Case study
OpsMind
Search operational documents and trace answers back to their sources.
Overview
OpsMind helps operators search operational documents, find relevant information, and see the source behind each result.
Problem
Operational data is difficult to retrieve when records are split across systems.
The core problem is retrieval quality: finding relevant operational information and preserving where it came from.
Keyword search misses related records when terminology differs across sources
Engineers need retrieved information with source references, not detached summaries
Solution
A retrieval pipeline for operational documents.
OpsMind separates ingestion, MySQL metadata storage, Redis-backed lookup, and response assembly.
Retrieval-first query path
Queries retrieve source sections first, then assemble a response from the returned records and citations.
Document ingestion pipeline
Documents are parsed, normalized, split into indexed sections, and linked back to source metadata.
Split storage model
MySQL owns structured records and ingestion state. Redis owns the retrieval index for document sections.
Result assembly
Matching sections are collected with source metadata, ranked, and passed into the response step.
Architecture
Backend design decisions.
The architecture keeps durable metadata, indexed retrieval, and request handling in separate responsibilities.
FastAPI backend
Keep ingestion and query workflows behind explicit HTTP endpoints.
FastAPI provides typed request models, clear route boundaries, and a simple async path for backend orchestration.
MySQL database
Use relational storage for document metadata and ingestion state.
Documents, indexed sections, source references, and ingestion status need constraints and inspectable records.
Redis retrieval index
Use Redis for fast section lookup and keep it separate from the metadata database.
The retrieval index can be rebuilt from MySQL-backed source records without becoming the system of record.
Separate endpoint surfaces
Separate write-heavy ingestion from read-heavy query execution.
Ingestion endpoints manage parsing and section creation. Query endpoints handle retrieval and response assembly.
Features
Document ingestion
Indexed retrieval
Query response system
Source attribution
Results
One retrieval path for operational documents
Fast lookup across indexed source material
Source metadata preserved through ingestion and query responses
Note