Understand key insights
A key insight is the list of likely causes that On-Call Prep shows for an incident expected during your shift. Oppex reads what was written on similar past incidents, summarizes the causes they point to, and gives each cause a confidence of High, Medium or Low, so you know where to look first if the incident happens again.
Every user can read the key insights on their own On-Call Prep page, including Responders. See On-Call Prep permissions and limits.
Where you see key insights
| Place | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Key Insight column on the On-Call Prep page | The most likely cause only. Hold the pointer over it to see the full card. |
| Key Insight card in the incident panel | Up to three likely causes, each with its confidence, and Was this helpful? |
Where the causes come from
Oppex looks at past incidents that were grouped with the expected incident on the same service. These are the incidents listed under Similar Incidents. It uses the last 90 days of them, preferring the ones that have something written on them.
From those incidents, Oppex reads:
| Source | What Oppex reads |
|---|---|
| Comments written by people | Comments that responders added on the incident. |
| Root cause analysis (RCA) | The Reason for alert, Action taken, Type of fix and Additional notes fields. |
| Oppex AI Responder notes | The analysis that the Oppex AI Responder posted on the incident, mainly its likely root cause. |
Deleted comments are not used. Every cause must be based on at least one of these past incidents; a cause that no past incident supports is left out.
An Oppex AI Responder note is an automatic reading of the incident's logs that nobody has confirmed. Oppex uses it so that you get a likely cause even when nobody wrote an RCA, but it trusts it less than a comment from a person and much less than an RCA. When a person's comment or an RCA contradicts the AI Responder, Oppex goes with the person.
What the confidence levels mean
| Confidence | When Oppex shows it |
|---|---|
| High | Two or more different past incidents state this cause clearly, at least one of them in an RCA, and nothing contradicts it. |
| Medium | Only one past incident states the cause clearly, several only hint at it, or it comes only from comments and AI Responder notes, with no RCA. |
| Low | The cause is mentioned vaguely, other evidence contradicts it, all the incidents behind it are more than 60 days old, or it comes from a single AI Responder note only. |
Oppex applies these rules strictly and only ever lowers a level:
- A cause backed by fewer than two past incidents is never High.
- A cause with no RCA behind it is never High. This means comments and AI Responder notes alone can reach Medium at most.
- A cause whose past incidents are all more than 60 days old is Low.
- Oppex can also have a second AI model check every High cause. If that check is not confident, the cause is shown as Medium.
Example
Say three past incidents of "Arc Reactor API: config save failed" each have an AI Responder note that blames a duplicate configuration name:
| What is written on the past incidents | The cause is shown as |
|---|---|
| An AI Responder note on one incident only | Low |
| AI Responder notes on all three incidents that agree | Medium |
| The same, plus an RCA from a responder that confirms the duplicate name | High |
How the causes are ordered
The card shows up to three causes. Oppex puts the causes with higher confidence first, then the ones that more of the similar incidents support, then the ones seen more recently. The Key Insight column on the list shows the first cause.
When key insights are updated
Oppex builds the key insights every night, after it calculates the incidents likely during your shift. A comment or RCA you add today is used from the next night onwards. While the insights are being built, the page shows "Insights are being prepared…". If Oppex cannot build an insight one night, it keeps the causes from the previous night.
When the card shows a message instead of causes, see the messages in On-Call Prep permissions and limits.
Get better key insights
Key insights are only as good as what your team writes on incidents. To improve them:
- When you resolve an incident, add a comment that says what caused it and what fixed it.
- Fill in the RCA for incidents that keep coming back. An RCA is the only way a cause can reach High.
- Answer Was this helpful? in the incident panel, so Oppex knows which causes help responders.