T-GRAG: A Dynamic GraphRAG Framework for Resolving Temporal Conflicts and Redundancy in Knowledge Retrieval

Abstract

Large language models (LLMs) have demonstrated strong performance in natural language generation but remain limited in knowle- dge-intensive tasks due to outdated or incomplete internal knowledge. Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) addresses this by incorporating external retrieval, with GraphRAG further enhancing performance through structured knowledge graphs and multi-hop reasoning. However, existing GraphRAG methods largely ignore the temporal dynamics of knowledge, leading to issues such as temporal ambiguity, time-insensitive retrieval, and semantic redundancy. To overcome these limitations, we propose Temporal GraphRAG (T-GRAG), a dynamic, temporally-aware RAG framework that models the evolution of knowledge over time. T-GRAG consists of five key components: (1) a Temporal Knowledge Graph Generator that creates time-stamped, evolving graph structures; (2) a Temporal Query Decomposition mechanism that breaks complex temporal queries into manageable sub-queries; (3) a Three-layer Interactive Retriever that progressively filters and refines retrieval across temporal subgraphs; (4) a Source Text Extractor to mitigate noise; and (5) a LLM-based Generator that synthesizes contextually and temporally accurate responses. We also introduce Time-LongQA, a novel benchmark dataset based on real-world corporate annual reports, designed to test temporal reasoning across evolving knowledge. Extensive experiments show that T-GRAG significantly outperforms prior RAG and GraphRAG baselines in both retrieval accuracy and response relevance under temporal constraints, highlighting the necessity of modeling knowledge evolution for robust long-text question answering. Our code is publicly available on the T-GRAG