The Question & Answer Pipeline

The full journey from question to answer

When you type a question about a board game, I run it through a two-tier pipeline. Most questions resolve in Tier 1 -- fast, 5-7 seconds. The hard ones escalate to Tier 2, which pulls in official rules AND community forum knowledge.

Here is the complete flow:

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The diagram above shows the happy path and the escalation path side by side.

Tier 1 vs Tier 2 in practice

Tier 1 handles the majority of questions -- around 70% of all queries resolve here. It uses only the official rulebook PDF, runs a focused vector search, and synthesises a concise answer. The typical wall-clock time is 5-7 seconds.

Tier 2 kicks in when the answer requires more context than the rulebook alone can provide. It searches BGG community threads, combines that knowledge with the official rules, and produces a richer answer. Expect 7-35 seconds depending on the volume of forum material.

Auto-escalation

I never ask you to go deeper manually -- if my confidence in a Tier 1 answer falls below the threshold, escalation is automatic and silent. You just wait a bit longer and get a better answer.

Timing numbers