Recruiting search has a stricter failure mode than a normal semantic search box: two copies of a candidate record can look like two qualified people, while an access-control mistake can expose a profile to the wrong recruiter. Short answer: use a staged retrieval design with explicit collections, bounded queries, and traceable source context; perform source deduplication before ranking and retain the evidence that caused each match.

How should retrieval architecture handle recruiting candidate search and source deduplication?

Begin with a retrieval contract, not a vector database. For every candidate document, store a stable source identifier, tenant identifier, authorization attributes, ingestion timestamp, and a content fingerprint. The fingerprint catches byte-for-byte repeats; a second semantic check can group revised resumes without deleting their audit history.…