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Alexander Ivanov
Alexander Ivanov

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I Built a Lightweight Python RAG Orchestrator That Works with SQLite, PGVector and Qdrant

Most RAG frameworks today assume:

  • a huge dependency graph
  • mandatory LLM orchestration
  • opinionated pipelines
  • complex configuration

But many real-world systems need something simpler.

Especially when:

  • you already have an existing pipeline
  • you want local/offline execution
  • you need predictable retrieval
  • you do not want every step delegated to an LLM

So I built rag-orchestrator.

What makes it different?

The project was designed around one key idea:

RAG infrastructure should be modular, lightweight, and database-agnostic.

Works with multiple vector databases

The orchestrator supports:

  • SQLite
  • PGVector
  • Qdrant

through an abstract storage layer.

This means you can switch backends without rebuilding the whole pipeline.

Fully pluggable architecture

The project provides abstraction layers for:

  • Embeddings
  • Retrievers
  • Cleaners
  • Vector stores
  • Processing steps

You can easily plug in:

  • your own embedding provider
  • your own retriever
  • custom preprocessing logic
  • external pipelines

without rewriting internal logic.

Minimal LLM usage

One important design decision:

The orchestrator works without an LLM for almost the entire pipeline.

LLMs are only required at a single step where they actually add value.

This makes the system:

  • cheaper
  • faster
  • more deterministic
  • easier to debug

Minimal configuration

The module intentionally requires very few input parameters.

The goal was:

  • fast onboarding
  • simple integration
  • production-friendly defaults

Tested and production-oriented

The repository already includes:

  • integration tests
  • runnable scripts
  • usage examples

You can inspect them directly in the scripts/ directory.

Easy integration into existing systems

The project was built to integrate into:

  • existing RAG pipelines
  • enterprise systems
  • AI backends
  • local AI stacks
  • internal search systems

instead of forcing users into a completely new ecosystem.

Installation

```bash id="1b38r0"
pip install rag-orchestrator




## Why this matters

A lot of modern RAG tooling is becoming increasingly framework-heavy.

But many production systems actually need:

* predictability
* portability
* low overhead
* composability

rather than autonomous agent complexity.

This project focuses exactly on that.
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