ModelRefs / Document Summary Index — AI Glossary

Document Summary Index — AI Glossary

A RAG index storing LLM-generated summaries per document alongside full chunks, enabling summary-level retrieval followed by chunk-level reading.

Overview

LlamaIndex's DocumentSummaryIndex generates a summary per document at index time. At query time, the summary index is searched first to identify relevant documents; full chunks of those documents are then used for generation. Improves performance on global questions requiring understanding of entire documents, outperforming flat chunk retrieval.

Reference details

Topicrag
Last reviewed2026-06-24

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Frequently asked questions

What is Document Summary Index?

A RAG index storing LLM-generated summaries per document alongside full chunks, enabling summary-level retrieval followed by chunk-level reading.

What concepts are related to Document Summary Index?

Closely related concepts include raptor, parent document retrieval, advanced rag.