Ask Your Records

3 min read

Describe the records you want in plain English, and Oracle returns them as a table you can sort, filter and export.

Ask a Question

Open Oracle in a project.
Type your question the way you would say it in the box that reads Ask anything about this project…. For example: Automated test cases created in the last 10 days that have never been executed.
Select Illuminate, or press Enter.

The answer starts with a count, then Understood as (every condition Oracle used), then the rows.

What You Can Ask About

You can ask about thirteen kinds of record:

Group	Records
Repository	Test cases, shared steps, parameters, custom fields, labels
Delivery	Requirements, tasks, and the two together
Quality	Defects
Execution	Releases, test runs, release executions, and test cases inside a run

You can also ask about how records connect: coverage, execution history, defect links, flaky tests and CI build results. That is how questions like Test cases that have an open defect against them work: Oracle checks the linked defects for each test case. See Record Reference for the full list.

Your own names work too. Folder names, label names, release titles, custom field options and team members are read from the project every time you ask, so a label you created this morning can be asked about this afternoon.

Check What It Understood

Read the Understood as row before you trust the answer.

Each condition shows the exact value Oracle used. “The last 10 days” becomes the actual date. A name becomes the team member it matched. Conditions about history read as sentences, such as Never executed or Never added to any run.

Select the × on a condition to remove it. The answer updates straight away and doesn’t use AI again. See How to Ask for why this is the best way to correct an answer.

Work With the Results

None of these use AI again:

Sort: select a column header. You can sort by one column at a time.
Show more: loads more rows, up to 500.
Columns: choose which fields to show. Your choice is remembered for each kind of record.
Readiness: on releases and runs, adds readiness columns (verdict, score, coverage, pass and fail rates) and orders the rows by readiness.

Export downloads a CSV of the rows on screen, with the columns you can see. It doesn’t export every match. The count above the table is the true number of matches (or, for a grouped answer, the number of groups). The table shows the first hundred unless you ask for more.

Counts Per Group

Ask how many X per Y and you get one line per value with its count, biggest first, instead of a list to count yourself.

How many test cases per folder
Defects by severity
Failures per requirement in release 4.2
Releases by readiness verdict

The tag above the table says what it counted by, for example counted per Severity. It has no ×, because removing it would ask a different question, not loosen this one. To change the grouping, ask again.

Grouped lines are counts, not records, so they don’t open in the record panel. Ask the question without the grouping to see the records behind a number.

Open a Record

Select a row and it opens in a panel beside the answer, with arrows to move through the results without losing your place.

⌘-click, middle-click and open in new tab still work as usual. The panel only opens on a plain click.

When It Asks You Something Back

If your question can be answered but is too vague, Oracle asks one short question back, with two to four answers as buttons. Select one and Oracle answers that version.

Answering counts as asking again: Oracle works out your original question again with your answer added. This is different from removing a condition, which doesn’t use AI.