The why behind every system.
Knovi is the engineering knowledge layer for growing teams. It maps your systems, how they depend on each other and why, and keeps it current with every commit. People and coding agents get answers with sources.
Ask about your systems…
AskEvery team has someone who just knows.
When a team is small, one person holds the whole system in their head. As it grows, that knowledge splits across people, teams and old threads. Then someone leaves, and it leaves with them.
Coding agents read code well. They can't see why a system is shaped the way it is, or what happens two services away when you change it. Neither can the engineer who joined last month.
- Why do we only take orders in these five cities?
An allow-list in orders. Pune was paused in March 2025 when its courier partner left.
orders/serviceable-cities.ts:12 · Linear OPS-412
- Why is this service on a document store and not Postgres?
Each product category needs its own fields without a migration.
catalog/models/product.ts:9 · Catalog storage RFC
- What breaks downstream if I change the refund flow?
Notifications sends the refund SMS, and the nightly finance export reads refund rows.
notifications/subscribers.ts:40 · workers/finance-export.ts:33
- What should I check before patching this database?
Checkout blocks while it's down. Drain the refund dead-letter queue afterwards; it was missed last time.
workers/refund.ts:17 · Slack #payments-oncall
How it works
A living map of your systems, built from the code.
01
Connect your sources
Install the GitHub app on a repository. Knovi reads a snapshot of the default branch and writes nothing back. Slack, Linear and docs will plug in here as optional context.
02
Map the systems
Knovi finds the systems in your code, what each one is responsible for, and how they reach each other: calls, queues, shared databases.
03
Keep it current
Every commit to the default branch is checked. When it changes what is true about a system, the knowledge is reconciled, and the old version is kept as history.
04
Ask from anywhere
Engineers ask in the app. Coding agents like Claude Code, Codex and Cursor ask over MCP. Every answer comes with its sources.
Orders
Serves 5 cities
Payments
Cards · UPI · Netbanking
Notifications
SMS · WhatsApp · Email
- Orders → Paymentscharges on checkout, synchronously
- Orders → Notificationsorder confirmation sends email only
- Payments → Notificationssuccess sends SMS, WhatsApp, email; failure sends SMS, email
Sources
GitHub says what is true. Slack, Linear and docs say why.
The reasons behind a system live in threads, tickets and documents. So do ideas that never shipped and pages that went stale. Knovi uses them only when they tie to a change in the code, and never lets them override it.
Slack#ops · 14 Mar 2025
“Pausing Pune from Monday. Our courier partner there is pulling out.”
Priya, Operations
Checked against the code
Waiting…
·Outcome
…
Principles
Knowledge you can trust, because you can check it.
Code is the authority
What is merged on the default branch is what is true. Slack, Linear and documents add the why, but never override the code.
Every claim is cited
Each fact points to the repository, file, line and commit it came from, so anyone can check it in seconds.
Unknowns stay visible
When the evidence is missing or conflicting, Knovi says so. It never invents a reason to fill a gap.
No copy of your code
Agents can already read code. Knovi stores only the knowledge above it: responsibilities, dependencies, constraints and why.
Stop losing what your team knows.
Knovi is in private early access with a small number of engineering teams. Tell us about yours.