Building models
Three ways to build a decision model, and the review gate every build passes through.
New Model opens a launcher with three ways in. As the launcher puts it: "Two ways in — describing your business is the recommended one." The third is importing a file you already have.
Whichever door you pick, the same rule applies: eode builds and proves the structure on test data first. Your real numbers only move onto a structure that has already been built, validated, and solved — and you review everything before it's accepted.
| Door | What it is | Best when |
|---|---|---|
| Discover with RIA | A guided interview. "New to this? Start here." | You know the problem but not the shape of the model. |
| Describe your business | A written brief, extracted into structure. | You already know the plan and can write it down. |
| Import a file | An existing model file, workbook, or sheet. | The data already lives in a spreadsheet or an exported model. |
Door 1 — Discover with RIA
RIA opens with "What are you trying to figure out?" — describe your business in a sentence or two: what you make or do, and the call you're never quite sure about. You don't need numbers yet. The screen's own example: "We run two bakeries and a few delivery vans, and we never know how much of each product to bake."
As you answer, three rails track the interview:
- What this can do for you — the decision worth getting right, the likely bottleneck, and what's at stake.
- Readiness — a meter counting pinned facts through three bands: Exploring → Taking shape → Ready to build. You can build early from Taking shape (Build now — N open items); RIA fills unanswered items with assumptions you review before anything commits.
- What RIA understands so far — the running summary, grouped into The decision, Your goal, Your levers, What limits you, and Data on hand — plus Worth answering next, the gaps that matter most.
When enough is pinned, the footer plays back the decision frame — You're deciding, It will tell you, At stake — and notes: "RIA builds and proves it on test data first — you'll review the structure before any real numbers move." Click Build this model.
Door 2 — Describe your business
A four-step wizard: Brief → Review → Questions → Dossier.
Brief
Write it, in the wizard's words, "like an operations director's planning brief: what the business makes or moves, who it serves and what it owes them, how production works, where inputs come from, how goods reach customers, and the policies and limits that genuinely shape the plan."
Have master data? Import my sites & products takes .csv / .xlsx (e.g. works.csv,
products.csv, customers.csv). eode builds on your real names; the numbers stay placeholders
until you load your data.
Review
Extract from brief reads your text (typically ~60 seconds) and proposes Sites, Items, and Demand points as editable chips — rename, add, or remove anything. It also fills the Objective: your goal in your own words, plus a Maximize / Minimize toggle.
Questions (recommended, optional)
Generate clarifying questions has RIA read your brief against what a model like this usually needs — capacities, costs, limits, lead times — and ask a few quick questions to fill what's missing (~20–30 s to prepare). Answering first means the model is built around your real situation instead of a rough draft you'd correct afterward. In a hurry? Build now without questions.
Dossier
Build my model runs the build on generated seed data; you land on the Clearance dossier.
Door 3 — Import a file
Accepted: an existing model file (.cor / .corz), an Excel workbook (.xlsx), a CSV bundle
(.zip), or a Google Sheet link — the sheet must be shared "Anyone with the link → Viewer",
and all tabs import, like a workbook. You can also drag a file straight onto the launcher.
Workbook imports always pass through the reconciliation review before data is promoted.
The build
Every build walks the same visible phases, streamed live: Starting from an empty template → Loading the model → Adding model objects → Connecting objects → Populating the numbers → Cleaning up defaults → Validating → Solving → Saving → Double-checking the file reopens.
When it finishes, the result panel leads with the headline — Best answer: $X — plus solve time, iteration count, and a topology view of what was built.
The review gate — the Clearance dossier
Builds land on a review screen the product calls the Clearance dossier: "Here's what RIA built, in plain English — your last look before anything's committed." Its sections:
- What was built — the model, summarized in business language.
- Capabilities · evidence — every modeled capability, quoted from your brief. Each one cleared an automatic build-and-prove check on test data before the dossier reached you.
- Declared cuts · assumptions — the parts of your brief deliberately not modeled. Nothing is silently dropped.
- Completeness ledger — the dimensions a model like this usually needs, on record.
- Proof ledger — the verification checks and their results.
- Data requisition — exactly which tables to provide when you load your data, with filled templates ready to download.
An independent examiner re-checks the model in the background and posts an advisory confidence score (verdicts PASS / CONCERNS / FAIL). It's advisory — you don't have to wait for it.
Your decision, one click each:
- Accept structure — keeps the model on sample data, usable for what-ifs immediately.
- Load your data… — opens the uploader below; your numbers re-prove everything.
- Use the numbers from your brief — when your brief stated real figures, RIA transcribes and binds them the same way.
Loading your data
Load your data… takes the filled template (.xlsx) or the requisition CSVs. Two explicit
steps:
- Stage & validate — files are staged, not applied; validation findings come back first.
- Map data onto the verified structure — binds the staged data. Template-shaped uploads bind deterministically. For unmatched tables you can enable AI mapping proposals for unmatched tables — proposals you review, never silently applied. Fatal findings block the bind until you fix and re-upload, or accept documented exceptions.
The uploader's own rule: "quantities come from your data — relations are bound, never invented."
Workbook imports — the reconciliation review
.xlsx imports get a dedicated Review imported data screen before anything is promoted:
- Your workbook plan vs the optimized model — the left column is the plan your workbook recorded, imported exactly as stated and traced to the source cell; the right is what the model chose optimizing within the same limits your workbook set. A gap here is what optimization found, not an import error.
- Category panels — every imported field, its value, and the workbook cell it matched, with per-category accepts and trace percentages.
- Constraints from your workbook — the caps (demand, capacity, discounts) taken straight from your sheets. When a cap binds, that's your workbook's intended behavior.
- Data-validation findings — warnings must be acknowledged before promotion.
Accept each category (or Accept all), then Accept Base & promote — the imported data becomes the model's Base, and the model is ready for scenarios.