Answer questions from documents with source citations
Use Bee to find and explain passages in your own document collection. This guide covers source preparation, retrieval, answer review and unresolved questions; the sector examples below identify the corpus and accountable owner.
Prepare the source collection
Choose the authoritative files before uploading anything. Record document owner, version, effective date and permitted audience. Keep revoked or superseded material identifiable so a reviewer can distinguish historical evidence from current policy.
Add only documents you are entitled to process in the selected Bee account. The hosted MCP exposes document addition and search; its available tools follow the connected account. Check retention, plan limits and tenant boundaries before moving a sensitive collection.
Retrieve first, then inspect the answer
Start with a question whose answer you already know from a source passage. Inspect the returned chunks and their source references before asking Bee to synthesize them. If the controlling document is absent, correct the collection rather than relying on an uncited answer.
Ask for the answer, supporting passages, document versions and unresolved conflicts separately. Open the cited original and check that it actually supports the statement. A source reference establishes where text came from; it does not establish that the source is authoritative or the answer correct.
Handle disagreement and missing evidence
When two versions conflict, retain both references and have the document owner apply the precedence rule. When no passage supports the answer, record the question as unanswered. Do not fill a missing policy, legal conclusion or technical fact with plausible generated text.
Decide whether the workflow is usable
Keep a review set of representative questions, including questions with no answer and questions spanning contradictory versions. Record supported answers, incorrect citations, missed sources and access-boundary failures. Set acceptance criteria with the accountable owner before using answers in consequential work.
Sector evaluation examples
These examples identify a record, owner and review artifact. They are not customer deployments or measured results.
Banking and capital markets
Accountable owner: Credit research
Answer questions across loan covenants and amendments with traceable citations
How can reviewers retrieve a current answer from loan covenants and amendments without losing the source passage or document version?
Review artifact: A source-grounded answer set for loan covenants and amendments, including citation coverage, unresolved conflicts, and access-boundary tests.
Insurance
Accountable owner: Underwriting
Answer questions across policy wordings and endorsements with traceable citations
How can reviewers retrieve a current answer from policy wordings and endorsements without losing the source passage or document version?
Review artifact: A source-grounded answer set for policy wordings and endorsements, including citation coverage, unresolved conflicts, and access-boundary tests.
Healthcare
Accountable owner: Clinical operations
Answer questions across clinical policy libraries with traceable citations
How can reviewers retrieve a current answer from clinical policy libraries without losing the source passage or document version?
Review artifact: A source-grounded answer set for clinical policy libraries, including citation coverage, unresolved conflicts, and access-boundary tests.
Life sciences
Accountable owner: Clinical research
Answer questions across trial protocols and amendments with traceable citations
How can reviewers retrieve a current answer from trial protocols and amendments without losing the source passage or document version?
Review artifact: A source-grounded answer set for trial protocols and amendments, including citation coverage, unresolved conflicts, and access-boundary tests.
Legal services
Accountable owner: Litigation
Answer questions across discovery productions with traceable citations
How can reviewers retrieve a current answer from discovery productions without losing the source passage or document version?
Review artifact: A source-grounded answer set for discovery productions, including citation coverage, unresolved conflicts, and access-boundary tests.
Accounting and audit
Accountable owner: External audit
Answer questions across audit workpapers with traceable citations
How can reviewers retrieve a current answer from audit workpapers without losing the source passage or document version?
Review artifact: A source-grounded answer set for audit workpapers, including citation coverage, unresolved conflicts, and access-boundary tests.
Government and public services
Accountable owner: Policy analysis
Answer questions across consultation submissions with traceable citations
How can reviewers retrieve a current answer from consultation submissions without losing the source passage or document version?
Review artifact: A source-grounded answer set for consultation submissions, including citation coverage, unresolved conflicts, and access-boundary tests.
Defense and national security
Accountable owner: Mission planning
Answer questions across mission briefing corpora with traceable citations
How can reviewers retrieve a current answer from mission briefing corpora without losing the source passage or document version?
Review artifact: A source-grounded answer set for mission briefing corpora, including citation coverage, unresolved conflicts, and access-boundary tests.
Software engineering
Accountable owner: Application engineering
Answer questions across repository-wide change analysis with traceable citations
How can reviewers retrieve a current answer from repository-wide change analysis without losing the source passage or document version?
Review artifact: A source-grounded answer set for repository-wide change analysis, including citation coverage, unresolved conflicts, and access-boundary tests.
Cybersecurity operations
Accountable owner: SOC analysis
Answer questions across alert investigation queues with traceable citations
How can reviewers retrieve a current answer from alert investigation queues without losing the source passage or document version?
Review artifact: A source-grounded answer set for alert investigation queues, including citation coverage, unresolved conflicts, and access-boundary tests.
Manufacturing
Accountable owner: Plant engineering
Answer questions across machine manuals and service bulletins with traceable citations
How can reviewers retrieve a current answer from machine manuals and service bulletins without losing the source passage or document version?
Review artifact: A source-grounded answer set for machine manuals and service bulletins, including citation coverage, unresolved conflicts, and access-boundary tests.
Energy and utilities
Accountable owner: Grid operations
Answer questions across operating procedures and switching orders with traceable citations
How can reviewers retrieve a current answer from operating procedures and switching orders without losing the source passage or document version?
Review artifact: A source-grounded answer set for operating procedures and switching orders, including citation coverage, unresolved conflicts, and access-boundary tests.
Telecommunications
Accountable owner: Network operations
Answer questions across network change histories with traceable citations
How can reviewers retrieve a current answer from network change histories without losing the source passage or document version?
Review artifact: A source-grounded answer set for network change histories, including citation coverage, unresolved conflicts, and access-boundary tests.
Retail and ecommerce
Accountable owner: Merchandising
Answer questions across product catalogue evidence with traceable citations
How can reviewers retrieve a current answer from product catalogue evidence without losing the source passage or document version?
Review artifact: A source-grounded answer set for product catalogue evidence, including citation coverage, unresolved conflicts, and access-boundary tests.
Logistics and supply chain
Accountable owner: Transport planning
Answer questions across shipment exception records with traceable citations
How can reviewers retrieve a current answer from shipment exception records without losing the source passage or document version?
Review artifact: A source-grounded answer set for shipment exception records, including citation coverage, unresolved conflicts, and access-boundary tests.
Media and publishing
Accountable owner: Newsroom research
Answer questions across reporting source packs with traceable citations
How can reviewers retrieve a current answer from reporting source packs without losing the source passage or document version?
Review artifact: A source-grounded answer set for reporting source packs, including citation coverage, unresolved conflicts, and access-boundary tests.
Education and research
Accountable owner: Teaching
Answer questions across course and assessment corpora with traceable citations
How can reviewers retrieve a current answer from course and assessment corpora without losing the source passage or document version?
Review artifact: A source-grounded answer set for course and assessment corpora, including citation coverage, unresolved conflicts, and access-boundary tests.
Human resources
Accountable owner: Talent acquisition
Answer questions across candidate screening evidence with traceable citations
How can reviewers retrieve a current answer from candidate screening evidence without losing the source passage or document version?
Review artifact: A source-grounded answer set for candidate screening evidence, including citation coverage, unresolved conflicts, and access-boundary tests.
Professional services
Accountable owner: Engagement delivery
Answer questions across engagement evidence rooms with traceable citations
How can reviewers retrieve a current answer from engagement evidence rooms without losing the source passage or document version?
Review artifact: A source-grounded answer set for engagement evidence rooms, including citation coverage, unresolved conflicts, and access-boundary tests.
Startups and small businesses
Accountable owner: Founder
Answer questions across customer discovery archives with traceable citations
How can reviewers retrieve a current answer from customer discovery archives without losing the source passage or document version?
Review artifact: A source-grounded answer set for customer discovery archives, including citation coverage, unresolved conflicts, and access-boundary tests.
External sources describe the risk and governance context. They do not endorse Bee or verify these scenarios. Each deployment must validate its own source rights, accuracy, integration and review controls.
Frequently asked questions
- Which Bee interface can I use?
- Use the workspace for interactive document questions, or the hosted MCP document-add and document-search tools for an integration. Review the MCP documentation for connection requirements and the live tool catalog.
- Does a citation prove that an answer is correct?
- No. Verify the cited passage, version, applicability and authority. A generated answer can misread or overgeneralize a correctly identified source.
- What should I retain for review?
- Retain the original question, document identifiers and versions, retrieved passages, answer, unresolved conflicts and reviewer decision in storage approved for that collection.
- Are these sector examples customer results?
- They are evaluation scenarios. They identify inputs and review artifacts; they do not report a completed customer deployment or measured accuracy.
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