Sources

Architecture diagrams rot fast when they're disconnected from reality. Sources are how ContextDX stays grounded — they connect your boards to the actual systems, repos, documents, and infrastructure that your architecture describes.

Prerequisites

  • Workspace created with at least one board
  • Integration credentials configured at the org level (for OAuth sources)
  • Access to the external system you want to connect (repo permissions, Confluence space access, etc.)

How sources work

Sources live in a workspace-level catalog. Each source is registered once, then bound to one or more boards. The same Confluence space can feed multiple boards without being imported twice.

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Source types

These require org-level integration credentials configured in advance.

SourceDescription
ConfluenceAtlassian Confluence pages and spaces
Google DocsGoogle Docs documents
GitHubGitHub organization or account level
GitHub RepoSpecific GitHub repo
GitHub FileIndividual file in a GitHub repo
JiraJira projects and issues
SlackSlack channels and conversations
NotionNotion pages and databases
IntercomIntercom conversations and articles

Source roles

When you bind a source to a board, you assign it a role that determines how it participates:

RoleBehavior
GoverningContributes to graph structure. Nodes and edges are extracted and synced to the board. Participates in conflict detection.
ReferenceAttached as context only. Chat and insights can read it, but it doesn't change the board's structure.
Note

A board can only have governing sources of one classification type — you can't mix push-based (smart) and extraction-based (dumb) governing sources on the same board.

Sync lifecycle

Each source binding moves through a strict sequence as it syncs:

StateWhat it means
UnsyncedNewly bound, not yet processed
Evidence collectedRaw evidence extracted from the source
Embeddings generatedSemantic embeddings created for matching
Conflicts checkedCross-source conflicts identified
SyncedFully processed and applied to the board

States progress in order. If a sync fails partway through, the binding stays at the last completed state and can be retried from there.

Health tracking

Sources are monitored for connectivity:

  • Healthy — Accessible and syncing normally
  • Degraded — Accessible but experiencing issues
  • Failing — Not accessible or sync is broken

Trust scores

ContextDX computes a trust score (0–10) for each source based on several weighted factors:

How the trust score is computed
FactorWeightWhat it measures
AccuracyHighHow well the information matches known facts and other corroborating sources
RecencyMediumHow recently the source was updated — stale docs score lower
ConflictsHigh (negative)Count of conflicting evidence from other sources — more conflicts = lower trust
VerificationsMediumCount of corroborating sources that agree — more agreement = higher trust

A source with a trust score below 4 gets a visual indicator in the UI. Below 2, the binding card turns red. This doesn't block anything — it's a signal to the architect that the source might need attention.

Tip

Governing sources are your "single source of truth" for a board. Reference sources give chat extra context without changing your diagram. When in doubt, start with reference and promote to governing once you trust the data.

What's next