> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.memorycrystal.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Who owns

export const metadata = {
  title: "crystal_who_owns",
  description: "Find who owns, manages, or is assigned to an entity in your knowledge graph"
};

# Who Owns

Find who owns, manages, or is assigned to an entity in your knowledge graph.

## What it does

Queries the knowledge graph to identify ownership chains and responsibilities. Returns both who owns an entity and what that entity owns, along with confidence scores and evidence memories.

## Parameters

| Parameter | Type   | Required | Description                                                                                                                  |
| --------- | ------ | -------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `entity`  | string | Yes      | The entity name to look up (e.g., "API", "backend", "Sarah", "marketing project")                                            |
| `channel` | string | No       | Peer-scoped channel key (e.g. `peer-coach:511172388`). When set, filters results to memories in that channel. New in 0.7.15. |

## Returns

Returns ownership information with two directions:

* **owners**: Entities that own/manage the queried entity, with confidence scores and evidence memories
* **ownedBy**: Entities that the queried entity owns/manages

Example response:

```json theme={"system"}
{
  "entity": "authentication system",
  "owners": [
    {
      "label": "Sarah Chen",
      "nodeType": "person",
      "relationType": "owns",
      "confidence": 0.92,
      "evidenceMemoryIds": ["mem123", "mem456"]
    }
  ],
  "ownedBy": [
    {
      "label": "API",
      "nodeType": "project",
      "relationType": "depends_on",
      "confidence": 0.88
    }
  ]
}
```

## Examples

### Find project owner

```
crystal_who_owns(entity="Q2 roadmap")
```

Returns who owns the Q2 roadmap project and what responsibilities fall under it.

### Identify system ownership

```
crystal_who_owns(entity="notification service")
```

Returns the person or team responsible for the notification service, with supporting evidence from your memory.

### Understand person's scope

```
crystal_who_owns(entity="James")
```

Returns what James owns and who James reports to, with confidence levels and evidence.

## When to use

* **Clarify responsibilities** — When you need to know who owns a system or project
* **Find the right person** — Identify who to contact about a specific component
* **Understand scope** — See what a person or team is responsible for
* **Validate assignments** — Check if ownership has changed since last recorded
* **Audit accountability** — Ensure all critical systems have clear ownership

## Errors

| Error                | Cause                                                         | Resolution                                                                         |
| -------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `entity is required` | No entity parameter provided                                  | Provide an entity name (person, project, system, etc.)                             |
| No ownership found   | Entity exists but has no ownership relationships in the graph | Check if the entity name is correct; add ownership memories via `crystal_remember` |

## Notes

### Peer scoping (new in 0.7.15)

Hosted / API-key consumers can now pass an explicit `channel` to scope results to a peer. Previously this tool's API-key path silently ignored channel and returned cross-channel results; as of 0.7.15, the HTTP recall branch forwards the filter consistently with JWT clients. Omit `channel` only when you intend the broadest (management-style) result set.

* Confidence scores indicate how strongly the system believes in the ownership relationship
* Evidence memory IDs link back to the decisions or observations that established the relationship
* Relationships are extracted from memories and assembled into a knowledge graph
* API-key clients use a recall-based fallback if the graph query is unavailable
* The graph represents explicit ownership relationships; informal or implicit ownership may not be captured