Reading your systems
Which sources AppThentic reads, what it looks for in each, and what it leaves alone.
Business rules live in more places than code. A discount cap is set in billing, explained in a Slack thread, argued about in a Jira ticket and half-described on a wiki page. om reads all of them, so a rule’s evidence comes together in one place. Connecting a source takes minutes, and nobody writes docs for om.
Sources
| Source | Connects | What om takes from it |
|---|---|---|
| Code | GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket | The conditions that encode decisions on money, time, people and state, where each one lives, and what the tests expect |
| Pull requests and merge requests | GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket | The reasoning engineers already wrote down, and who reviewed and approved each change |
| Tickets and issues | Jira, Linear | The request that started the rule, and the discussion around it |
| Docs | Confluence, Notion, Google Docs | The rule as the business described it, and whether that description still matches the system |
| Threads | Slack, Microsoft Teams | The argument that led to a decision, and who settled it |
| Support tickets | Zendesk | What customers run into because of a rule, and the questions support asks most |
| Schemas | PostgreSQL | The statuses, limits and constraints the database enforces |
| Business context | PDFs, meeting transcripts | Terms, contracts, rate sheets, policies, and decisions made on calls |
What happens on a read
- Find rules. AppThentic looks for conditions on amounts, windows, roles, regions and statuses, and for values that also appear in conversation. See Business rules.
- Group locations. The same rule in three services and a help page becomes one rule with several locations.
- Collect evidence. Everything already written about the rule is attached to it, with links back to the original.
- Propose an owner. From authorship, review and the people named around the rule. See Finding the owner.
- Decide what to ask. Only what is still missing. If a PR already explains the reason, AppThentic asks the owner to confirm it, not to write it again.
What AppThentic does not assume
Code is not always correct, and neither is documentation. The current implementation may not be what the business intended. AppThentic records what the system does as observed, and keeps it apart from why. See What AppThentic never assumes.
What AppThentic does not do
- It does not write to your systems. Reading is read-only.
- It does not read sources you have not connected.
- It does not widen access. Each person sees only what their projects and role allow. See Access and audit trail.
Keeping up with change
After the first read, AppThentic follows new commits, merged pull requests and updated tickets. A change to a rule’s code or config marks its answer Stale. See Keeping answers current.