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Boards hub and work item features

For what hosted ClearSpecs AI includes and how to get started, see the hosted introduction.

Boards hub​

Under Boards > ClearSpecs AI, the sidebar lists:

  • Prompt Templates — Search, filter, create, and edit prompts shared for your project or organization, according to your permissions and policies.
  • AI Chat — A conversational assistant that can use live work items, ask focused follow-up questions, and suggest creates or updates for you to review before anything is applied.
  • Project Context — Optional background notes for AI Chat on this project (see below).

Project Context​

Open Project Context to describe how your current Azure DevOps project works—examples include team conventions, domain vocabulary, and architectural decisions that should inform answers. Choose Save; on success the page confirms that your project context was saved.

Saved text stays with this project and is included when you use AI Chat so replies and suggestions fit your team’s standards.

Opening chat from a work item​

When you start AI Chat from AI Work Item Insights on a work item, the assistant treats that item as the usual focus—for example when you polish description or acceptance criteria—unless you explicitly refer to another work item.

On the work item​

  • Templates — Pick a template in card view (searchable) or use compact one-tap actions for speed.

  • Writing mode — Compose one-off prompts when you need something outside the template catalog.

  • AI Child Item Generator — Suggest child items (for example Test Case), optionally add focus text, regenerate, then select items to create.

  • AI Work Item Insights — Side panel on the form with Inspect and Chat:

    • Inspect — Structured analysis: Spec health (a score plus standard checks—for example title, description, acceptance criteria, estimation, rollout, risks), decisions credited to comments, acceptance criteria, or description, and open questions. Refresh re-runs the analysis. Sending a prompt from Inspect opens Chat with that message once the panel is ready.
    • Chat — The same assistant as Boards > ClearSpecs AI, with the open work item in context—title, fields, tags, area and iteration paths, and comments—so refinements usually target this item unless you name another.

Inspect is for a repeatable structured snapshot (scores, lists, and citations). Chat is for a full conversation with lookups and proposals. Summarize work item (More actions) is separate: it focuses on a concise summary rather than Inspect’s structured checklist.

Organization settings​

Prompts and related options can be governed at the organization level so rollout stays consistent. What you see depends on your Azure DevOps permissions and the ClearSpecs AI version your organization installed.