FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Clear answers about wallet credit, usage, subscriptions, and how Tycoon charges for work.
How does it know what's 'breaking' vs 'backward-compatible'?
AI CTO runs a diff-based classifier. For API changes: removed endpoint = breaking, required field added to request = breaking, optional field added to response = non-breaking. For SDK changes: removed public method = breaking, new method added = non-breaking. For behavior changes: a default value changing is treated as breaking unless marked otherwise. When uncertain, it flags the PR as 'needs human classification' rather than guessing. Most teams find 90%+ accuracy after 2 weeks of seeing the team's conventions.
We use trunk-based development with feature flags. Releases aren't tied to code merges. Does this still work?
Yes, and actually better than for release-tied teams. AI CTO distinguishes 'shipped code' (merged) from 'shipped feature' (flag enabled for general users). The changelog entry gets drafted at merge but doesn't go live until the flag is enabled for >50% of users (or your threshold). For feature-flag-heavy teams, the changelog ends up reflecting actual customer experience, not 'we put code behind a flag 3 months ago and nobody saw it'.
Our customers are developers who want the dev-jargon commit messages, not marketing copy. Do they have to take the rewritten version?
No. The pipeline generates two versions: customer.md (rewritten, in brand voice) and technical.md (with PR links, contributors, file changes). Your /changelog page renders the customer version by default with a 'Technical details' expand that shows the PR. Open-source projects often invert this — technical is default, with a simplified summary at the top. Both live in sync.
What happens when we ship a hotfix at 2am — does it wait for business hours?
Hotfixes run the full pipeline immediately but differently. Security-flagged PRs trigger an immediate release + announcement (status page, email to affected customers, Discord). Non-security hotfixes go out immediately but skip the marketing-side notifications (no blog post, no social). AI CTO distinguishes based on PR labels — you tag the PR hotfix or security, and the pipeline adapts. Over-communication of bug fixes is almost as bad as under-communication of features.
We have 12 microservices with separate versioning. Does it handle poly-repo?
Yes. Each repo has its own CHANGELOG.md, tags, and GitHub Releases. The public-facing /changelog aggregates across repos with service-level filtering ('show me only changes to the API service'). AI CTO understands which repo maps to which customer-visible surface and routes accordingly. For internal services (no customer surface), the workflow still runs for internal observability but doesn't publish externally.