How It Works

Three steps.

01

Connect GitHub and your issue tracker

Authorize Waterline with OAuth. Takes under two minutes. No configuration files. No infrastructure. No code to deploy.

  • GitHub OAuth — read-only access to your repositories, commits, and pull requests
  • Jira Cloud or GitHub Issues — reads ticket descriptions and acceptance criteria
  • Slack (optional) — post progress reports to any channel
  • Waterline never writes to your repositories or modifies anything
02

Waterline indexes your codebase

Select a repository and branch. Waterline reads it at the function and class level, not just filenames or diffs. Every symbol gets a natural-language summary from an LLM, which we store to keep track of your changes.

  • Waterline parses every file and their functions and classes
  • Each gets an LLM-generated summary describing what it does and why
  • Summaries are stored for keeping track of your progress
  • Initial index takes a few minutes for large repos. Every new commit syncs automatically via webhooks
03

Analyze any ticket in seconds

When you open a ticket, Waterline reads the acceptance criteria, finds the relevant code, and scores each criterion against it.

  • Each acceptance criterion is scored independently as done, partial, or missing
  • Results include the specific functions and commits that satisfy each criterion
  • Overall progress score: the fraction of criteria satisfied in merged code
  • Re-analyze any time. The result updates as new commits land

What results look like.

Each ticket analysis returns a percentage score and a criterion-by-criterion breakdown. Every finding is linked back to the specific commit and function that satisfies it, explaining why it was not found.

Nothing is a black box. If a criterion is marked satisfied, you can see the exact code evidence. If it is marked missing, you know which part of the acceptance criteria has no code behind it yet.

AUTH-24773% complete

Implement payment retry logic

Retry on 5xx responses with exponential backoff

found in a3f91c2

Max 3 retry attempts before marking failed

found in a3f91c2

Idempotency key on each payment request

found in b7e2d84

Dead letter queue for permanently failed payments

Based on 4 merged commits · acme/platform · main

FAQ.

What does Waterline read?

File content and diffs, at the time a commit is processed. This is used to extract symbols and compute progress answers.

What does Waterline store?

Natural language functionality summaries of your code, never the source code itself. The actual file content is discarded immediately after processing.

What access does Waterline need?

Waterline reads repository content, commits, and pull requests. It will never push, comment, open issues, or modify anything.

Can we revoke access?

Yes, at any time from your GitHub OAuth settings and from Waterline settings. Revoking access stops all future processing.

Running in under five minutes.