# Doctor-RAG: A Failure-Aware Repair Framework for Agentic Retrieval-Augmented Generation

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.00865 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.00865/

## Key facts

- Cited by 5 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in Agentic RAG, agents and memory, one of 15 directions in Retrieval-augmented generation.
- Builds on 27 of its 41 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 1 Apr 2026.

## Placed in

- Retrieval-augmented generation / [Agentic RAG, agents and memory](https://mlsanity.com/rag/agentic-rag-agents-and-memory/)
- LLM agents and tool use / [Web, search, and research agents](https://mlsanity.com/agents/web-search-and-research-agents/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 27 of 27)

- [The Llama 3 Herd of Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.21783/) (2024)
- [Retrieval-Augmented Generation for Knowledge-Intensive NLP Tasks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2005.11401/) (2020)
- [Efficient Memory Management for Large Language Model Serving with PagedAttention](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.06180/) (2023)
- [Dense Passage Retrieval for Open-Domain Question Answering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2004.04906/) (2020)
- [Let's Verify Step by Step](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.20050/) (2023)
- [HotpotQA: A Dataset for Diverse, Explainable Multi-hop Question Answering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1809.09600/) (2018)
- [Billion-scale similarity search with GPUs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1702.08734/) (2017)
- [REALM: Retrieval-Augmented Language Model Pre-Training](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2002.08909/) (2020)
- [Self-RAG: Learning to Retrieve, Generate, and Critique through Self-Reflection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.11511/) (2023)
- [LlamaFactory: Unified Efficient Fine-Tuning of 100+ Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.13372/) (2024)
- [Search-R1: Training LLMs to Reason and Leverage Search Engines with Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.09516/) (2025)
- [Constructing A Multi-hop QA Dataset for Comprehensive Evaluation of Reasoning Steps](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2011.01060/) (2020)
- [Language Agent Tree Search Unifies Reasoning Acting and Planning in Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.04406/) (2023)
- [Adaptive-RAG: Learning to Adapt Retrieval-Augmented Large Language Models through Question Complexity](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.14403/) (2024)
- [Beyond Ten Turns: Unlocking Long-Horizon Agentic Search with Large-Scale Asynchronous RL](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.07976/) (2025)
- [Agentic Reasoning and Tool Integration for LLMs via Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.01441/) (2025)
- [Watch Every Step! LLM Agent Learning via Iterative Step-Level Process Refinement](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.11176/) (2024)
- [DeepAgent: A General Reasoning Agent with Scalable Toolsets](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.21618/) (2025)
- [Automated Evaluation of Retrieval-Augmented Language Models with Task-Specific Exam Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.13622/) (2024)
- [Out of Style: RAG's Fragility to Linguistic Variation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.08231/) (2025)
- [Classifying and Addressing the Diversity of Errors in Retrieval-Augmented Generation Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.13975/) (2025)
- [Listwise Preference Diffusion Optimization for User Behavior Trajectories Prediction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.00530/) (2025)
- [EviNote-RAG: Enhancing RAG Models via Answer-Supportive Evidence Notes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.00877/) (2025)
- [TeaRAG: A Token-Efficient Agentic Retrieval-Augmented Generation Framework](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.05385/) (2025)
- [MARAG-R1: Beyond Single Retriever via Reinforcement-Learned Multi-Tool Agentic Retrieval](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.27569/) (2025)
- [CLEAR: Error Analysis via LLM-as-a-Judge Made Easy](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.18392/) (2025)
- [Generative Chain of Behavior for User Trajectory Prediction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.18213/) (2026)

## Built on by (most cited first, 5 of 5)

- [LayerRAG-Bench: A Cross-Layer Reliability Benchmark for Agentic Retrieval-Augmented Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.27353/) (2026)
- [What Would Fix This RAG Failure? Auditing Counterfactual Response with Paired Evidence Interventions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.08944/) (2026)
- [AUSO: Action-Level Unified Skill Optimization from Internalization to Utilization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.21292/) (2026)
- [CIVI: A Framework for Diagnosing Search Agent Failures in Civic Information](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.08094/) (2026)
- [Towards Reliable AI Data Scientists: Data Agents with Workflow Harnesses](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.35255/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Agentic Retrieval-Augmented Generation interleaves retrieval and reasoning for multi-hop QA and complex knowledge tasks. As reasoning trajectories lengthen, failures become more frequent, while existing methods often either stop at diagnosis or rely on coarse replanning and rerun-style recovery, incurring high computational cost. We propose DoctorRAG (DR-RAG), a diagnose-and-repair framework that corrects failures via explicit error localization and prefix reuse. DR-RAG operates in two stages: (i) trajectory-level failure diagnosis, where a distilled diagnosis model jointly assesses evidence sufficiency, classifies the failure type, and localizes the earliest failure point; and (ii) tool-conditioned local repair that intervenes only at the diagnosed point while reusing conditionally valid prefixes and retrieved evidence. By separating error attribution from correction, DR-RAG avoids blind reruns in a post-hoc repair setting and enables targeted, efficient correction of known failed trajectories. Experiments on three multi-hop QA benchmarks across multiple agentic RAG baselines and backbone models show substantial improvements in answer accuracy.