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

# Investigations and results

> Understand bounded Investigation turns, cited results, proposed actions, and draft Postmortems.

An Investigation is one immutable evidence-gathering turn. It moves through `queued` and
`investigating`, then ends as `needs_input`, `concluded`, `partial`, `cancelled`, or
`failed`.

## Conversations and follow-ups

A Conversation is the ordered context a person talks to. Each Message may open a new Investigation. Follow-ups reuse bounded prior Findings and citations without copying raw provider payloads or private model reasoning.

Completed and `needs_input` Investigations never resume. Send a new Message to create the next turn.

For example, “Why did checkout latency rise?” opens one Investigation. “Does the deploy
at 09:42 explain it?” becomes a new Message and a new bounded Investigation in the same
Conversation, retaining prior cited Findings without changing the first result.

An Investigation can remain inconclusive when access, telemetry, time, or spend bounds
prevent a defensible answer.

## Findings and citations

A Finding is a factual statement supported by one or more numbered Tool Runs. Its kind
describes its causal role or identifies it as an observation. Confidence is categorical,
not an invented percentage. A causal Finding must explain the mechanism that produced
impact.

Hypotheses remain `exploring`, `supported`, `ruled_out`, or `unresolved`. Supported is
weaker than verified. Limitations name missing access, telemetry, contradictions,
unresolved assumptions, or essential human input.

Citations show what OpenCluster read, not that the source was complete or correct. Check
source timestamps, bounded windows, contradictions, and truncation before accepting a
Finding.

## Action Proposals

An Action Proposal can describe mitigation, rollback, verification, a permanent fix, or
monitoring. It states rationale, risk, reversibility, approval needs, verification, and
supporting Tool Runs. OpenCluster never executes it.

For example, a rollback proposal may cite a Kubernetes Event and a GitHub deployment,
require human approval, and explain how to verify latency and error rate afterward. The
citations support the proposal; they do not approve the change.

## Postmortems

A Postmortem belongs to one resolved Incident. A person triggers generation; OpenCluster
does not create one automatically. The draft distinguishes system evidence from
Conversation testimony and remains `draft` until reviewed.

Missing impact, resolution, owner, or deadline facts appear as `Needs human input.` rather
than being invented. A correction creates a new revision, and review records the reviewer
without turning testimony into system evidence. Postmortems remain nested under Incidents
in OSS v0.1 and are not automatically published.

Use [Run your first investigation](/getting-started/run-your-first-investigation) for the
end-to-end procedure.