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Main Authors: Sun, Xin, Chen, Zhongqi, Liu, Qiang, Wu, Shu, Song, Bowen, Wang, Weiqiang, Wang, Zilei, Wang, Liang
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.11443
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author Sun, Xin
Chen, Zhongqi
Liu, Qiang
Wu, Shu
Song, Bowen
Wang, Weiqiang
Wang, Zilei
Wang, Liang
author_facet Sun, Xin
Chen, Zhongqi
Liu, Qiang
Wu, Shu
Song, Bowen
Wang, Weiqiang
Wang, Zilei
Wang, Liang
contents Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) has emerged as a powerful approach for enhancing large language models' question-answering capabilities through the integration of external knowledge. However, when adapting RAG systems to specialized domains, challenges arise from distribution shifts, resulting in suboptimal generalization performance. In this work, we propose TTARAG, a test-time adaptation method that dynamically updates the language model's parameters during inference to improve RAG system performance in specialized domains. Our method introduces a simple yet effective approach where the model learns to predict retrieved content, enabling automatic parameter adjustment to the target domain. Through extensive experiments across six specialized domains, we demonstrate that TTARAG achieves substantial performance improvements over baseline RAG systems. Code available at https://github.com/sunxin000/TTARAG.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2601_11443
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Predict the Retrieval! Test time adaptation for Retrieval Augmented Generation
Sun, Xin
Chen, Zhongqi
Liu, Qiang
Wu, Shu
Song, Bowen
Wang, Weiqiang
Wang, Zilei
Wang, Liang
Computation and Language
Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) has emerged as a powerful approach for enhancing large language models' question-answering capabilities through the integration of external knowledge. However, when adapting RAG systems to specialized domains, challenges arise from distribution shifts, resulting in suboptimal generalization performance. In this work, we propose TTARAG, a test-time adaptation method that dynamically updates the language model's parameters during inference to improve RAG system performance in specialized domains. Our method introduces a simple yet effective approach where the model learns to predict retrieved content, enabling automatic parameter adjustment to the target domain. Through extensive experiments across six specialized domains, we demonstrate that TTARAG achieves substantial performance improvements over baseline RAG systems. Code available at https://github.com/sunxin000/TTARAG.
title Predict the Retrieval! Test time adaptation for Retrieval Augmented Generation
topic Computation and Language
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.11443