Discovery

Discovery in Cycle Intelligence is a guided, resumable flow that turns what you know about a system under test into a recommended Cycle test plan. It runs through your AI coding agent using the Cycle MCP Server. This is the Discovery phase of the Cycle Testing Process, carried out with an agent alongside your Cycle project.

One prompt starts the flow and resumes it later:

/cycle:begin-discovery

That single entry point covers everything Discovery does. Earlier versions of Cycle offered a separate document-ingest prompt. It has been retired, and document ingest is now one of the input sources inside this flow.

Blue Yonder focus

Discovery supports the Blue Yonder Warehouse Management System (WMS) in this iteration. If you name a different system, the agent tells you the system is not yet supported and stops.

Why use Discovery?

Discovery is normally an open-ended activity. You read whatever documentation exists, interview the people who know the system, and hope you have covered enough before test writing begins. There is rarely a signal that tells you when you are done.

This flow gives that activity a structure:

• A questionnaire scoped to the system type: Instead of inventing questions, you answer a curated set, and later questions adjust to the answers you have already given.
• A place for the documentation you already have: Existing test documentation becomes a clean, consistent set of test specifications rather than a folder nobody wants to open.
• A test plan built from your answers: The recommended tests trace back to specific answers, so the plan is reviewable rather than a guess.
• A record that survives the session: Progress is stored in the project, so you can stop, hand off, and pick the work back up.

How Discovery works

After the agent determines which Cycle project to work in, you arrive at the input-source hub. The hub is the home position for the whole flow. It lists each input source with its status, and it tells you whether a test plan can be generated yet:

Input source     Status
---------------  -----------
document ingest  not started
questions        in progress

Ready to generate a test plan: no

From the hub you pick a source, work on it, and return. There is no required order, and you can revisit a source as many times as you like.

Discovery has two input sources:

Input source	What it does
document ingest	Converts existing test documentation into consistent test specifications. Runs on its own track and does not answer any questionnaire question.
questions	The discovery questionnaire. Your answers are what a test plan is built from.

Generating a test plan is a separate, final step. It becomes available only when every applicable question has been answered, and only when you ask for it.

Discovery in Cycle Intelligence compared to Intelligent Discovery

Cycle offers two ways to run Discovery, and they suit different situations.

	Discovery in Cycle Intelligence	Intelligent Discovery
Where it runs	Locally, through your AI coding agent	In the browser
Works with	The files in your Cycle project	A hosted project you can share
Reach for it when	You are already working in an agent next to the project	You want a shared, visual project your team can review together

Both produce a test plan from a questionnaire. Document ingest is available only in the Cycle Intelligence flow described here.

Prerequisites

• A supported AI coding agent connected to the Cycle MCP Server. See the Cycle MCP setup guide.
• A signed-in Cycle account. The MCP server requires you to be signed in.
• A folder to work in. An existing Cycle project is used if one is there, and a new project can be created for you.
• The test documentation you intend to ingest, if you plan to use document ingest.

How to use this section

Work through these pages in order the first time. After that, use them as reference for whichever part of the flow you return to.

• Starting Discovery: Invoke the prompt, confirm the system under test, resolve the Cycle project, and read the hub.
• Answering Questions: Work through the questionnaire, record and change answers, and check progress.
• Ingesting Documents: Turn existing test documentation into consistent test specifications.
• Making a Test Plan: Generate the recommended tests and review what was written.
• Resuming Discovery: Stop, share the work with your team, and pick it up later.