# Non-Obvious Insight (NOI) Formula

## Formula

`[API] isn't just [Obvious Frame]. It's [Insight Frame]. [Signal Sentence].`

The NOI reframes what an API does from its surface-level description into a deeper
insight about how power users actually leverage it. This drives CLI feature selection
toward workflows that matter rather than CRUD wrappers.

## Examples by Domain Archetype

### Project Management

1. **Linear**: Linear isn't just an issue tracker. It's a velocity sensor for engineering teams. Every sprint boundary reveals whether a team is accelerating or decelerating before managers notice.

2. **Jira**: Jira isn't just a ticket system. It's an organizational memory of every decision and tradeoff. The comment threads on old tickets contain the rationale that onboarding docs never capture.

3. **Asana**: Asana isn't just a task manager. It's a dependency graph that exposes bottlenecks. When three projects share the same blocked task, it reveals the single person everyone is waiting on.

4. **GitHub Issues**: GitHub Issues isn't just a bug tracker. It's a public roadmap signal. The ratio of feature requests to bug reports tells you whether users want more or want better.

### Communication

5. **Slack**: Slack isn't just a messaging app. It's an attention allocator. The channels with the highest unread counts reveal the topics your organization cares about but hasn't staffed.

6. **Discord**: Discord isn't just a chat platform. It's a community health monitor. Thread reply depth and reaction diversity predict whether a community is growing or hollowing out.

7. **Twilio**: Twilio isn't just an SMS API. It's a delivery reliability surface. The gap between sent and delivered timestamps exposes carrier routing problems before customers complain.

### Payments

8. **Stripe**: Stripe isn't just a payment processor. It's a revenue pattern detector. Subscription churn clusters around specific billing cycle days, revealing pricing sensitivity windows.

9. **Square**: Square isn't just a POS system. It's a foot traffic sensor. Transaction timestamps and amounts map customer behavior patterns that no survey captures.

10. **Plaid**: Plaid isn't just a banking connector. It's a financial behavior classifier. Transaction categorization patterns reveal spending personalities that credit scores miss.

### Infrastructure

11. **AWS EC2**: EC2 isn't just a compute service. It's a capacity planning oracle. Instance type migration patterns across an org reveal which workloads are growing before the bills spike.

12. **Cloudflare**: Cloudflare isn't just a CDN. It's a traffic intent classifier. The ratio of cached to uncached requests reveals whether your users are browsing or building.

### Content

13. **Notion**: Notion isn't just a wiki. It's a knowledge decay detector. Pages with high view counts but stale edit dates are the documentation traps that cause the most onboarding friction.

14. **WordPress**: WordPress isn't just a CMS. It's a content performance lab. The correlation between publish timing, word count, and engagement reveals the format your audience actually wants.
