> Markdown version of [/events/world-congress-2026-europe/sessions/1353-the-retrieval-layer](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/events/world-congress-2026-europe/sessions/1353-the-retrieval-layer). Every page supports `.md` or `Accept: text/markdown`. Links point to the HTML versions so they work for humans too. Agent guide: [/agents.md](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/agents.md). --- # The Retrieval Layer in Context Engineering: From Intuition to Implementation - **Date:** Friday, Jul 10, 2026 - **Time:** 14:45–16:45 (120 min) - **Room:** Room M6 (40 Seats) - **Event:** World Congress 2026 Europe ## Description Context engineering is the art of orchestrating the information your AI systems have at their disposal. AI agents' knowledge is only as good as the domain knowledge they can access, and how you build that knowledge retrieval layer determines everything downstream. This workshop approaches context engineering from a vector search standpoint, covering the range of tooling it enables (f.e., hybrid search), where it genuinely fits and where it doesn't, and what complements it (knowledge graphs behind GraphRAG). We'll go from the intuition behind context engineering to context engineering in practice. You'll see the full picture: how to increase search relevance and reduce retrieval latency, and how to orchestrate context-engineering tools. By the end of the workshop, you'll build a context-engineering layer of a simple medical AI copilot. ## Speaker ### [Evgeniya Sukhodolskaya](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/@evgeniya-sukhodolskaya) Senior Developer Advocate at Qdrant ## Related talks at this congress - [The Retrieval Layer for Edge AI](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/events/world-congress-2026-europe/sessions/1022-the-retrieval-layer) — Sasha Denisov, Chadha Sridi - [Context is all you need](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/events/world-congress-2026-europe/sessions/1321-context-is-all-you) — Raphael De Lio, Samuel Agbede - [From Vector Search to Better Understanding: How Hybrid RAG Improves Answers, Not Just Matches](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/events/world-congress-2026-europe/sessions/968-from-vector-search) — David vonThenen - [Scaling GraphRAG: Efficient Knowledge Retrieval for AI](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/events/world-congress-2026-europe/sessions/1005-scaling-graphrag) — Gal Shubeli