End-to-end air-gapped deployment guide for NeMo Retriever Library

[kheiss-uwzoo]

Summary

Adds consolidated documentation for customers who deploy NeMo Retriever / NV-Ingest in air-gapped environments (e.g. 26.3.0), addressing RFE 6096584 (Teradata): one place that explains what to mirror, how to pin versions/digests, Helm chart staging, private registry overrides, and links to mirroring tooling, while pointing to NIM Operator air-gap docs for operator-specific behavior.

Motivation

Guidance was split across Compose notes, Helm pointers, and NIM Operator docs. This change gives a repeatable, NeMo Retriever–centric checklist that fits into the broader offline story (GPU Operator, private registry, NIM caches).

Changes

New: docs/docs/extraction/air-gapped-deployment.md — workflow, image inventory (core + optional profiles + Helm subchart reminders), digest pinning, Compose vs Helm registry configuration, avoiding runtime pulls to public APIs, tooling links (skopeo, crane, Helm, Harbor/distribution), and related internal doc links.
docs/mkdocs.yml — nav entry under Get Started: Air-Gapped Deployment.
docs/docs/extraction/helm.md — air-gap note leads with the new guide, then NIM Operator air-gap.
docs/docs/extraction/quickstart-guide.md — Compose air-gap section links to the full guide.
docs/docs/extraction/releasenotes-nv-ingest.md — 26.03 highlights updated to reference the new guide.

[greptile-apps]

Greptile Summary

This PR adds a consolidated end-to-end air-gapped deployment guide for NeMo Retriever Library, wires it into the nav, and adds cross-references from helm.md, quickstart-guide.md, and releasenotes-nv-ingest.md. Prior review rounds resolved the stale nv-ingest repo links and pinned the guide's own links to release/26.3.0.

• quickstart-guide.md line 418 (new air-gap section added by this PR): the docker-compose.yaml hyperlink still resolves to main, directly contradicting the new guide's explicit warning that "main moves forward." Air-gapped operators following the quickstart procedure will read a different compose file than they qualified and mirrored.
• releasenotes-nv-ingest.md line 34: the pre-existing contradiction between VLM caption enhancements listed in lines 27–29 and the "does not support VLM captioning" disclaimer on line 34 remains unresolved.

Confidence Score: 4/5

Safe to merge after fixing the main branch link in the quickstart air-gap section and resolving the contradictory VLM statement in the release notes.

One clear P1 in new content (quickstart main-branch link contradicts the guide it cross-references) and one unresolved prior P1 in release notes (contradictory VLM statements). Both are documentation correctness issues that affect operators following the guide literally.

docs/docs/extraction/quickstart-guide.md (line 418 main-branch link) and docs/docs/extraction/releasenotes-nv-ingest.md (lines 27–34 VLM contradiction).

Important Files Changed

Filename	Overview
docs/docs/extraction/air-gapped-deployment.md	New end-to-end air-gapped deployment guide; links and image inventory now use NeMo-Retriever repo and pinned release/26.3.0 branch after prior review rounds.
docs/docs/extraction/quickstart-guide.md	New air-gap section correctly links to the full guide, but the docker-compose.yaml hyperlink still resolves to main rather than release/26.3.0, contradicting guidance in the newly added air-gapped deployment doc.
docs/docs/extraction/helm.md	Added air-gap note pointing to the new guide and NIM Operator air-gap docs; no issues found.
docs/docs/extraction/releasenotes-nv-ingest.md	Added air-gap guide reference to 26.03 highlights, but the contradictory VLM support statements (lines 27-29 vs line 34) remain unresolved from prior review.
docs/mkdocs.yml	Added Air-Gapped Deployment nav entry under Get Started; no issues found.

Flowchart

%%{init: {'theme': 'neutral'}}%%
flowchart TD
    A[Staging / Bastion Host\nwith internet access] -->|1. Inventory images & charts| B[Image Inventory\nCore + Optional profiles]
    B -->|2. Mirror container images| C[Private Registry\nHarbor / Docker Registry]
    B -->|3. Stage non-image assets| D[Helm .tgz + Python wheels]
    C --> E[Air-Gapped Environment]
    D --> E
    E -->|4. Configure pulls| F[Override image.repository\nimagePullSecrets / IfNotPresent]
    E -->|5. NIM models & caches| G[NIMCache\nNIM Operator air-gap guide]
    F --> H[Deploy Stack\nCompose or Helm]
    G --> H
    H -->|6. Validate| I[Smoke test\n/v1/health/ready + extract job]

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Comments Outside Diff (1)

1. docs/docs/extraction/quickstart-guide.md, line 418 (link)

   Air-gap section links docker-compose.yaml to main

   This line was added by this PR as part of the new air-gap section, but the linked docker-compose.yaml resolves to the main branch. The new air-gapped-deployment.md guide (added in the same PR) explicitly warns on line 9 that "main moves forward" and directs operators to pin against release/26.3.0. An air-gapped operator following the quickstart air-gap procedure will read the wrong compose file (possibly different image tags) compared to what they actually qualify and mirror.

   Prompt To Fix With AI

   This is a comment left during a code review.
   Path: docs/docs/extraction/quickstart-guide.md
   Line: 418
   
   Comment:
   **Air-gap section links `docker-compose.yaml` to `main`**
   
   This line was added by this PR as part of the new air-gap section, but the linked `docker-compose.yaml` resolves to the `main` branch. The new `air-gapped-deployment.md` guide (added in the same PR) explicitly warns on line 9 that "`main` moves forward" and directs operators to pin against `release/26.3.0`. An air-gapped operator following the quickstart air-gap procedure will read the wrong compose file (possibly different image tags) compared to what they actually qualify and mirror.
   
   
   
   How can I resolve this? If you propose a fix, please make it concise.

Prompt To Fix All With AI

This is a comment left during a code review.
Path: docs/docs/extraction/quickstart-guide.md
Line: 418

Comment:
**Air-gap section links `docker-compose.yaml` to `main`**

This line was added by this PR as part of the new air-gap section, but the linked `docker-compose.yaml` resolves to the `main` branch. The new `air-gapped-deployment.md` guide (added in the same PR) explicitly warns on line 9 that "`main` moves forward" and directs operators to pin against `release/26.3.0`. An air-gapped operator following the quickstart air-gap procedure will read the wrong compose file (possibly different image tags) compared to what they actually qualify and mirror.

```suggestion
2. Save images: Export the images to archives (for example, using `docker save` for each image or a script that saves all images referenced by your [docker-compose.yaml](https://github.com/NVIDIA/NeMo-Retriever/blob/release/26.3.0/docker-compose.yaml)).
```

How can I resolve this? If you propose a fix, please make it concise.

_{Reviews (3): Last reviewed commit: "Update quickstart-guide.md" | Re-trigger Greptile}

[greptile-apps]

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