---
title: "Pipeline steps"
manual: "AI Assistant"
version: "main"
source: "Integrators/PipelineSteps.rst"
rendered: "2026-10-03T14:54:45+00:00"
---

# Pipeline steps {#pipeline-steps}

Each pipeline step references a processor and configures what prompt sections are
included.

## Common fields {#common-fields}

-   **Title**

    Human-readable step name. Retriever-step titles must be unique within the
    pipeline because they also name the retrieval in prompts and stored context.

-   **Stage**

    Position in the logical pipeline, such as pre-retrieval, retrieval,
    post-retrieval or answer generation.

-   **Processor identifier**

    Registry identifier of the PHP processor service.

-   **Prompt include flags**

    Decide whether identity, behaviour, retrieval and output rules from the
    assistant profile are included.

-   **Step prompt fields**

    Step identity, behaviour, retrieval and output rules.

-   **LLM settings**

    Model, temperature and max tokens.

-   **Retrieval settings**

    optional connection and collection overrides, maximum retrieval results,
    score threshold, context limits and metadata fields. Each retriever adds a
    named group to the existing retrieval context.

-   **Failure strategy**

    Defines how the pipeline reacts if the step fails.

## Step prompt placement {#step-prompt-placement}

Prompts belong into assistant profile or pipeline step records. Processor code
should stay generic and should not contain project-specific prompt text.