Documentation — Frequently asked questions

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Short answers on beta access, data handling, what the AI does and doesn't decide, integrations, teams, and pricing.

Does the AI decide anything on its own?

No. SmartRetro detects, surfaces, and recommends; people decide. Signals wait for a human verdict, briefs are inputs to your meeting, and action items are created and closed by your team.

What does SmartRetro read?

Only what you opt in: Slack channels you subscribe (never DMs), events from repos and trackers you connect. Source code is never stored. The full specifics live on the Trust & security page.

Does SmartRetro read our source code?

No. Code-host integrations read metadata — pull requests, merges, pipeline outcomes — never the contents of your repositories. See GitHub and GitLab.

What is a signal?

Something in your team’s activity that crossed a threshold worth attention — a repeated blocker, a service that keeps paging, a theme recurring across retros. Signals appear in a feed, link back to their source, and wait for your verdict. See Signals.

What happens when a signal is wrong?

Mark it as Noise — that’s the point of verdicts. SmartRetro raises its threshold for similar patterns, and repeated noise verdicts quiet that shape of signal down. You can also Mute a shape to suppress it for a while.

What is the brief?

The prep assembled before each retro: what happened since last time, which commitments are still open, and the topics your team flagged to discuss. It’s delivered about a day before the meeting. See The brief.

Can I use SmartRetro without connecting anything?

Yes. Retros, voting, and action items all work with no integrations connected — you just won’t get a signal feed or a populated brief until a source is connected. See the quickstart.

How do teams work?

Everything — signals, retros, action items — belongs to a team, and the team switcher sets your scope: one team, or “All my teams” aggregated. See Teams and scope.

Can I change someone’s role or remove a member?

Not yet from the app. Today, roles are set when you invite someone, and you can cancel a pending invitation but not change or remove an existing member. For those, contact us via Send feedback → I have a question. See Inviting your team.

What happens to an overdue action item?

It’s flagged, its owner is nudged in Slack, and it’s carried forward into the next retro’s brief with a count of how many cycles it has survived — so slipping commitments stay visible instead of disappearing. See Action items.

How do I find a past decision?

Use Recall — search your retros, summaries, themes, and watched Slack channels for a topic, with a link back to every source. It’s also available as /smartretro recall in Slack.

Which integrations are supported?

Slack, GitHub, GitLab, and Linear, with Jira and more arriving during beta. Each integration is read-only and default-off. See the integrations guides.

Can I bring my own LLM key?

Yes. Organizations can supply their own OpenAI or Anthropic key so model calls run under their account. Without a usable key on an AI-enabled plan, AI features pause while rule-based signals keep flowing. See Bring your own LLM key.

How is SmartRetro priced?

Per active team, across four tiers. Archiving a team frees its slot. Current plans and limits are on the pricing page; see also Organization settings and billing.

How do I get access?

SmartRetro is in a closed beta. Join the waitlist and we’ll reach out as we open seats.

I have a question that isn’t here.

Use the in-app Send feedback → I have a question option — it reaches us directly, and during beta we answer these ourselves.