Scenarios
Set up persistent pattern scanners that monitor your mission library
Scenarios are pattern scanners that continuously watch your mission library. Define a pattern in plain language, and Alloy scans every mission — past and future — to find matches.
When to use scenarios
- Track recurring issues — "motor fault events at high altitude"
- Monitor for specific conditions — "battery voltage below 11V during flight"
- Build a dataset — collect all instances of a particular event type across your fleet
- Ongoing awareness — know how often something happens without manually searching
Creating a scenario
Ask the chat to create one:
- "Create a scenario to find all emergency stop events"
- "Set up a scanner for navigation errors near waypoints"
- "Watch for instances where roll angle exceeded 30 degrees"
Alloy AI defines the pattern and starts scanning immediately.
The scenario list
The Scenarios page shows all your scenarios in a table:
| Column | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Name | What the scenario is tracking |
| Status | Running, Paused, or progress ("Scanned 19 of 39") |
| Matches | Total instances found so far |
| Created | When the scenario was set up |
How scanning works
When you create a scenario, Alloy starts working through your mission library in the background.
- The scanner processes each mission, looking for instances that match your pattern
- Progress shows as "Scanned X of Y" — where Y is your total mission count
- New missions uploaded after the scenario was created are automatically scanned too
- You don't need to re-run or restart anything — scenarios stay active until you pause or archive them
Scanning is non-blocking — you can keep using Alloy normally while scenarios run in the background. Large libraries may take some time to fully scan.
Viewing matches and auto-bucketing
Click a scenario to see its matches. Alloy automatically organizes what it finds:
How matches are grouped
Each match represents a cluster of related instances — not just a single data point. The AI groups instances that belong to the same event or condition together, so you see coherent results rather than individual fragments.
Every match includes:
- Match reason — an AI-generated explanation of why these instances matched
- Time window — when the matched event occurred
- Mission — which mission the match came from
- Instance count — how many data points are in this group
- Hero image — the most relevant image from the match (if images are involved)
Filtering and sorting matches
Alloy automatically aggregates metadata across all matches, so you can filter by any attribute:
- Filter by device, location, date, or any custom metadata field
- Combine filters to narrow down to specific conditions
- Sort by time, detection date, mission name, or metadata values
This auto-bucketing means you don't need to manually organize results. Alloy surfaces the metadata structure from your matches so you can slice the data however you need.
For example, if your scenario finds 50 matches across 20 missions, you can instantly filter to see only matches from a specific device, or sort by time to see when the pattern occurs most frequently.
Editing a scenario
Both the scenario name and definition are editable.
- Name — click the pencil icon next to the scenario name to rename it inline
- Definition — click Edit on the pattern definition card to open the AI chat. Describe how you want to change the pattern and Alloy AI will rewrite the definition for you. Depending on the change, Alloy may re-scan your missions to find new matches
The scenario definition is authored by Alloy AI when you first create it — the AI runs a preview search to find example matches and then writes a clear, specific description of the pattern. Editing works the same way: you describe what to change and the AI updates the definition, keeping it precise and well-structured.
Managing scenarios
- Pause — stop scanning without losing progress or results. Resume at any time.
- Resume — pick up scanning where you left off
- Archive — remove from the active list while preserving all historical results
- Unarchive — bring back an archived scenario and resume scanning