Alfred RAG hits 96.7% accuracy without LangChain

The "no-framework" approach is the new power move for engineers who prioritize retrieval quality and low-level debugging over rapid prototyping. Hybrid retrieval combining Qwen3-Embedding-8B and BM25 (via Tantivy) provides a more robust semantic-keyword balance than single-mode search, while evaluation-driven development using a 62-query harness moved accuracy from 74% to 96.7%. Reciprocal Rank Fusion (RRF) followed by a dedicated reranker (Qwen3-Reranker-8B) is the critical path to cleaning up noisy hybrid results, highlighting a shift toward high-end local workstations for RAG development.