# From Schema to Signal: Retrieval-Augmented Modeling for Relational Data Analytics

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.14464 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.14464/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in Knowledge-graph and structured-knowledge RAG, one of 15 directions in Retrieval-augmented generation.
- Builds on 18 of its 45 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 14 May 2026.

## Placed in

- Retrieval-augmented generation / [Knowledge-graph and structured-knowledge RAG](https://mlsanity.com/rag/knowledge-graph-and-structured-knowledge-rag/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 18 of 18)

- [Semi-Supervised Classification with Graph Convolutional Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1609.02907/) (2016)
- [Inductive Representation Learning on Large Graphs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1706.02216/) (2017)
- [node2vec: Scalable Feature Learning for Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1607.00653/) (2016)
- [Modeling Relational Data with Graph Convolutional Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1703.06103/) (2017)
- [Graph Contrastive Learning with Augmentations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.13902/) (2020)
- [Deep Graph Infomax](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1809.10341/) (2018)
- [Revisiting Deep Learning Models for Tabular Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.11959/) (2021)
- [TabNet: Attentive Interpretable Tabular Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1908.07442/) (2019)
- [Heterogeneous Graph Transformer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2003.01332/) (2020)
- [TabTransformer: Tabular Data Modeling Using Contextual Embeddings](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.06678/) (2020)
- [From Amateurs to Connoisseurs: Modeling the Evolution of User Expertise through Online Reviews](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1303.4402/) (2013)
- [Supervised Learning on Relational Databases with Graph Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2002.02046/) (2020)
- [One button machine for automating feature engineering in relational databases](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1706.00327/) (2017)
- [ARM-Net: Adaptive Relation Modeling Network for Structured Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.01830/) (2021)
- [GFS: Graph-based Feature Synthesis for Prediction over Relational Databases](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.02037/) (2023)
- [TRACER: A Framework for Facilitating Accurate and Interpretable Analytics for High Stakes Applications](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2003.12012/) (2020)
- [Histogram binning revisited with a focus on human perception](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2109.06612/) (2021)
- [Cohort Query Processing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1601.00182/) (2016)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Relational data stored in RDBMS is foundational to many real-world applications across domains such as e-commerce, finance, and sociality. While deep neural networks (DNNs) have achieved strong performance on tabular data with a single table, extending these models to relational databases is challenging due to the normalized multi-table structure and complex inter-table relationships. Existing approaches often rely strictly on schema-defined graphs, which overlook implicit semantic signals embedded in tuple attributes and suffer from rigid connectivity. In this work, we propose Retrieval-Augmented Modeling (RAM), a novel framework that combines graph structure with attribute semantics for relational data analytics. RAM treats tuple attributes as tokens and uses random walks to construct contextual documents, enabling the use of information retrieval techniques to estimate semantic relevance between tuples. Building on these documents, we introduce two retrieval-based augmentations: ATRA, which leverages intra-table relevance for contrastive learning, and ETRA, which links semantically related tuples across tables to enhance graph connectivity. Then, we propose a layer-wise model architecture tailored for relational data, which involves attribute embedding, feature integration, and graph aggregation layers to enable expressive and flexible representation learning. Extensive experiments on five real-world relational databases demonstrate that RAM consistently outperforms existing baselines in diverse prediction tasks, establishing a state-of-the-art for relational data analytics.