidence still grows with the
conversation — this reduces what a request carries, it does not bound it. A host that
needs more aggressive pruning can compact its own requests further, on the wire only.
Resuming a question (deferred tool results, an interruption, a suspension) requires the host to carry the capability state from the run being resumed, alongside the message history. Without it the identity of the question in progress is unknowable and the run fails rather than silently treating it as a new question.
State
Capabilities use a plain state: dict[str, Any] attribute on agent dependencies when one is available. RAG state lives under "rag"; analysis state lives under "analysis". This keeps state independent of any transport or UI protocol.
Applications serving AG-UI should adapt the agent with Pydantic AI's AGUIAdapter. Native model and tool events require no haiku.rag-specific bridge.
Database path
Both factories resolve their database in this order:
- The
db_pathargument. HAIKU_RAG_DB.config.storage.data_dir / "haiku.rag.lancedb".