Background lines
Use cases/Support engineering

Use case · Support engineering

Engineering only sees cases
that need code changes.

When a technical support case opens, Chip reads the history, matches it against prior resolved cases, identifies the root cause, and drafts a fix proposal. If a code change is needed, engineering gets a ticket with the diagnosis already done. If it is not, the case is resolved without them.

4 minfrom case open to engineering briefed

Without Chip

Engineers get pulled into customer questions that have not been triaged. Your 9am standup is a support queue. Half the cases turn out to be configuration issues that never needed a code change at all.

With Chip

Engineering sees pre-diagnosed tickets. Chip has already run the root cause analysis, matched prior cases, and drafted the fix. Engineers open a ticket already oriented, not a forwarded Slack thread.

Live example

CASE-4891: analytics events missing. Root cause found in 4 minutes.

An Acme Corp user reported roughly 20% of afternoon analytics events missing after a product launch. Chip identified a MergeTree merge backlog caused by a default background_pool_size=16 failing to keep pace with a 4x write spike. It matched three prior resolved cases, proposed raising the setting to 128, and opened ENG-2847 in Jira — before engineering was paged.

CASE-4891 · Chip analysisENG-2847 created

Incoming case

~20% analytics events missing · Acme Corp · afternoon window

Reported after major product launch. Affected table: user_events. Customer suspects ingestion failure or silent drop.

Root cause

96% confidence

MergeTree merge backlog — merge rate fell behind 4× write spike

background_pool_size=16 (default) insufficient for write volume post-launch. INSERTs silently dropped into user_events.

Prior cases matched

CASE-4231
91%

Raised background_pool_size from 16 to 64; increased merge_max_block_size.

CASE-4198
84%

Added retry wrapper with exponential backoff in event_writer.py.

CASE-3892
76%

Tuned background_pool_size and distributed merge scheduling.

Proposed fix

background_pool_size=16background_pool_size=128

Add retry wrapper with exponential backoff in event_writer.py. Affected systems: ClickHouse cluster, analytics ingestion pipeline.

Jira ticket

ENG-2847 · Fix: merge pool sizing for write-spike conditions

Draft ready

How it works

01

Case arrives

Chip reads the full case history, reproduction steps, and any attached logs. No form to fill. No triage queue to join.

02

Root cause traced

Chip matches the failure against prior resolved cases, identifies the config or code pattern at fault, and assigns a confidence score to its diagnosis.

03

Fix drafted

A proposed change is written out, affected systems listed, and a Jira ticket created with the full diagnosis attached. Engineering is paged only if a code change is confirmed necessary.

Who benefits

Engineering teams

No more Monday morning questions. You see a ticket with a diagnosis, not a forwarded Slack message. When Chip pages you, the root cause is already named and a fix is already drafted.

Support teams

Complex technical cases do not stall at the handoff. Chip escalates with context — the failure mode, the matched prior cases, the proposed fix — not a wall of logs and a Slack ping.

Related use cases

See Chip diagnose a case from your queue.

We will run the analysis live against a case from your environment — root cause, matched priors, and Jira ticket draft.