Retrieval
Also known as: RAG, retrieval augmented generation
The step where a system fetches source documents to ground an answer, before any text is generated.
Retrieval decides the candidate set. Generation decides what gets said about it. A page that never makes the candidate set cannot be cited no matter how well it is written, which is why the signals that govern retrieval sit upstream of everything editorial.
Worth keeping the two separate when diagnosing a problem. "We are not showing up in AI answers" has two completely different causes: not being retrieved, and being retrieved and then not being the passage chosen. The first is technical and this thermometer can see it. The second is editorial and it cannot.