> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.usefactor.app/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Overview

> Merge Risk Intelligence for Backend Systems

Factor helps engineering teams understand what could break in production before a pull request is merged.

It analyzes PRs the way a senior engineer would—reasoning about system behavior, not just code changes.

## 🧠 What Factor does

Modern backend systems are too complex to fully reason about during code review.

Even when tests pass and CI is green, production issues still happen because:

* assumptions are implicit
* services are interconnected
* failure scenarios are not tested
* system behavior is hard to simulate from diffs alone

Factor surfaces these risks before merge time.

## ⚠️ What Factor identifies

Factor focuses on risks that matter in real production systems:

* Hidden assumptions in logic
* Failure modes under real-world conditions
* Downstream impact across services
* Missing validation and edge cases
* Business logic risks in critical workflows

## 🧩 How it fits into your workflow

Factor runs automatically on every pull request:

```text theme={null}
PR opened or updated
        ↓
Factor analyzes code + system context
        ↓
Risk analysis generated
        ↓
Shown on the pull request
        ↓
Engineer reviews → decides to merge
```

No setup per PR. No workflow changes.

## 🧠 How this is different

Code review focuses on:

* readability
* correctness in isolation
* team conventions

CI focuses on:

* builds
* tests
* linting

Factor focuses on:

* system-level behavior
* cross-service impact
* production failure scenarios
* hidden assumptions in changes

## 🎯 Why Factor matters

Most production incidents don’t happen because code is “wrong.”

They happen because:

the system behaves differently than what the reviewer assumed.

Factor makes those assumptions visible before merge time.

## 🚀 Get started

Install Factor on your GitHub account, select your repositories, and it will begin analyzing pull requests automatically.

No code changes required.

## 🧠 Outcome

Engineers don’t just review code.

They understand production risk before it ships.

***

## For engineers

<Columns cols={2}>
  <Card title="Quickstart" icon="rocket" href="/getting-started/quickstart">
    Install Factor and run your first analysis.
  </Card>

  <Card title="How Factor Works" icon="settings" href="/getting-started/how-factor-works">
    Technical overview of Factor's analysis pipeline.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Understanding Reviews" icon="search" href="/getting-started/understanding-review">
    Deep dive into every section of a Factor analysis.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Example Reviews" icon="eye" href="/examples/example-reviews">
    Real Factor analyses on financial, auth, and infrastructure changes.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Verdicts & Risk Levels" icon="shield-check" href="/reference/verdicts">
    What SAFE, REVIEW\_REQUIRED, and BLOCKER mean.
  </Card>

  <Card title="FAQ" icon="circle-question-mark" href="/reference/faq">
    Common questions about Factor.
  </Card>
</Columns>

<Note>
  Want to see Factor on your repo? Start with the
  [Quickstart](/getting-started/quickstart) to install and configure.
</Note>