---
title: "Explain a value"
description: "List every contribution that met at a path (which file, which line, which layer) with aontu model why."
source: "https://aontu.dev/how-to/explain-a-value/"
---

# Explain a value

List every contribution that met at a path (which file, which line, which layer) with aontu model why.

Rendered from [`docs/how-to/explain-a-value.md`](https://github.com/aontu-lang/aontu/blob/main/docs/how-to/explain-a-value.md) in the engine repository, where a correction belongs, and where the test suite executes every example on this page.

A layered document tells you what won and keeps quiet about who was in the race. `aontu model why` lists every value the author _wrote_ that [met](https://aontu.dev/docs/unification) at a path, in source order, with the site each was written at. The file below is the [deployment fleet](https://aontu.dev/use-cases/02-deploy-config) use case trimmed to two layers in one file: in the live version the layers are separate files, and the sites carry each file’s name. Write `stack.aon`:

```aontu
# the org layer: a default for every service
services: { &: { logLevel: ***info|string replicas: ***1|integer } }

# the prod layer: stronger defaults and pins
services: auth: { logLevel: *warn|string replicas:3 }
services: billing: {}
```

Ask why `auth` runs three replicas:

```sh
$ aontu model why $.services.auth.replicas stack.aon
$.services.auth.replicas = 3
  1. ***1|integer  stack.aon:2:53  (spread)
  2. 3  stack.aon:5:51
```

The role in brackets marks a contribution that arrived indirectly: `(spread)` is the `&:` template on line 3, applied to this key. The concrete `3` carries no role: the author wrote it at the path it stands at. Contributions are listed in source order (file, row, column), not in the order the engine happened to meet them.

The same question at `logLevel` shows the rank ladder mid-argument:

```sh
$ aontu model why $.services.auth.logLevel stack.aon
$.services.auth.logLevel = *"warn"|***"info"|string
  1. ***"info"|string  stack.aon:2:28  (spread)
  2. *"warn"|string  stack.aon:5:29
```

The value at the path is the merged disjunction of both defaults; generation then picks `warn`, because fewer stars is the stronger rank (see [provide defaults](https://aontu.dev/how-to/provide-defaults)). `why` shows the value _standing_ at the path, which is exactly what you need when the generated answer surprises you.

A path where only a template ever wrote still answers: the default that stands there is a contribution, and its site is the line the author wrote it on:

```sh
$ aontu model why $.services.billing.replicas stack.aon
$.services.billing.replicas = ***1|integer
  1. ***1|integer  stack.aon:2:53  (spread)
```

A path that names nothing is a refusal, exactly as it is for `get`:

```sh
$ aontu model why $.services.auth.memory stack.aon
$.services.auth.memory: no_path [reference]
  The path $.services.auth.memory names nothing in this document.
$ echo $?
1
```

For a program, `--format json` emits the record (`{path, value, conjuncts: [{canon, role, site}]}`) with sites in the shape the vet report uses. Provenance travels with a clone, so a value that reached its path through a template, a `pack()` generator, or a `$ref` is reported as the value the author wrote, where they wrote it.

The contribution rules and roles are specified under [`aontu why`](https://aontu.dev/docs/reference-api#aontu-model-why); the live version asks the same question across four layers of authority in [use-cases/02-deploy-config](https://aontu.dev/use-cases/02-deploy-config). `why` also names the line that will refuse your next edit, when it does, [change the value with an overlay](https://aontu.dev/how-to/change-a-value-with-an-overlay).