 Mapping-cylinder bottom retraction criterion

Use the mapping cylinder convention $(x,1)\sim f(x)$ for $f:X\to Y$. Its bottom copy of $X$ is a retract precisely when $f$ has a left homotopy inverse $g:Y\to X$. A retraction restricted to $Y$ supplies $g$, and its values along the cylinder supply the homotopy from ${\mathrm{id}}_X$ to $gf$. Conversely use that homotopy on the cylinder and $g$ on $Y$; agreement at the attached end makes the map descend by the universal property of the quotient topology.