diff --git a/generic_rag/app.py b/generic_rag/app.py
index d1383b7..3f6e68d 100644
--- a/generic_rag/app.py
+++ b/generic_rag/app.py
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ from chainlit.cli import run_chainlit
 from langchain_chroma import Chroma
 
 from generic_rag.parsers.config import AppSettings, load_settings
-from generic_rag.backend.models import get_chat_model, get_embedding_model
+from generic_rag.backend.models import get_chat_model, get_embedding_model, get_compression_model
 from generic_rag.graphs.cond_ret_gen import CondRetGenLangGraph
 from generic_rag.graphs.ret_gen import RetGenLangGraph
 from generic_rag.parsers.parser import add_pdf_files, add_urls
@@ -67,6 +67,9 @@ else:
         chat_model=chat_function,
         embedding_model=embedding_function,
         system_prompt=system_prompt,
+        compression_model=get_compression_model(
+            "BAAI/bge-reranker-base", vector_store
+        ),  # TODO: implement in config parser
     )
 
 
diff --git a/generic_rag/backend/models.py b/generic_rag/backend/models.py
index 3f2d0d6..be2fa4e 100644
--- a/generic_rag/backend/models.py
+++ b/generic_rag/backend/models.py
@@ -1,11 +1,17 @@
 import logging
 import os
 
+from langchain_chroma import Chroma
+from langchain_aws import BedrockEmbeddings
 from langchain_core.embeddings import Embeddings
 from langchain_core.language_models.chat_models import BaseChatModel
+from langchain_core.retrievers import BaseRetriever
 from langchain_aws import BedrockEmbeddings, ChatBedrock
 from langchain_google_vertexai import VertexAIEmbeddings, ChatVertexAI
 from langchain_huggingface import HuggingFaceEmbeddings, ChatHuggingFace, HuggingFacePipeline
+from langchain.retrievers import ContextualCompressionRetriever
+from langchain.retrievers.document_compressors import CrossEncoderReranker
+from langchain_community.cross_encoders import HuggingFaceCrossEncoder
 from langchain_ollama import ChatOllama, OllamaEmbeddings
 from langchain_openai import AzureChatOpenAI, AzureOpenAIEmbeddings, ChatOpenAI, OpenAIEmbeddings
 
@@ -201,4 +207,11 @@ def get_embedding_model(settings: AppSettings) -> Embeddings:
             raise ValueError("HuggingFace configuration requires 'emb_model'.")
         return HuggingFaceEmbeddings(model_name=settings.huggingface.emb_model)
 
-    raise ValueError(f"Unknown or unhandled embedding backend type: {settings.emb_backend}")
+    raise ValueError(f"Unknown backend type: {settings.backend_type}")
+
+
+def get_compression_model(model_name: str, vector_store: Chroma) -> BaseRetriever:
+    base_retriever = vector_store.as_retriever(search_kwargs={"k": 20})
+    rerank_model = HuggingFaceCrossEncoder(model_name=model_name)
+    compressor = CrossEncoderReranker(model=rerank_model, top_n=4)
+    return ContextualCompressionRetriever(base_compressor=compressor, base_retriever=base_retriever)
diff --git a/generic_rag/graphs/ret_gen.py b/generic_rag/graphs/ret_gen.py
index 6cdd4f2..2ed6174 100644
--- a/generic_rag/graphs/ret_gen.py
+++ b/generic_rag/graphs/ret_gen.py
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ from langchain_core.embeddings import Embeddings
 from langchain_core.language_models.chat_models import BaseChatModel
 from langchain_core.messages import BaseMessage, SystemMessage
 from langchain_core.runnables.config import RunnableConfig
+from langchain_core.retrievers import BaseRetriever
 from langgraph.checkpoint.memory import MemorySaver
 from langgraph.graph import END, START, StateGraph
 from typing_extensions import List, TypedDict
@@ -23,12 +24,18 @@ class State(TypedDict):
 
 class RetGenLangGraph:
     def __init__(
-        self, vector_store: Chroma, chat_model: BaseChatModel, embedding_model: Embeddings, system_prompt: str
+        self,
+        vector_store: Chroma,
+        chat_model: BaseChatModel,
+        embedding_model: Embeddings,
+        system_prompt: str,
+        compression_model: BaseRetriever | None = None,
     ):
         self.vector_store = vector_store
         self.chat_model = chat_model
         self.embedding_model = embedding_model
         self.system_prompt = system_prompt
+        self.compression_model = compression_model
 
         memory = MemorySaver()
         graph_builder = StateGraph(State).add_sequence([self._retrieve, self._generate])
@@ -45,7 +52,10 @@ class RetGenLangGraph:
 
     def _retrieve(self, state: State) -> dict[str, list]:
         logger.debug(f"querying VS for: {state["question"]}")
-        self.last_retrieved_docs = self.vector_store.similarity_search(state["question"])
+        if self.compression_model:
+            self.last_retrieved_docs = self.compression_model.invoke(state["question"])
+        else:
+            self.last_retrieved_docs = self.vector_store.similarity_search(state["question"])
         return {"context": self.last_retrieved_docs}
 
     def _generate(self, state: State) -> dict[str, list]: