Reasoning search inside SNAP: Instant vs Thinking modes for enterprise retrieval
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A deep dive into SNAP's two reasoning modes — Instant for fast lookups, Thinking for deep synthesis — and when each one earns its keep across the enterprise.
Most enterprise search still returns links. SNAP's reasoning search returns answers — grounded in your own memory, cited to source, and shaped by the depth of question you're asking. That depth is why SNAP exposes two distinct reasoning modes instead of one generic "ask" box.
Instant mode: sub-second lookups over the graph
Instant is tuned for the questions people ask dozens of times a day: policy details, contract clauses, product specs, HR entitlements. It runs a shallow traversal over the enterprise knowledge graph, returns a concise answer, and cites the exact source paragraph. No multi-hop synthesis, no speculation — just retrieval you can trust in a support conversation or a client call.
Thinking mode: deep retrieval and cross-document synthesis
Thinking mode is for the questions that move the business. It plans a retrieval strategy, pulls evidence across many documents, reconciles conflicts, and composes a reasoned answer with a full citation trail. This is where positioning insights from customer calls, patent angles across experiments, and grant narratives from scattered evidence actually get surfaced.
How the modes compose
| Dimension | Instant | Thinking |
|---|---|---|
| Typical latency | Sub-second | Seconds to tens of seconds |
| Retrieval depth | Shallow graph lookup | Multi-hop, cross-document |
| Best for | Facts, policies, definitions | Synthesis, positioning, discovery |
| Output shape | Short answer + citation | Structured reasoning + citations |
| Governance | Same tenant isolation and role-based access | Same tenant isolation and role-based access |
Both modes read from one shared memory, honor the same access rules, and produce answers that trace back to approved sources. See how the underlying enterprise knowledge graph is built, and how grounded citations keep every answer auditable.