[[!meta title="FAQ or Frequently Asked Questions"]]


# What is Subplot?

Subplot a tool to document acceptance criteria and requirements, and
how they're verified, in a way that all stakeholders can understand
and sign off on. Almost as a side effect, it can generate code to do
the verification automatically.

The primary goal of Subplot is to make sure the software being built
is the right software, and as a side effect to verify that at least
the most important requirements that can be verified automatically are
met.

# How does Subplot work?

Basically, you write a document, which embeds verification scenarios
using a given/when/then type language.

The document is then processed in one way to produce a human readable,
formatted, typeset version that all stakeholders read and are asked to
agree on.

Processed another way, the document results in code that executes the
verification scenario. Simplified: each given/when/then step is mapped
to a function call that is given specific parts of the step text as
arguments.


# How does Subplot differ from Cucumber?

[Cucumber]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cucumber_(software)
[Gherkin]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cucumber_(software)#Gherkin_language

[Cucumber][] is a tool for running test suites written in [Gherkin][].

Subplot is in some ways very similar to Cucumber and Gherkin, and
borrows heavily from them. However, our primary emphasis is not the
automated tests, but building mutual understanding among the
stakeholders of a system.

# How does Subplot use AI  or large language models?

It doesn't.