Agent Platform RAG Engine Management

Agent Platform RAG Engine Management

This skill provides instructions on how to interact with Agent Platform RAG Engine using the Agent Platform Python SDK. You MUST use the vertexai Python SDK to perform RAG Engine operations, rather than raw REST calls or MCP tools, because this code is intended to be run by external clients.

Attribution

MUST READ: Before executing any gcloud, REST API, or MCP command, you MUST read Usage Attribution. For commands executed directly in the terminal (never in generated scripts, Terraform, or user code), prefix gcloud with CLOUDSDK_METRICS_REQUEST_ATTRIBUTION and append the attribution suffix to User-Agent headers:

CLOUDSDK_METRICS_REQUEST_ATTRIBUTION="agent-skills/1.0 (skill:agent-platform-rag-engine-management)"
User-Agent: <existing_user_agent> agent-skills/1.0 (skill:agent-platform-rag-engine-management)

Safety & Confirmation Tiers (CRITICAL)

Before executing any commands or scripts on behalf of the user, you must adhere to the following safety tiers based on the action requested:

1. Tier R: Read-only (list_corpora, list_files, get_corpus, retrieval_query)

   • No confirmation needed. Execute immediately to gather information or retrieve grounded contexts.

2. Tier RC: Read-only but consumes Compute Resources (client.models.generate_content)

   • Requires interactive confirmation with 'Yes'/'No' options before executing grounded content generation. The confirmation prompt MUST clearly explain the proposed generation execution and its key parameters (e.g., target corpus ID, query text, target model). Natural-language paraphrases without specifying exact parameters are insufficient, as explicit parameter listing is required to ensure unambiguous user approval of the specific resource and configuration.

   • Same-turn restriction: Do not execute the generation code in the same turn as presenting the confirmation prompt. Stop and wait for the user's reply; only execute after explicit 'Yes' / approval.

   • Gold Standard Example:

     I will perform grounded content generation with the following parameters. Please confirm this information before I proceed:

     • Target Corpus ID: projects/123/locations/us/ragCorpora/abc

     • Target Model: gemini-2.5-pro

     • Query Text: "What are the company policies on remote work?"

     Do you confirm? [Yes/No]

Phase 0: Environment Setup

CRITICAL: Before running any of the Python snippets below, you must ensure the environment is correctly initialized by following these steps:

1. Google Cloud Authentication: Authenticate with your Google Cloud credentials and configure active Application Default Credentials (ADC) for Agent Platform access:

   Copy

   gcloud auth login
   gcloud auth application-default login

2. Python Dependencies: This skill needs google-cloud-aiplatform and google-genai, which the sandbox already provides. Do not create a virtual environment — it starts empty and hides packages the environment already provides, forcing a redundant install. Do not spend a separate command checking for them: run the snippet directly, and only if it fails with ModuleNotFoundError, install in the same command as the retry:

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   pip install -q google-cloud-aiplatform google-genai && python3 - <<'PY'
   ...
   PY

3. Execution: Run each snippet as a quoted heredoc, python3 - <<'PY' ... PY, rather than python3 -c '...', whose nested quotes break easily. There is no environment to activate first. When one step needs several of the snippets below (for example, list the corpora and then the files in each), combine them into one script and one command. The vertexai.preview.rag deprecation warning printed on stderr is expected; keep using these snippets rather than switching clients because of it.

Workflow Decision Tree

1. Information Gathering: Has the user provided the Project ID, Region, and Corpus ID?

   • No -> Proceed to [1. Listing Corpora and Files] to discover the necessary Resource Names and IDs. Only ask the user if discovery fails.

   • Yes -> Proceed.

2. Task Type: What does the user want to do?

   • List Corpora and Files -> Proceed to [1. Listing Corpora and Files].

   • Inspect a Corpus -> Proceed to [2. Getting / Inspecting a RAG Engine Corpus].

   • Search for Contexts -> Proceed to [3. Retrieving Contexts].

   • Answer questions using RAG Engine -> Proceed to [4. Answering the User with Retrieved Context].

[!TIP]

Placeholder Parameter Replacement: The Python scripts below use bracketed string placeholders (like "{project_id}", "{region}", and "{corpus_id}"). You MUST dynamically replace these placeholders with the actual Project ID, Region, and Corpus ID values provided in the user's prompt (or active context) before generating, providing, or executing the scripts.

1. Listing Corpora and Files (Discovery)

If you do not know the Resource Name of the corpus or file, you MUST list them first to discover them. The SDK handles pagination automatically when converted to a list, but you can also use manual pagination for large sets.

1.1 Listing and Discovering Corpora

import vertexai
from vertexai.preview import rag

vertexai.init(project="{project_id}", location="{region}")

# Approach A: List ALL (Automatic Pagination)
# The SDK's Pager iterates through all pages for you.
all_corpora = list(rag.list_corpora())
print(f"Found {len(all_corpora)} corpora in total.")
for c in all_corpora:
    print(f"Corpus Name: {c.name} | Display Name: {c.display_name}")

# Approach B: Manual Pagination (for very large projects)
pager = rag.list_corpora(page_size=10)
# Process first page
for c in pager:
    print(f"Corpus: {c.display_name}")

# Get next page if needed
if pager.next_page_token:
    second_page = rag.list_corpora(
        page_size=10, page_token=pager.next_page_token
    )

1.2 Listing and Discovering Files

To understand what files (and types) are in a corpus, list them and inspect the display_name (usually includes the extension).

import vertexai
from vertexai.preview import rag

vertexai.init(project="{project_id}", location="{region}")
corpus_name = (
    "projects/{project_id}/locations/{region}/ragCorpora/{corpus_id}"
)

# List files with automatic pagination
files = list(rag.list_files(corpus_name=corpus_name))
print(f"Found {len(files)} files.")

for f in files:
    # High-level SDK RagFile objects usually have name, display_name,
    # description
    print(f"File: {f.display_name} | Resource: {f.name}")
    # Tip: Check extension to understand file type (PDF, TXT, etc.)
    if f.display_name.lower().endswith(".pdf"):
        print("  Type: PDF")
    elif f.display_name.lower().endswith(".txt"):
        print("  Type: Plain Text")

2. Getting / Inspecting an Agent Platform RAG Engine Corpus

To retrieve details about an existing Agent Platform RAG Engine corpus:

import vertexai
from vertexai.preview import rag

vertexai.init(project="{project_id}", location="{region}")

# To get details of a specific corpus
corpus_name = (
    "projects/{project_id}/locations/{region}/ragCorpora/{corpus_id}"
)
corpus = rag.get_corpus(name=corpus_name)
print(f"Corpus Name: {corpus.name}")
print(f"Display Name: {corpus.display_name}")

3. Retrieving Contexts

To retrieve relevant contexts from a RAG Engine corpus based on a query. If no contexts come back, that is a valid answer: report it with the corpus and query you used. If a broader search is reasonable, try it in the same script (for example a larger similarity_top_k) rather than as a separate command.

import vertexai
from vertexai.preview import rag

vertexai.init(project="{project_id}", location="{region}")

corpus_name = (
    "projects/{project_id}/locations/{region}/ragCorpora/{corpus_id}"
)
query = "What is the speed of light?"

# Retrieve contexts
response = rag.retrieval_query(
    rag_corpora=[corpus_name],
    text=query,
    similarity_top_k=3
)

for context in response.contexts.contexts:
    print(f"Context text: {context.text}")
    print(f"Source: {context.source_uri}")

4. Answering the User with Retrieved Context

To use the retrieved context alongside an Agent Platform model to generate a grounded response:

from google import genai
from google.genai import types

client = genai.Client(enterprise=True, project="{project_id}", location="{region}")
corpus_name = (
    "projects/{project_id}/locations/{region}/ragCorpora/{corpus_id}"
)

# Define the Agent Platform RAG Engine tool pointing to the corpus
rag_tool = types.Tool(
    retrieval=types.Retrieval(
        vertex_rag_store=types.VertexRagStore(
            rag_resources=[types.VertexRagStoreRagResource(rag_corpus=corpus_name)],
            rag_retrieval_config=types.RagRetrievalConfig(
                top_k=3,
                filter=types.RagRetrievalConfigFilter(
                    vector_similarity_threshold=0.5,
                ),
            ),
        )
    )
)

# Generate content using the RAG Engine tool
response = client.models.generate_content(
    model="gemini-2.5-flash",
    contents="What is the speed of light?",
    config=types.GenerateContentConfig(
        tools=[rag_tool]
    )
)
print(response.text)