How it works

From a product idea to one or more Jira tickets, grounded in the code.

The Jira ticket is the output, not the input. Describe what you want to change, even if it is still rough. RefineBrief analyzes the current state of the connected repositories, finds the likely impact, separates evidence from inference, exposes missing decisions and prepares the technical brief and suggested tickets for review.

See a complete example

Read-only Git · No code changes · Jira creation only after approval

STARTA rough product idea
INVESTIGATIONLikely affected classes, methods, flows and dependencies
RESULTOne or more Jira tickets ready for review

From the product idea to Jira

Four steps, with human review before Jira creation.

  1. 01

    Describe the product idea

    The PO describes what the team wants to build, fix or change, even if the idea is still vague.

  2. 02

    Investigate the likely impact

    RefineBrief traces current behavior, likely affected classes, methods, services, flows and dependencies.

  3. 03

    Review the brief and tickets

    Your team reviews the found evidence, inferences, open questions and suggested ticket split.

  4. 04

    Create approved tickets in Jira

    Choose the Jira values and create all approved tickets using your team's template.

Complete example

One product idea, one complete and reviewable result.

RefineBriefREADY FOR REVIEW
ORIGINAL PRODUCT IDEA

“Customers should still receive important notifications after a temporary delivery failure.”

CURRENT BEHAVIOR FOUND

The producer sends events to customer.events. The consumer handles temporary and permanent failures in the same flow.

LIKELY IMPACT
  • notification-service
  • email-consumer
  • observability
  • integration tests
EVIDENCE
  • NotificationController.java:84
  • NotificationService.java:136
  • EmailConsumer.java:112
OPEN QUESTIONS
  • How many attempts should be made?
  • Should permanent failures go to a dead-letter topic?
  • Must the consumer guarantee idempotency?
  • Who should be alerted after the final failure?
SUGGESTED TICKETS
  • Update the retry policy
  • Add consumer idempotency
  • Monitor permanent failures
  • Cover duplicate deliveries in integration tests
Evidence remains linkedNothing reaches Jira before approval

Initial setup

Connect once. Investigate with current context every time.

During the initial setup, the team connects Git repositories with read-only access and configures the Jira project and ticket template. RefineBrief creates a derived technical representation of the system and keeps it current as repositories change.

INITIAL SETUP
  • Connect Git repositories with read-only access.
  • Connect Jira.
  • Choose the Jira project.
  • Configure the ticket template.

Technical map

A derived representation keeps the system context current.

Repositories, classes, methods, dependencies, HTTP contracts and Kafka flows remain connected to the evidence used during the investigation.

Technical map currentILLUSTRATIVE
customer-apirepositoryNotificationServiceservicePOST /notifyHTTP contractcustomer.eventsKafka topicsendEmail()methodshared-domaindependency
VISIBLE EVIDENCE PATHNotificationController.java:84
CONSUMED BYEmailConsumer.java:112

Likely impact across repositories

Follow the change beyond the first repository.

RefineBrief follows HTTP calls, Kafka events and shared dependencies to show where a change may propagate. Every relationship remains linked to found evidence and can be reviewed by the team.

APIcustomer-apiHTTP POST
SVCnotification-serviceProducer
KFKcustomer.eventsKafka topic
JOBemail-consumerConsumer
OBSobservability + testsDownstream

Evidence, inference and open question

Keep what was found separate from what the team still needs to decide.

Evidence · Found in the code

EmailConsumer.java handles temporary and permanent failures in the same flow.

Inference · Likely conclusion

The retry policy may require changes in more than one service.

Open question · Team decision

Should permanently failed events move to a dead-letter topic?

Suggested ticket split

A product idea may result in one or more tickets

When the investigation finds independent work in services, consumers, observability or tests, RefineBrief suggests a split. Your team can merge, separate, edit or remove any ticket before creation in Jira.

01

Update the retry policy

notification-service

Feature
02

Add idempotency to the consumer

email-consumer

Task
03

Monitor permanent failures

observability

Task
04

Cover duplicate deliveries in integration tests

integration-tests

Test

Suggested split · Merge, separate, edit or remove before Jira creation

01

RefineBrief suggests the split

02

The team reviews and edits

03

The Jira ticket template is applied

04

Only approved tickets are created

Current support

Current support for modern Java systems.

CURRENT SUPPORT
  • Java 17 through Java 25
  • Monoliths and microservices
  • Multiple Git repositories
  • Classes, methods and dependencies
  • HTTP calls and contracts
  • Kafka producers and consumers
  • Selected repositories or all connected repositories

Coverage will be expanded gradually to other languages, frameworks, protocols and architectures, while maintaining the same standard of mapping, evidence and technical review.

Technical details

How the investigation works under the hood

Technical investigation details

SCIP-based symbol mapping

Graph relationships

Lexical and semantic retrieval

Test a real product idea

Bring one real product idea from your team.

See RefineBrief investigate the codebase and prepare the work for review before anything is created in Jira.