---

name: contexts-and-retrievers description: "Choose and validate LaVague provider contexts, credentials, custom model objects, cache contexts, and retriever pipelines without making live provider or browser calls by default." disable-model-invocation: true metadata: disco-role: operating license: Apache 2.0

LaVague Contexts and Retrievers

Use this sub-skill when a LaVague task needs provider/model selection, API-key checks, custom LlamaIndex llm/embedding/mm_llm wiring, cache-backed contexts, WorldModel knowledge examples, task user_data, or ActionEngine/NavigationEngine retriever selection.

Route first

• Provider context, credentials, custom models, cache, Cohere rerank, or RetrieversPipeline: stay here.
• Browser construction, Selenium/Playwright profiles, browser binaries, screenshots, tabs, iframes, or CAPTCHA/session handling: route to ../browser-drivers/SKILL.md.
• Full WebAgent, WorldModel, ActionEngine, logs, token counts, or agent run/debug loops: route to ../core-web-agent/SKILL.md after choosing the context or retriever here.
• Gradio, Chrome extension server, AgentServer, or lavague-serve: route to ../server-extension-gradio/SKILL.md.
• lavague-qa and lavague-test: route to ../qa-and-test-runner/SKILL.md.

Fast workflow

1. Pick the provider context from references/provider-contexts.md; install the matching optional package if its import is missing.
2. Check required environment variables without printing secret values. For Anthropic and Fireworks, remember that default components still require OPENAI_API_KEY for OpenAI embedding or multimodal pieces.
3. Prefer WorldModel.from_context(context) and ActionEngine.from_context(context, driver=driver) when all three context models should travel together. Pass individual custom LlamaIndex objects only when mixing providers deliberately.
4. Pick a retriever from references/retriever-reference.md. Keep the default retriever unless retrieval logs show missing target nodes or a page has unusual markup.
5. Run the bundled safe probe before live work:

python sub-skills/contexts-and-retrievers/scripts/lavague_context_retriever_probe.py --context all --retriever all --check-env

The probe imports modules, inspects constructor signatures, and reports whether required credential variables are present. It does not instantiate providers, contact model APIs, launch browsers, download data, or start servers.

Common recipes

• OpenAI default: ensure OPENAI_API_KEY, then use OpenaiContext() or rely on LaVague's default context.
• Azure OpenAI: pass explicit llm, mm_llm, deployment, endpoint, and embedding_deployment; do not rely on defaults for deployment names.
• Anthropic planning/action with OpenAI embeddings: set both ANTHROPIC_API_KEY and OPENAI_API_KEY, then use AnthropicContext().
• Gemini all-in-one: set GOOGLE_API_KEY, then use GeminiContext().
• Fireworks action/embedding with OpenAI multimodal world model: set FIREWORKS_API_KEY and OPENAI_API_KEY, then use FireworksContext().
• Cache-driven dry recovery: use ContextCache only when prompt/embedding stores are intentionally local and versioned for the run; understand fallback behavior before assuming it is offline.
• Retriever pipeline: compose InteractiveXPathRetriever(driver), SyntaxicRetriever(), and XPathedChunkRetriever() when you need deterministic XPath marking plus lightweight syntax filtering; add Cohere only when COHERE_API_KEY and network/API use are explicitly permitted.

References

• references/provider-contexts.md — provider packages, signatures, environment variables, default-model caveats, and cache stores.
• references/retriever-reference.md — retriever classes, default pipeline, Cohere rerank behavior, and selection rules.
• references/customization-workflows.md — mixed-provider contexts, from_context, add_knowledge, task user_data, and template snippets.
• references/troubleshooting.md — optional-package, API-key, Azure, embedding, cache, Cohere, and NLTK/import issues.

Safety defaults

Keep provider calls and browser launches opt-in. The examples distilled into this sub-skill originally run live web objectives, but the bundled helper only performs local import/signature/env checks and prints runnable templates. Never store API keys in generated files, logs, or prompt caches.