R^3AG: Retriever Routing for Retrieval-Augmented Generation

Tong Zhao, Yutao Zhu, Yucheng Tian, Zhicheng Dou

Abstract: Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) has become a cornerstone for knowledge-intensive tasks. However, the efficacy of RAG is often bottlenecked by the ``one-size-fits-all'' retrieval paradigm, as different queries exhibit distinct preferences for different retrievers. While recent routing techniques attempt to select the optimal retriever dynamically, they typically operate under a `single and static capability' assumption, selecting retrievers solely based on semantic relevance. This overlooks a critical distinction in RAG: a retrieved document must not only be relevant but also effectively support the generator in producing correct answers. To address this limitation, we propose R³AG, a novel routing framework that explicitly models the dynamic alignment between queries and retriever capabilities. Unlike previous approaches, R³AG decomposes retriever capability into two learnable dimensions: retrieval quality and generation utility. We employ a contrastive learning objective that leverages complementary supervision signals, i.e., document assessments and downstream answer correctness, to capture query-specific preference shifts. Extensive experiments on diverse knowledge-intensive tasks demonstrate that R³AG consistently outperforms both the best individual retrievers and state-of-the-art static routing methods.