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

# Root Cause Analysis

> Evidence-linked causal chains for every investigation. How the RCA Pipeline Agent builds them, what is inside, and how to read one well.

Root Cause Analysis (RCA) is the investigation layer of the Agent Mesh. When an [Insight](/concepts/insights) has enough evidence for a single identifiable root cause, the RCA Pipeline Agent takes over and produces a structured report. That report is the artefact your team acts on and references later.

Every RCA is built on cited evidence. There is no "trust me" reasoning. Every causal link points back to the signal, log, metric, or change that justifies it.

## What a report contains

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="Observed conditions" icon="eye">
    The exact state of the affected resources when the incident started. Snapshots of metrics, events, configuration, and recent changes. Every data point links to its source.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Causal chain" icon="diagram-project">
    Each link reads "A caused B because C". Every link names the specific evidence behind it, so you can verify instead of trust.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Recommended actions" icon="wand-magic-sparkles">
    Ranked fixes. Each annotated with expected blast radius, estimated recovery time, and confidence score. High-confidence actions sit at the top.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Prior art" icon="clock-rotate-left">
    If similar shapes have been resolved before in this workspace, the prior RCAs are linked inline. Operator notes from those resolutions come with them.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Verification" icon="circle-check">
    After an action runs, the stabilisation window is recorded. Verified, partial, or rollback-suggested outcomes are all tracked on the report.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Timeline and audit" icon="timeline">
    Every status change, approval, applied action, and comment. Actor and timestamp on each entry. Ready for compliance review.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

## How an RCA is built

<Steps titleSize="h3">
  <Step title="Scope the incident">
    Start from the Insight that opened the case. Identify the directly affected resources and their one-hop neighbours in the Knowledge Graph.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Gather evidence">
    Pull signals (metrics, logs, events), recent changes (deploys, IAM, config), and prior art from the Memory Engine over a time window that spans the incident.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Build the chain">
    Correlate signals across the scoped resources. Every inferred relationship must cite the evidence that justifies it.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Rank recommendations">
    For each candidate action, estimate blast radius and recovery time. Reorder by confidence. Top-ranked goes to Execute.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Verify the outcome">
    After an action is approved and applied, watch the affected resources for the stabilisation window. Record the outcome on the report.
  </Step>
</Steps>

## What makes an RCA citable by AI

Docs, post-mortems, and AI answer engines can all cite RubixKube RCAs because the evidence chain is structured. Three properties matter.

<CardGroup cols={3}>
  <Card title="Specific claims" icon="crosshairs">
    "Memory used at crash: 487Mi (95%)" beats "high memory pressure". The specific number is the claim.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Direct citations" icon="link">
    Every claim links to its underlying signal. No inferential leaps without evidence.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Structured sections" icon="list-tree">
    Observed, Causal, Recommended, Verified. The same shape every time. Predictable.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## How to read an RCA well

<Steps titleSize="h3">
  <Step title="Read the title and the top-ranked action first">
    Ninety per cent of the value is in the top of the report. If the recommendation is clearly right, skip to the action panel.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Verify one or two links in the causal chain">
    Click through on the signals that feel surprising. Confirm the claim matches the underlying data. This builds trust in the report and flags edge cases the model might have missed.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Check prior art">
    If a similar shape was resolved recently, the previous resolution's operator notes often apply. Read them before approving the new action.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Act, or route, or reject">
    Approve, route to a teammate, or reject with a reason. All three feed the Memory Engine.
  </Step>
</Steps>

## Common questions

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="Why did my Insight not become an RCA?">
    Not every anomaly has a single identifiable root cause. Multi-cause incidents stay as insights, with the causal analysis inline. If you want a deeper dive, escalate from the insight card and the RCA Pipeline will attempt a full report with the added context.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="How long does it take to generate an RCA?">
    Usually thirty seconds to a few minutes, depending on how wide the causal search is. Large blast radius incidents take longer because more evidence has to be correlated.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Can I rerun an RCA with new context?">
    Yes. On the report detail page, use **Rerun with context** and paste in the new information (a ticket link, a Slack thread, your own hypothesis). The pipeline takes the input into account.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Are RCAs exportable?">
    Markdown and printable views are available on the report detail page. Public share links are scoped and revocable. Enterprise workspaces can export the raw JSON for archival or custom dashboards.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

## Related concepts

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Insights" icon="lightbulb" href="/concepts/insights">
    Where RCAs originate. Every RCA starts as an insight.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Actions" icon="play" href="/concepts/actions">
    What happens once the RCA produces a recommendation.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>
