Build a Graph RAG system with LangChain and GraphRetriever (Go)
Graph RAG is an enhancement to retrieval-augmented generation (RAG). Graph RAG uses vector search to find semantically similar documents, and then uses graph traversal to find connected documents through relationships like hyperlinks, citations, or references. This helps find documents that might not be semantically similar but are contextually connected. Similar to RAG, the found documents serve as context for a large language model (LLM).
In this tutorial, you will build a simple graph RAG system. First, you will build a graph from a small set of cross-linked HTML pages. Then, you will use the graph during the retrieval step of RAG to provide extended context to the LLM.
Prerequisites
-
An active Serverless (vector) database.
-
An application token with the Database Administrator role.
-
An OpenAI API key associated with a paid OpenAI account.
-
Go version 1.23 or later
Install dependencies
Install the dependencies used in this tutorial. For example:
go get github.com/datastax/astra-db-go/v2 github.com/tmc/langchaingo
Store your credentials
For this tutorial, store your database’s Data API endpoint, application token, and OpenAI API key in environment variables:
- Linux or macOS
-
export API_ENDPOINT=API_ENDPOINT export APPLICATION_TOKEN=APPLICATION_TOKEN export OPENAI_API_KEY=OPENAI_API_KEY - Microsoft Windows
-
set API_ENDPOINT=API_ENDPOINTset APPLICATION_TOKEN=APPLICATION_TOKENset OPENAI_API_KEY=OPENAI_API_KEY
Build the graph
-
Download the graph_rag_dataset.json sample dataset. This dataset is a JSON array describing a small set of cross-linked HTML pages.
-
Copy the following code into a Go file, and replace the
PATH_TO_DATA_FILEplaceholder with the path to the JSON data file.This code processes the raw JSON dataset into a list of documents. Each document incudes a
metadata.hyperlinkfield, which lists the links from that document’s HTML content, and ametadata.urlfield, which contains the URL of the document. These fields are used to build the graph during retrieval in the next section.Then, the code creates a collection that uses Astra DB as the backend and OpenAI as the embedding service. Finally, the code inserts the processed documents into the vector store.
package main import ( "context" "encoding/json" "fmt" "log" "os" "regexp" "github.com/datastax/astra-db-go/v2/astra" "github.com/datastax/astra-db-go/v2/astra/filter" "github.com/datastax/astra-db-go/v2/astra/options" "github.com/tmc/langchaingo/embeddings" "github.com/tmc/langchaingo/llms/openai" ) // Helper to extract href values from HTML anchor tags var hrefRegex = regexp.MustCompile(`(?i)<a\s+(?:[^>]*?\s+)?href="([^"]*)"`) // Helper to extract href values from an HTML string func extractHyperlinks(html string) []string { matches := hrefRegex.FindAllStringSubmatch(html, -1) links := make([]string, 0, len(matches)) for _, m := range matches { links = append(links, m[1]) } return links } func main() { ctx := context.Background() endpoint := os.Getenv("API_ENDPOINT") (1) applicationToken := os.Getenv("APPLICATION_TOKEN") openaiAPIKey := os.Getenv("OPENAI_API_KEY") if endpoint == "" || applicationToken == "" || openaiAPIKey == "" { log.Fatal( "Environment variables API_ENDPOINT, APPLICATION_TOKEN, OPENAI_API_KEY must be defined.", ) } dataFilePath := "PATH_TO_DATA_FILE" (2) // Read the JSON file and parse it into a slice of objects raw, err := os.ReadFile(dataFilePath) if err != nil { log.Fatal(err) } var jsonData []struct { HTMLDoc string `json:"html_doc"` URL string `json:"url"` } if err := json.Unmarshal(raw, &jsonData); err != nil { log.Fatal(err) } // Convert the slice into documents with extracted hyperlinks type docRecord struct { content string url string hyperlink []string } docs := make([]docRecord, len(jsonData)) for i, d := range jsonData { docs[i] = docRecord{ content: d.HTMLDoc, url: d.URL, hyperlink: extractHyperlinks(d.HTMLDoc), } } // Generate embeddings for the documents // using LangChain OpenAI Embeddings fmt.Println("Generating embeddings...") llm, err := openai.New(openai.WithToken(openaiAPIKey)) if err != nil { log.Fatal(err) } embedder, err := embeddings.NewEmbedder(llm) if err != nil { log.Fatal(err) } contents := make([]string, len(docs)) for i, d := range docs { contents[i] = d.content } vectors, err := embedder.EmbedDocuments(ctx, contents) if err != nil { log.Fatal(err) } // Build the documents with embeddings docsWithEmbeddings := make([]any, len(docs)) for i, d := range docs { docsWithEmbeddings[i] = astra.NewDocument{ "content": d.content, "metadata": map[string]any{ "url": d.url, "hyperlink": d.hyperlink, }, "$vector": vectors[i], } } // Initialize the Astra DB Data API client client := astra.NewClient() database := client.Database(endpoint, options.API().SetToken(applicationToken)) // Create a new collection // (If a collection with the same name already exists, // that collection is used instead) fmt.Println("Creating collection...") collection, err := database.CreateCollection(ctx, "graph_rag_tutorial", options.CreateCollection().UpdateVector( options.Vector(). SetDimension(1536). SetMetric(options.MetricCosine), ), ) if err != nil { log.Fatal(err) } // In case a collection with this name already existed, // delete any documents in the collection if _, err := collection.DeleteMany(ctx, filter.F{}); err != nil { log.Fatal(err) } // Insert the documents into the collection fmt.Println("Inserting documents...") if _, err := collection.InsertMany( ctx, docsWithEmbeddings, ); err != nil { log.Fatal(err) } }1 Store your database’s endpoint, application token, and OpenAI key in environment variables named API_ENDPOINT,APPLICATION_TOKEN, andOPENAI_API_KEY, as instructed in Store your credentials.2 Replace PATH_TO_DATA_FILEwith the path to the JSON data file. -
Execute the code. You should see printed messages indicating embedding generation, collection creation, and document insertion.
Define a graph retriever
Copy the following code into a Go file.
This code defines a GraphRetriever that uses vector search to find relevant documents and then uses graph traversal to explore their connections.
The code is imported in the next section.
package graphretriever
import (
"context"
"github.com/datastax/astra-db-go/v2/astra"
"github.com/datastax/astra-db-go/v2/astra/filter"
"github.com/datastax/astra-db-go/v2/astra/options"
"github.com/datastax/astra-db-go/v2/astra/sort"
"github.com/tmc/langchaingo/schema"
)
// Interface used by GraphRetriever to generate query embeddings.
// It is satisfied by the result of embeddings.NewEmbedder
// from langchaingo.
type Embedder interface {
EmbedQuery(ctx context.Context, text string) ([]float32, error)
}
// GraphRetriever first uses vector search to find relevant documents,
// then uses graph traversal to explore their connections via hyperlinks.
type GraphRetriever struct {
Collection *astra.Collection
Embedder Embedder
// Number of documents to fetch via vector search
// for starting the traversal
StartK int
// Maximum total documents to retrieve during traversal
SelectK int
// Maximum traversal depth.
// A value of 0 only performs vector search,
// but does not do any graph traversal.
MaxDepth int
}
// GetRelevantDocuments retrieves documents relevant to the query by
// first running a vector search and then
// traversing document hyperlinks up to MaxDepth.
func (r *GraphRetriever) GetRelevantDocuments(
ctx context.Context,
query string,
) ([]schema.Document, error) {
// Generate an embedding vector for the search query
queryVector, err := r.Embedder.EmbedQuery(ctx, query)
if err != nil {
return nil, err
}
// 1. Vector search for initial seed documents
seedCursor := r.Collection.Find(
filter.F{},
options.CollectionFind().
SetSort(sort.Vector(queryVector)).
SetLimit(r.StartK),
)
defer seedCursor.Close()
var seedDocs []schema.Document
for seedCursor.Next(ctx) {
var doc astra.Document
if err := seedCursor.Decode(&doc); err != nil {
return nil, err
}
seedDocs = append(seedDocs, docToSchema(doc))
}
if err := seedCursor.Err(); err != nil {
return nil, err
}
retrievedDocs := make([]schema.Document, len(seedDocs))
copy(retrievedDocs, seedDocs)
retrievedURLs := make(map[string]struct{})
for _, doc := range retrievedDocs {
if url, ok := doc.Metadata["url"].(string); ok && url != "" {
retrievedURLs[url] = struct{}{}
}
}
// 2. Graph traversal
frontier := seedDocs
for depth := 0; depth < r.MaxDepth && len(retrievedDocs) < r.SelectK && len(frontier) > 0; depth++ {
// Collect all unique hyperlinks from the current frontier
linksToFetch := make(map[string]struct{})
for _, doc := range frontier {
if links, ok := doc.Metadata["hyperlink"].([]any); ok {
for _, l := range links {
if link, ok := l.(string); ok && link != "" {
if _, seen := retrievedURLs[link]; !seen {
linksToFetch[link] = struct{}{}
}
}
}
}
}
if len(linksToFetch) == 0 {
break
}
// Build a slice of URLs for the $in filter
linksSlice := make([]any, 0, len(linksToFetch))
for link := range linksToFetch {
linksSlice = append(linksSlice, link)
}
// Fetch documents matching these URLs from Astra DB
linkCursor := r.Collection.Find(
filter.F{"metadata.url": filter.F{"$in": linksSlice}},
)
var nextFrontier []schema.Document
for linkCursor.Next(ctx) {
if len(retrievedDocs) >= r.SelectK {
break
}
var rawDoc astra.Document
if err := linkCursor.Decode(&rawDoc); err != nil {
linkCursor.Close()
return nil, err
}
d := docToSchema(rawDoc)
url, _ := d.Metadata["url"].(string)
if url == "" {
continue
}
if _, seen := retrievedURLs[url]; seen {
continue
}
retrievedURLs[url] = struct{}{}
retrievedDocs = append(retrievedDocs, d)
nextFrontier = append(nextFrontier, d)
}
if err := linkCursor.Err(); err != nil {
return nil, err
}
linkCursor.Close()
frontier = nextFrontier
}
return retrievedDocs, nil
}
// Helper to convert an astra.Document into a schema.Document
func docToSchema(doc astra.Document) schema.Document {
rawContent, _ := doc.Get("content")
content, _ := rawContent.(string)
rawMetadata, _ := doc.Get("metadata")
metadata, _ := rawMetadata.(map[string]any)
if metadata == nil {
metadata = map[string]any{}
}
return schema.Document{
PageContent: content,
Metadata: metadata,
}
}
Use the graph for retrieval and generation
-
Copy the following code into a Go file.
This code uses the graph retriever from the previous section to perform a vector search to find the documents that are most similar to a given string, then traverses the graph to find connected documents. The documents found by the graph retriever are passed along with the original question to the LLM.
package main import ( "context" "fmt" "log" "os" "strings" "github.com/datastax/astra-db-go/v2/astra" "github.com/datastax/astra-db-go/v2/astra/options" "github.com/tmc/langchaingo/embeddings" "github.com/tmc/langchaingo/llms/openai" "github.com/tmc/langchaingo/schema" "tutorial-graph-rag/graphretriever" (1) ) func main() { ctx := context.Background() endpoint := os.Getenv("API_ENDPOINT") (2) applicationToken := os.Getenv("APPLICATION_TOKEN") openaiAPIKey := os.Getenv("OPENAI_API_KEY") if endpoint == "" || applicationToken == "" || openaiAPIKey == "" { log.Fatal( "Environment variables API_ENDPOINT, APPLICATION_TOKEN, OPENAI_API_KEY must be defined.", ) } // Initialize the Astra DB Data API client and get the collection client := astra.NewClient() database := client.Database(endpoint, options.API().SetToken(applicationToken)) collection := database.Collection("graph_rag_tutorial") // Initialize LangChain OpenAI LLM llm, err := openai.New( openai.WithToken(openaiAPIKey), openai.WithModel("gpt-4o"), ) if err != nil { log.Fatal(err) } // Initialize LangChain Embeddings embedder, err := embeddings.NewEmbedder(llm) if err != nil { log.Fatal(err) } // Initialize GraphRetriever. // This retriever first uses vector search to find relevant documents, // then uses graph traversal to explore their connections. retriever := &graphretriever.GraphRetriever{ Collection: collection, Embedder: embedder, // Number of documents to fetch via vector search // for starting the traversal StartK: 3, // Maximum total documents to retrieve during traversal SelectK: 10, // Maximum traversal depth. // A value of 0 only performs vector search, // but does not do any graph traversal. MaxDepth: 1, } // Define the prompt template const promptTemplate = `Answer the question based only on the following context: %s Question: %s` // Try these questions to explore the knowledge graph: const question = "What is close to the Space Needle?" // Alternative questions: // - "What is in the Lower Queen Anne neighborhood?" // - "What is in the same neighborhood as the Space Needle?" // - "What connects the 1962 World's Fair to modern Seattle?" // - "Where is Chihuly Garden and Glass?" fmt.Printf("\nQuestion: %s\n\n", question) // Build the RAG chain: // 1. Retrieve relevant documents via vector search and graph traversal docs, err := retriever.GetRelevantDocuments(ctx, question) if err != nil { log.Fatalf("Error during retrieval: %v", err) } // 2. Format the retrieved documents into a single context string ctx2 := formatDocs(docs) // 3. Inject the context and question into the prompt template prompt := fmt.Sprintf(promptTemplate, ctx2, question) // 4. Pass the formatted prompt to the LLM and print the response response, err := llm.Call(ctx, prompt) if err != nil { log.Fatalf("Error during RAG query: %v", err) } fmt.Println("Answer:") fmt.Println(response) } // Helper to concatenate content for use as LLM context func formatDocs(docs []schema.Document) string { parts := make([]string, len(docs)) for i, doc := range docs { parts[i] = doc.PageContent } return strings.Join(parts, "\n\n") }1 This is the GraphRetrieverdefined in the previous section. Update the import path as needed.2 Store your database’s endpoint, application token, and OpenAI key in environment variables named API_ENDPOINT,APPLICATION_TOKEN, andOPENAI_API_KEY, as instructed in Store your credentials. -
Execute the code. You should see the question print to the console, followed by the answer from the LLM.
Next steps
-
Ask different questions to see how the graph retriever performs.
-
Tune the
StartK,SelectK, andMaxDepthparameters to see how this affects the results. Note that increasing these values will increase the number of documents retrieved and passed to the LLM, which will increase the cost of the operation.-
StartKis the number of documents to retrieve via vector search for starting the graph traversal.Increasing
StartKcan help with questions that might match multiple documents. -
SelectKis the number of documents to retrieve during graph traversal.Increasing
SelectKcan help with questions that require broad context. -
MaxDepthis the maximum traversal depth.Increasing
MaxDepthcan help with questions that require more distant connections, but might also retrieve too many loosely related documents.
-
-
Try using a larger dataset.