# Cortex documentation

[Cortex](https://cortex.io/) is the EngOps Platform that keeps your entire engineering organization moving as one—fewer incidents, faster recovery, and developers spending time building instead of battling friction.

### Welcome to Cortex

<table data-view="cards"><thead><tr><th></th><th></th><th data-hidden data-card-cover data-type="files"></th><th data-hidden data-card-target data-type="content-ref"></th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td><span data-gb-custom-inline data-tag="emoji" data-code="1f4a1">💡</span> <strong>Solve Your Use Case</strong></td><td>Use Cortex to automate best practices and streamline actions for use cases like Production Readiness, AI Maturity, and Incident Management.</td><td></td><td><a href="https://app.gitbook.com/o/RD51qiGImxmmq8NjALb1/s/7F1UMLUuX7dkA693DijO/">Solutions</a></td></tr><tr><td><span data-gb-custom-inline data-tag="emoji" data-code="26a1">⚡</span> <strong>Connect Data</strong></td><td>Pull in data from Git, Snyk, PagerDuty, and your other essential tools to build a complete picture of your software ecosystem.</td><td></td><td><a href="ingesting-data-into-cortex/overview">overview</a></td></tr><tr><td>🔑  <strong>Define Ownership</strong></td><td>Establish clear ownership of services and entities to drive accountability, streamline incident response, and keep critical issues from falling through the cracks.</td><td></td><td><a href="ingesting-data-into-cortex/entities/ownership">ownership</a></td></tr><tr><td><span data-gb-custom-inline data-tag="emoji" data-code="1f5a5">🖥️</span>  <strong>Configure GitOps</strong></td><td>Configure a GitOps workflow to manage entities in your Cortex workspace.</td><td></td><td><a href="configure/gitops">gitops</a></td></tr><tr><td><span data-gb-custom-inline data-tag="emoji" data-code="1f517">🔗</span>  <strong>Explore the API</strong></td><td>Build on top of Cortex using the API. Automate workflows, query your Catalog, and extend Scorecards.</td><td></td><td><a href="https://app.gitbook.com/o/RD51qiGImxmmq8NjALb1/s/nPgS8L9MAPtoOtdWdeDp/">API</a></td></tr><tr><td><span data-gb-custom-inline data-tag="emoji" data-code="1f4c8">📈</span>  <strong>Continuously Improve</strong></td><td>Measure baselines and identify bottlenecks. Take action and watch trends improve in real time.</td><td></td><td><a href="improve/eng-intelligence">eng-intelligence</a></td></tr></tbody></table>

### Accelerate the path to engineering excellence

Engineering excellence is built on four pillars: **security**, **reliability**, **velocity**, and **efficiency**. But achieving all four requires more than good intentions. It requires clear ownership, complete visibility, and consistent standards across every team and service. Cortex gives you the foundation to get there.

Start with clear ownership and accountability so nothing falls through the cracks. Layer in complete visibility through the Catalog, drive a culture of continuous improvement with [Scorecards](https://docs.cortex.io/standardize/scorecards) and [Engineering Intelligence](https://docs.cortex.io/improve/eng-intelligence), and deliver a consistent developer experience through self-service [Workflows](https://docs.cortex.io/streamline/workflows).

***

#### SECURITY

Security best practices should be embedded in development from day one. Cortex lets you continuously check services for compliance and drive remediation with clear ownership and accountability.

* Monitor encryption, dependency health, and vulnerability status with customizable security compliance Scorecard templates.
* Automatically enforce security and compliance checks during service creation, ensuring every new service meets company-wide policies before it ships.
* Remediate vulnerabilities and compliance gaps by priority and deadline with [Initiatives](https://docs.cortex.io/improve/initiatives).
* Ensure consistent rollouts and CI/CD processes using Workflows.

<details>

<summary>How different personas drive security with Cortex</summary>

* **Engineering leaders** - Use [reports](https://docs.cortex.io/improve/reports) to understand current security posture and guide teams with actionable insights.
* **SREs** - Use Scorecards to maintain well-cataloged services, enabling faster and more confident incident response.
* **Security engineers** - Automate security checks, flag noncompliant services with Scorecards, and standardize remediation tasks with Workflows.

</details>

#### RELIABILITY

Reliability isn't just about uptime. It's about ensuring every service meets production-readiness standards before issues arise, and giving teams the context to respond quickly when they do.

* Automate readiness and operational maturity checks with customizable Scorecard templates that flag missing ownership, alerting, or logging configurations.
* Track DORA metrics and MTTR using Eng Intelligence dashboards.
* Enable fast incident response with Workflows to rollback, restart pods, and more.
* Give leaders and engineers a shared view of [Initiatives](https://docs.cortex.io/improve/initiatives), progress, and tasks on the [Engineering homepage](https://docs.cortex.io/streamline/homepage).

<details>

<summary>How different personas drive reliability with Cortex</summary>

* **Engineering leaders** - Use [reports](https://docs.cortex.io/improve/reports) to get a unified view of organization-wide service health and prioritize reliability Initiatives across teams.
* **Developers** - Use Scorecards to get clear visibility into whether services meet reliability standards.
* **SREs** - Automate production readiness checks via Scorecards to shift from reactive firefighting to proactive incident prevention.
* **Platform engineers** - Automate best practice enforcement via Scorecards and use Initiatives to keep reliability improvements moving by [syncing tasks directly with issue tracking tools](https://docs.cortex.io/improve/initiatives/issue-config).

</details>

#### VELOCITY

Slow, manual processes are one of the biggest blockers to shipping. Cortex removes the friction that keeps developers from moving fast without sacrificing standards.

* Provide automated golden paths that let developers bootstrap new services with security, observability, and operational standards pre-configured, so engineers aren't starting from scratch every time.
* Monitor cycle time, PR throughput, code coverage, and velocity trends with Eng Intelligence [velocity](https://docs.cortex.io/improve/eng-intelligence/dashboards/velocity-dashboard) and [DORA](https://docs.cortex.io/improve/eng-intelligence/dashboards/dora-dashboard) dashboards.
* Set clear standards and enforce best practices across teams and services with Scorecards.
* Automate common tasks like scaffolding new services or managing migrations with Workflows.
* Get quick answers about your workspace via [Cortex MCP](https://docs.cortex.io/get-started/mcp) for faster decision-making.

<details>

<summary>How different personas drive velocity with Cortex</summary>

* **Engineering leaders** - Leverage productivity metrics from Eng Intelligence during performance reviews and coaching conversations.
* **Platform engineers** - Eliminate back-and-forth by setting up a Workflow to handle access requests as a single approval flow that integrates into existing tooling.
* **Developers** - Use the [Engineering homepage](https://docs.cortex.io/streamline/homepage) to stay focused on priorities, not operational overhead.

</details>

#### EFFICIENCY

Engineering efficiency means more than moving fast. It means eliminating waste, reducing redundant work, and ensuring every team is aligned to the same standards.

* Gain real-time visibility into your software ecosystem to identify orphaned services, stale dependencies, and underutilized infrastructure before they become costly problems.
* Use Scorecards to measure and enforce standards for consistency, resource utilization, and migrations.
* Use [Initiatives](https://docs.cortex.io/improve/initiatives) to keep teams aligned and ensure migrations are completed on time.
* Automate repeatable tasks with Workflows to free engineers from operational overhead.

<details>

<summary>How different personas drive efficiency with Cortex</summary>

* **Engineering leaders** - Manage cloud costs and improve resource utilization by identifying services that are no longer actively maintained or are running outdated dependencies.
* **Platform engineers** - Use Scorecards to enforce standards during migrations, keeping projects on track without manual review cycles.
* **Developers** - Use the [Engineering homepage](https://docs.cortex.io/streamline/homepage) to gain insight into their tasks and priorities at a glance.

</details>

### Cortex video overview

See Cortex in action.

{% embed url="<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ugYI8r1DwI>" %}