# BaseRetrievalQA

> **Class** in `langchain_classic`

📖 [View in docs](https://reference.langchain.com/python/langchain-classic/chains/retrieval_qa/base/BaseRetrievalQA)

Base class for question-answering chains.

## Signature

```python
BaseRetrievalQA()
```

## Extends

- `Chain`

## Properties

- `combine_documents_chain`
- `input_key`
- `output_key`
- `return_source_documents`
- `model_config`
- `input_keys`
- `output_keys`

## Methods

- [`from_llm()`](https://reference.langchain.com/python/langchain-classic/chains/retrieval_qa/base/BaseRetrievalQA/from_llm)
- [`from_chain_type()`](https://reference.langchain.com/python/langchain-classic/chains/retrieval_qa/base/BaseRetrievalQA/from_chain_type)

## ⚠️ Deprecated

Deprecated since version 0.2.13. Use langchain.agents.create_agent instead. Will be removed in version 2.0.0. Build new RAG flows with `create_agent` and a retrieval tool. See https://docs.langchain.com/oss/python/langchain/rag

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[View source on GitHub](https://github.com/langchain-ai/langchain/blob/185119f98e6286253a2326d7cf4f59592678023d/libs/langchain/langchain_classic/chains/retrieval_qa/base.py#L31)