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Context Sufficiency judge & scorer

The judges.is_context_sufficient() predefined judge evaluates whether the context either retrieved by your RAG system or generated by a tool call contains enough information to adequately answer the user's request based on the ground truth label provided as expected_facts or an expected_response.

This judge is available through the predefined RetrievalSufficiency scorer for evaluating RAG systems where you need to ensure that your retrieval process is providing all necessary information.

API Signature​

Python
from mlflow.genai.judges import is_context_sufficient

def is_context_sufficient(
    *,
    request: str,                    # User's question or query
    context: Any,                    # Context to evaluate for relevance, can be any Python primitive or a JSON-seralizable dict
    expected_facts: Optional[list[str]],       # List of expected facts (provide either expected_response or expected_facts)
    expected_response: Optional[str] = None,  #  Ground truth response (provide either expected_response or expected_facts)
    name: Optional[str] = None       # Optional custom name for display in the MLflow UIs
) -> mlflow.entities.Feedback:
    """Returns Feedback with 'yes' or 'no' value and a rationale"""

Prerequisites for running the examples​

  1. Install MLflow and required packages

    Bash
    pip install --upgrade "mlflow[databricks]>=3.1.0"

  2. Create an MLflow experiment by following the setup your environment quickstart.

Direct SDK Usage​

Python
from mlflow.genai.judges import is_context_sufficient

# Example 1: Context contains sufficient information
feedback = is_context_sufficient(
    request="What is the capital of France?",
    context=[
        {"content": "Paris is the capital of France."},
        {"content": "Paris is known for its Eiffel Tower."}
    ],
    expected_facts=["Paris is the capital of France."]
)
print(feedback.value)  # "yes"
print(feedback.rationale)  # Explanation of sufficiency

# Example 2: Context lacks necessary information
feedback = is_context_sufficient(
    request="What are MLflow's components?",
    context=[
        {"content": "MLflow is an open-source platform."}
    ],
    expected_facts=[
        "MLflow has four main components",
        "Components include Tracking",
        "Components include Projects"
    ]
)
print(feedback.value)  # "no"
print(feedback.rationale)  # Explanation of what's missing

Using the prebuilt scorer​

The is_context_sufficient judge is available through the RetrievalSufficiency prebuilt scorer.

Requirements:

  • Trace requirements:
    • The MLflow Trace must contain at least one span with span_type set to RETRIEVER
    • inputs and outputs must be on the Trace's root span
  • Ground-truth labels: Required - must provide either expected_facts or expected_response in the expectations dictionary
Python
import os
import mlflow
from openai import OpenAI
from mlflow.genai.scorers import RetrievalSufficiency
from mlflow.entities import Document
from typing import List

mlflow.openai.autolog()

# Connect to a Databricks LLM via OpenAI using the same credentials as MLflow
# Alternatively, you can use your own OpenAI credentials here
mlflow_creds = mlflow.utils.databricks_utils.get_databricks_host_creds()
client = OpenAI(
  api_key=cred.token,
  base_url=f"{cred.host}/serving-endpoints"
)

# Define a retriever function with proper span type
@mlflow.trace(span_type="RETRIEVER")
def retrieve_docs(query: str) -> List[Document]:
    # Simulated retrieval - some queries return insufficient context
    if "capital of france" in query.lower():
        return [
            Document(
                id="doc_1",
                page_content="Paris is the capital of France.",
                metadata={"source": "geography.txt"}
            ),
            Document(
                id="doc_2",
                page_content="France is a country in Western Europe.",
                metadata={"source": "countries.txt"}
            )
        ]
    elif "mlflow components" in query.lower():
        # Incomplete retrieval - missing some components
        return [
            Document(
                id="doc_3",
                page_content="MLflow has multiple components including Tracking and Projects.",
                metadata={"source": "mlflow_intro.txt"}
            )
        ]
    else:
        return [
            Document(
                id="doc_4",
                page_content="General information about data science.",
                metadata={"source": "ds_basics.txt"}
            )
        ]

# Define your RAG app
@mlflow.trace
def rag_app(query: str):
    # Retrieve documents
    docs = retrieve_docs(query)
    context = "\n".join([doc.page_content for doc in docs])

    # Generate response
    messages = [
        {"role": "system", "content": f"Answer based on this context: {context}"},
        {"role": "user", "content": query}
    ]

    response = client.chat.completions.create(
        # This example uses Databricks hosted Claude.  If you provide your own OpenAI credentials, replace with a valid OpenAI model e.g., gpt-4o, etc.
        model="databricks-claude-3-7-sonnet",
        messages=messages
    )

    return {"response": response.choices[0].message.content}

# Create evaluation dataset with ground truth
eval_dataset = [
    {
        "inputs": {"query": "What is the capital of France?"},
        "expectations": {
            "expected_facts": ["Paris is the capital of France."]
        }
    },
    {
        "inputs": {"query": "What are all the MLflow components?"},
        "expectations": {
            "expected_facts": [
                "MLflow has four main components",
                "Components include Tracking",
                "Components include Projects",
                "Components include Models",
                "Components include Registry"
            ]
        }
    }
]

# Run evaluation with RetrievalSufficiency scorer
eval_results = mlflow.genai.evaluate(
    data=eval_dataset,
    predict_fn=rag_app,
    scorers=[RetrievalSufficiency()]
)

Understanding the results​

The RetrievalSufficiency scorer evaluates each retriever span separately. It will:

  • Return "yes" if the retrieved documents contain all the information needed to generate the expected facts
  • Return "no" if the retrieved documents are missing critical information, along with a rationale explaining what's missing

This helps you identify when your retrieval system is failing to fetch all necessary information, which is a common cause of incomplete or incorrect responses in RAG applications.

Using in a custom scorer​

When evaluating applications with different data structures than the requirements the predefined scorer, wrap the judge in a custom scorer:

Python
from mlflow.genai.judges import is_context_sufficient
from mlflow.genai.scorers import scorer
from typing import Dict, Any

eval_dataset = [
    {
        "inputs": {"query": "What are the benefits of MLflow?"},
        "outputs": {
            "retrieved_context": [
                {"content": "MLflow simplifies ML lifecycle management."},
                {"content": "MLflow provides experiment tracking and model versioning."},
                {"content": "MLflow enables easy model deployment."}
            ]
        },
        "expectations": {
            "expected_facts": [
                "MLflow simplifies ML lifecycle management",
                "MLflow provides experiment tracking",
                "MLflow enables model deployment"
            ]
        }
    },
    {
        "inputs": {"query": "How does MLflow handle model versioning?"},
        "outputs": {
            "retrieved_context": [
                {"content": "MLflow is an open-source platform."}
            ]
        },
        "expectations": {
            "expected_facts": [
                "MLflow Model Registry handles versioning",
                "Models can have multiple versions",
                "Versions can be promoted through stages"
            ]
        }
    }
]

@scorer
def context_sufficiency_scorer(inputs: Dict[Any, Any], outputs: Dict[Any, Any], expectations: Dict[Any, Any]):
    return is_context_sufficient(
        request=inputs["query"],
        context=outputs["retrieved_context"],
        expected_facts=expectations["expected_facts"]
    )

# Run evaluation
eval_results = mlflow.genai.evaluate(
    data=eval_dataset,
    scorers=[context_sufficiency_scorer]
)

Interpreting Results​

The judge returns a Feedback object with:

  • value: "yes" if context is sufficient, "no" if insufficient
  • rationale: Explanation of which expected facts are covered or missing in the context

Next Steps​

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