# Redwood vs Cedar Decision

## The Problem

Unclear when to use Redwood (standard RAG) versus Cedar (context-aware RAG), causing agents to choose incorrectly and miss user-specific context.

### Symptoms

* ❌ Generic answer when user-specific needed
* ❌ Cedar used unnecessarily (added latency)
* ❌ Cannot explain Redwood vs Cedar choice
* ❌ Inconsistent strategy for similar queries
* ❌ Misses user permissions/context

### Real-World Example

```
Query: "What documents can I access?"

Redwood (wrong choice):
→ Returns: "All users can access help docs, API docs..."
→ Generic answer, ignores "I"

Cedar (correct choice):
→ Retrieves user context: User = Alice, Team = Engineering
→ Returns: "You (Alice) can access: Engineering docs, Prod database docs,
shared team folders..."
→ Personalized, permission-aware

Agent chose Redwood: Missed user-specific context
```

***

## Deep Technical Analysis

### Redwood Characteristics

**Use Cases:**

```
✓ Factual queries
✓ Public documentation
✓ No user context needed
✓ Fast, simple retrieval

Examples:
→ "What is the API rate limit?"
→ "How to install the SDK?"
→ "Explain authentication flow"

Speed: 1-2 seconds
Cost: Low
```

### Cedar Characteristics

**Use Cases:**

```
✓ User-specific queries
✓ Permission-based access
✓ Contextual answers
✓ Personalized responses

Examples:
→ "What can I access?"
→ "My recent projects"
→ "Documents for my team"

Speed: 2-4 seconds (retrieves user context first)
Cost: Medium (additional context retrieval)
```

### Decision Criteria

**Query Analysis:**

```
Personal pronouns:
→ "I", "my", "me", "our" → Cedar

Possession queries:
→ "What do I have?"
→ "My permissions" → Cedar

Role-based:
→ "As a developer, what..."
→ "For my role..." → Cedar

Generic:
→ "What is X?"
→ "How does Y work?" → Redwood
```

**User Context Indicators:**

```
Check if query needs:
1. User identity → Cedar
2. User permissions → Cedar
3. User's team/group → Cedar
4. User's previous actions → Cedar

If none: Use Redwood
```

### Hybrid Approach

**Context Pre-Check:**

```
Algorithm:
1. Classify query: Personal vs Generic
2. If personal:
   a. Fetch user context (team, role, permissions)
   b. Use Cedar with context
3. If generic:
   a. Use Redwood (no context needed)

Efficient: Only fetch context when needed
```

**Progressive Enhancement:**

```
Start Redwood:
→ Retrieve generic docs
→ Check if answer sufficient

If insufficient:
→ "This answer applies generally. Would you like personalized info?"
→ User confirms
→ Switch to Cedar, add context

User-controlled escalation
```

### Context Sources (Cedar)

**User Metadata:**

```
Retrieve from auth/user DB:
→ user_id: "12345"
→ name: "Alice Johnson"
→ email: "alice@company.com"
→ role: "Senior Engineer"
→ team: "Backend Team"
→ permissions: ["read_prod_db", "deploy_staging"]
```

**Activity History:**

```
Recent user actions:
→ Last accessed: Project Phoenix docs
→ Frequently queries: API authentication
→ Team: Working on OAuth integration

Context: Bias retrieval toward OAuth/auth topics
```

***

## How to Solve

**Detect personal pronouns (I, my, me, our) → use Cedar + identify permission/access queries → use Cedar + use Redwood by default for generic queries + fetch user context only when Cedar selected + measure Cedar accuracy (correct personalization?) + monitor Cedar usage rate (over/under-use) + allow user to toggle "personalized mode" explicitly + test with user-specific eval queries.** See [Redwood vs Cedar](/rag-scenarios-and-solutions/agent/strategy-decision.md).


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