> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.changeguard.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Engineering Reasoning

> The reasoning behind an opinion's confidence: what raises it, what lowers it, and why not the obvious move. Generally available with the Engineering Opinion.

**Engineering Reasoning** shows why an [Engineering Opinion](https://docs.changeguard.ai/intelligence/engineering-opinion.md) is as confident as it is, and names the reflex move it decided against. It is reasoning you can check, not a longer explanation.

## What you see

Inside the opinion card:

* **Confidence factors**: at most four lines, each marked as supporting (✓) or cautioning (⚠). Examples: *Root-cause analysis is high-confidence*; *5 supporting observations in the analysis*; *Open unknown: ...*; *A competing explanation isn't ruled out*. Supports lead, caveats follow, and at least two caveat slots are reserved so weak spots are never crowded out by supports.
* **Why not the obvious move**: the reflex an on-call engineer would reach for (a blind rollback, a restart) and why it is not the recommended move here. It appears only when there is a genuine reflex to argue against and it is distinct from the chosen move.

## Where the factors come from

The factors are derived by the backend from signals it holds, not written by the model:

| Signal | Factor |
| - | - |
| The root-cause analysis and its confidence band | Support for medium or high confidence; caveat for a low-confidence or absent analysis |
| The number of supporting observations in the analysis | Support, with the count |
| The target's fix history, as the opinion recalled it | Caveat when a past fix on this target rolled back or failed; caveat when the read leans on a similar incident |
| The model's declared unknowns | Caveat with the first unknown |
| A competing explanation not ruled out | Caveat |
| A low overall read | Caveat |

"Why not the obvious move" is the one model-authored piece, kept only when it is distinct from the chosen move and from the cause tradeoff.

## Prerequisites and limits

| | |
| - | - |
| Plan | Professional or Enterprise (plan feature `ai`). |
| Setting | **Settings > Engineering assistance > Engineering Reasoning**; requires the Engineering Opinion to be on. |
| Limits | Factors reflect the signals the platform has (the analysis, the evidence count, the fix history). They cannot weigh evidence the platform never saw. |

## Related

* [Engineering intelligence overview](https://docs.changeguard.ai/intelligence/overview.md)
* [Engineering Experience](https://docs.changeguard.ai/intelligence/engineering-experience.md)


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