Semantic Explorer
In brief: Existing tooling mostly follows explicit links. Semantic Explorer projects TestChimp’s shared embedding space onto a 2D map so you can navigate neighborhoods, identify clusters, and find related entities by conceptual similarity—then link gaps or clean up duplicates from the sidebar.
What is Semantic Explorer?
Semantic Explorer is TestChimp’s spatial map of your project’s QA knowledge—laid out by semantic similarity, not by folder trees or explicit link chains.
Most QA tools stop at edges someone created: story → scenario → test → run. Related work that was never linked—paraphrased scenarios, twin bugs, a hot event next to a test that almost covers it—stays invisible. TestChimp consolidates stories, scenarios, SmartTests, issues, and TrueCoverage events into a single embedding space. Semantic Explorer lets you explore that space: pan neighborhoods, spot clusters, and surface peers ranked by cosine similarity.
Open it from the sidebar under QA Brain (/brain), switch to the Semantic Explorer tab, add entity types, and explore a canvas where nodes that mean similar things sit near each other. Select a node to open the detail sidebar: cosine-ranked peers, link actions, duplicate cleanup, and tunable similarity cutoffs.
Where InfiniTrace walks structural links board by board, Semantic Explorer answers: “What else looks like this—linked or not—and should it be connected?”
Example: plans next to automation health
One common map: load Stories, Scenarios, and Tests, and paint SmartTest borders with latest execution status. You get requirement neighborhoods with live pass/fail on the automation that sits nearby by meaning—so failing islands show up next to the plans they should cover, even when the structural link chain is incomplete.
Example: lookalike issue clusters
Another: load Issues alone and set borders to severity. Lookalike bugs with different titles collapse into clusters you can triage from the sidebar—mark distinct, create a cleanup issue, or confirm a true duplicate—without hunting across tickets by keyword.
These are just two of the maps Semantic Explorer supports. The same canvas works for scenario↔test coverage gaps, story↔scenario overlap before planning, TrueCoverage events vs automation islands, and more—see Use cases below.
Semantic Explorer vs InfiniTrace
| Semantic Explorer | InfiniTrace | |
|---|---|---|
| Primary question | What is similar in meaning? | What is structurally linked? |
| Layout | 2D embedding projection (UMAP) | Horizontal board chain |
| Best for | Clusters, duplicates, coverage near-misses | Traceability walks (story → scenario → test → run) |
| Actions | Link from nearby peers; mark distinct; create duplicate issues | Fan-out Linked / Non-Linked; link on Non-Linked cards |
Use both surfaces in QA Brain—they share the same underlying entities, link rules, and deep-link locator model.
Where to find it
- Open QA Brain in the TestChimp sidebar
- Select the Semantic Explorer tab (
/brain?tab=semantic-explorer) - Choose a starter entity type (or add types from the type picker)
- Pan and zoom the canvas; click a node to open the detail sidebar
Shareable deep links encode your entity configs, filters, search, border modes, and selected node in the ?locator= URL param (with tab=semantic-explorer).
How the canvas works
Each visible node is an embedded QA entity. Positions come from a UMAP projection of high-dimensional embeddings into 2D, so local neighborhoods reflect cosine similarity in embedding space—not folder path or creation date.
| Concept | What it means |
|---|---|
| Type cards | Toolbar chips for each entity type on the map—shape, border, filter, search, remove |
| Shapes | Distinct glyphs per type (circle, triangle, square, star, rhombus)—customizable per type |
| Border decorations | Optional strokes encoding health signals (execution status, priority, due status, linked-test / coverage flags) |
| Filters & search | Hide nodes that fail type filters or title / ordinal search (#US-12, #TS-3, …) |
| Selection | Click a node to highlight it and drive the detail sidebar |
Large projects may show a scope truncation notice when the eligible set exceeds the embedding graph cap—filters and type selection keep maps focused on the slice you care about.
Entity types on the map
Semantic Explorer plots types that carry embeddings:
| Type | Typical signal on the map |
|---|---|
| Story | Requirement clusters and overlapping epics |
| Scenario | Near-duplicate scenarios and unlinked peers near covered ones |
| Test (SmartTest) | Automation islands vs plan-aligned clusters |
| Issue | Duplicate / lookalike bugs near related work (defaults to open-ish statuses) |
| Event | TrueCoverage / RUM catalog names near tests and scenarios that mention similar behaviour |
Border modes (health overlays)
Per type, you can paint node borders with operational attributes:
| Mode | Commonly used on | What the border encodes |
|---|---|---|
| None | All | No decoration |
| Latest execution status | Tests, scenarios | Recent pass / fail signal |
| Priority / Severity | Stories, scenarios, issues | Priority (severity for issues) |
| Due status | Stories, scenarios, issues | Overdue / due-soon cues |
| Has linked test | Scenarios | Whether a SmartTest is linked |
| Has test coverage | Events | Whether automation emits / covers the event |
Combine borders with filters (folder scope, labels, status, branch, and type-specific fields) to turn the map into a triage surface—not just a pretty cluster view.
Detail sidebar: nearby by meaning
Selecting a node opens the detail sidebar. Lists are ranked by cosine similarity in embedding space (not by how close nodes look after 2D projection). Tune a cosine cutoff per source→target type pair so “nearby” means what you need for that dual.
Accordion sections
| Section | What you get |
|---|---|
| Similar <same type> | Same-type peers above your cutoff—spot duplicates and over-similar work |
| Close by <other type> | Cross-type neighbors among the types currently on the canvas |
Actions on nearby cards
- Link — create a structural link when rules allow (same link model as InfiniTrace, including story↔scenario mappings and
// @Scenarioinjection for scenario↔test) - Mark as distinct / Unmark — teach the system that two same-type peers should not be treated as duplicates
- Create issue for duplicate — open an issue prefilled to clean up lookalike entities
- View details — read-only modal with a jump toward the full entity page
- Similarity % — cosine score on each card; Potential duplicate and Linked tags when applicable
Tip: Nodes that look close on the UMAP canvas can still fall below your cosine cutoff (and vice versa). Trust the sidebar scores for linking decisions; use the map for orientation and clusters.
Use cases
Beyond the two examples above, here are more maps teams use day to day:
Trace plans against automation health
Load Stories, Scenarios, and Tests on one canvas. Set test borders to Latest execution status so pass/fail paints the automation nodes while you still see which plan entities sit nearby by meaning—useful for spotting failing islands next to the requirements they should cover.
Spot issue clusters by severity
Load Issues alone (open / in-progress by default). Set borders to Severity and scan clusters of lookalike bugs. Open the sidebar on a noisy title to mark distinct, create a cleanup issue, or confirm a true duplicate before triage.
Close semantic coverage gaps
Put Scenarios and Tests (or Events and Tests) on the same map. Select an unlinked scenario or hot event, open Close by tests, and Link high-similarity peers that should already be connected.
See requirement clusters before planning
Plot Stories and Scenarios together. Dense clusters often signal overlapping requirements or missing scenario splits—useful before authoring or /testchimp test prioritization.
Triage TrueCoverage events against automation
Add Events with border mode Has test coverage, filter to your product folder, and select uncovered events that sit next to well-covered automation clusters—those are high-ROI instrumentation or test gaps.
Share a focused map with the team
Configure types, filters, and a selected node, then copy the URL. Teammates land on the same Semantic Explorer state via tab=semantic-explorer and ?locator=.
How Semantic Explorer fits QA Intelligence
Semantic Explorer is a discovery and linking surface over the same entities that power QA Intelligence insights:
| Surface | Job |
|---|---|
| Dashboard | Trends and roll-ups |
| Atlas | Screens, states, bugs in product structure |
| InfiniTrace | Interactive traversal of structural links |
| Semantic Explorer | Similarity map, duplicate detection, semantic near-miss linking |
| TrueCoverage | Production behaviour vs test coverage |
| Planning / SmartTests Insights | Folder-scoped coverage and health |
Embeddings improve as your plans, SmartTests, issues, and event definitions stay current. Link scenarios in SmartTests with // @Scenario comments so semantic near-misses can become durable structural edges—and so insight roll-ups stay accurate.
FAQ
Where do I open Semantic Explorer?
Open QA Brain in the TestChimp sidebar, then select the Semantic Explorer tab at /brain?tab=semantic-explorer.
How is Semantic Explorer different from InfiniTrace?
InfiniTrace walks structural links board by board; Semantic Explorer lays out embeddings on a UMAP canvas so similar entities cluster spatially, with cosine-ranked nearby lists in the sidebar.
Which entity types appear on the map?
Stories, scenarios, SmartTests, issues, and TrueCoverage events—types that carry embeddings in your project knowledge base.
What can I do from the detail sidebar?
Browse similar same-type peers and cross-type near-misses above a cosine cutoff, link when rules allow, mark lookalikes as distinct, create duplicate cleanup issues, and view entity details.
Can I share a Semantic Explorer view?
Yes—entity types, filters, search, border modes, and the selected node encode into the ?locator= deep link with tab=semantic-explorer.