Design decisions

The choices behind Ondatrace, and why we made them

Some of the decisions behind Ondatrace. Most of them are about keeping its findings accurate and keeping people in control.

Evidence and trust

Where a clear rule can say whether a project is healthy, Ondatrace applies the rule first. The AI writes the explanation afterward.

Why: The same facts should give the same answer every time. The answer shouldn't change because the AI worded things differently.
Tradeoff: Rules miss things and can be too strict. The AI still handles unclear cases, and Ondatrace says when it isn't sure.

Each finding links back to the messages and tickets behind it.

Why: Leaders should be able to check the evidence themselves instead of taking the AI's word for it.

A risk isn't marked resolved just because later updates stop mentioning it.

Why: Teams often leave unsolved problems out of later updates. Closing a risk needs new evidence that it was fixed.

Your settings decide whether a suggestion waits for approval or happens automatically. They never change the evidence or a project's health.

Small task updates can be automated. Changes to committed milestones always wait for someone to review them.

Why: A milestone is a promise to someone, and moving it often has effects well outside the project.

The AI can recommend an action. Fixed rules decide whether it's allowed to happen.

Why: How confident the AI sounds should never decide what it's allowed to do.

Which organization and projects someone can see is enforced by the application and its database.

Recurring background work runs only when something meaningful has changed.

Why: A project that hasn't changed shouldn't cost more AI time or send new notifications just because a day passed.
But: Time passing can matter on its own. A milestone that becomes overdue is a real change, even if no data moved.

If one project or tool connection fails during a background run, the others keep going.

Why: Nobody is watching background jobs as they run. One error should be visible without breaking unrelated work.

Ondatrace saves a renewed login to a connected tool right away, before doing any other work.

Why: Some tools replace the old login when they issue a new one. If a later error undid the save, the stored login would stop working for good.