CriticalPath AI

P6 Schedule Intelligence Assistant — ask questions about your project schedule in plain English.
Azure OpenAI · NetworkX · Azure Static Web Apps · Azure Functions · Python · Live in production

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What This Is

Project schedulers spend hours digging through Primavera P6 exports to answer basic questions — what's on the critical path, which activities have float risk, what are the predecessors of a given task. CriticalPath AI eliminates that entirely.

Upload your P6 CSV export, ask a question in plain English, and get an instant graph-computed answer with a natural language explanation powered by Azure OpenAI.

Built for and actively used on gas distribution pipeline project scheduling at a Fortune 500 utility.

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What You Can Ask

CriticalPath AI understands 12 intent types out of the box. Below are real prompts and what each returns.

Schedule & Critical Path

Prompt	Intent	What it returns
"Which activities are driving my project finish?"	CRITICAL_PATH	Ordered list of zero-float activities forming the critical path + total duration
"Show critical path"	CRITICAL_PATH	Same as above, trigger phrase shortcut
"What is the total project duration?"	DURATION	Early finish of sink node in working days
"Are any construction activities near critical?"	PHASE_FLOAT	Critical (float=0) and near-critical (float≤30) activities filtered by phase
"Which design tasks are at risk?"	PHASE_FLOAT	Phase-specific float breakdown with critical/near-critical classification
"Which permits have no float for this project?"	PHASE_FLOAT	Permitting phase activities at zero float

Float & Resource Analysis

Prompt	Intent	What it returns
"Which tasks could slip without impacting the finish date?"	HIGH_FLOAT	Top non-critical activities ranked by float descending
"Which tasks can I delay if I need to reallocate resources?"	HIGH_FLOAT	Same — float = scheduling flexibility for resource reallocation
"Top float risks"	LOW_FLOAT	Activities with lowest float — highest schedule risk
"What tasks are assigned to the Civil Engineer?"	RESOURCE_TASKS	Activities by resource name with float and criticality

Baseline & Budget

Prompt	Intent	What it returns
"Which activities have slipped from baseline?"	SLIPPAGE	Behind/ahead counts, days of slippage, variance summary
"What tasks are behind their original plan?"	SLIPPAGE	Same — natural language variation handled
"What is the total project budget?"	BUDGET_TOTAL	Total budget split by Labor / Material / Equipment with % breakdown
"Which activities have the highest budget?"	BUDGET_TOP_TASKS	Top N activities ranked by budget with phase context
"Show me the top 10 most expensive activities"	BUDGET_TOP_TASKS	Ranked budget list with insights

Date Window Queries

Prompt	Intent	What it returns
"What activities are starting or finishing in the next 6 months?"	DATE_WINDOW	Activities starting, finishing, and spanning the window with float
"Show me near-critical activities starting next month"	DATE_WINDOW	Date-filtered + float-filtered combined query
"What tasks are starting in April 2026?"	DATE_WINDOW	Month-specific activity lookup with critical path context

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Architecture

Browser (Azure Static Web App)
    │
    ├── frontend/          →  HTML · CSS · JS chat interface
    │                         project switcher · version display
    └── POST /api/chat
            │
            ▼
    Azure Functions (Python)
    ├── Intent classifier  →  routes query to correct handler
    │   └── 12 intent types: CRITICAL_PATH · PHASE_FLOAT · HIGH_FLOAT
    │                         LOW_FLOAT · DATE_WINDOW · SLIPPAGE
    │                         BUDGET_TOTAL · BUDGET_TOP_TASKS
    │                         RESOURCE_TASKS · DURATION · ...
    ├── Graph engine       →  NetworkX DAG · CPM · float computation
    │   ├── critical_path()      forward + backward pass
    │   ├── float_analysis()     total float ranking
    │   ├── predecessors()       upstream dependency traversal
    │   └── phase_float()        WBS-filtered float analysis
    └── Azure OpenAI       →  natural language explanation layer
            │
            ▼
    Azure Blob Storage
    └── P6 CSV data        →  TASK.csv · TASKPRED.csv · PROJECT.csv

Key design principle: The LLM only explains, never computes. All schedule logic is computed deterministically by the graph engine. Azure OpenAI is invoked only to translate computed results into plain English — this eliminates hallucination risk on schedule data entirely.

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Tech Stack

Layer	Technology
Frontend hosting	Azure Static Web Apps
Backend compute	Azure Functions (Python)
Graph engine	NetworkX — DAG construction, CPM, float
LLM layer	Azure OpenAI (GPT-4o)
Schedule data	Primavera P6 CSV exports
Data storage	Azure Blob Storage
CI/CD	GitHub Actions → Azure SWA
Dependency management	Poetry

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Project Structure

ActivityDAG_AI/
├── frontend/                  ←  Static web app (HTML/CSS/JS)
│   └── index.html             ←  Chat UI, project switcher
├── api/                       ←  Azure Functions (Python)
│   ├── chat/                  ←  POST /api/chat — intent + routing
│   └── shared/
│       ├── graph_engine.py    ←  NetworkX DAG · CPM · float logic
│       └── intent.py          ←  Query classifier (12 intents)
├── data/                      ←  Your P6 CSV files go here (gitignored)
├── scripts/                   ←  Utility scripts
├── .github/workflows/         ←  CI/CD pipeline
├── staticwebapp.config.json
├── DEPLOYMENT.md
├── QUICKSTART.md
└── pyproject.toml

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Getting Started with Your Own P6 Data

Step 1 — Export your P6 data

From Primavera P6, export the following tables as CSV:

File	Required	Contents
TASK.csv	✅ Yes	Activities, durations, float, dates
TASKPRED.csv	✅ Yes	Predecessor relationships
PROJECT.csv	No	Project metadata
PROJWBS.csv	No	WBS hierarchy

Place them in the data/ directory:

ActivityDAG_AI/
└── data/
    ├── TASK.csv
    ├── TASKPRED.csv
    ├── PROJECT.csv       ← optional
    └── PROJWBS.csv       ← optional

Or point to a custom directory:

export CRITICALPATH_DATA_DIR=/absolute/path/to/your/csvs

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Step 2 — Install dependencies

# Clone the repo
git clone https://github.com/DebugJedi/ActivityDAG_AI.git
cd ActivityDAG_AI

# Install with Poetry
poetry install

# Or with pip
pip install -r requirements.txt

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Step 3 — Set up Azure OpenAI

You need an Azure OpenAI resource with a GPT-4o deployment.

1. Create an Azure OpenAI resource in Azure Portal
2. Deploy a gpt-4o model
3. Copy your endpoint and key

export AZURE_OPENAI_ENDPOINT="https://your-resource.openai.azure.com/"
export AZURE_OPENAI_KEY="your-key"
export AZURE_OPENAI_DEPLOYMENT="gpt-4o"

No Azure OpenAI? The system works without it — graph queries still compute correct answers, just without the natural language explanation layer.

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Step 4 — Run locally with Azure Functions emulator

# Install the SWA CLI
npm install -g @azure/static-web-apps-cli

# Start the local emulator (serves frontend + functions together)
swa start frontend --api-location api

# App available at:
# → http://localhost:4280

See QUICKSTART.md for more detailed local setup options.

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Deploying Your Own Instance on Azure

Prerequisites

• Azure account
• Azure CLI installed (brew install azure-cli)
• GitHub account (for CI/CD)

Step 1 — Create Azure resources

# Login
az login

# Create resource group
az group create --name criticalpath-rg --location westus2

# Create Storage Account for P6 data
az storage account create \
  --name criticalpathdataXXXX \
  --resource-group criticalpath-rg \
  --sku Standard_LRS

# Create blob container
az storage container create \
  --name p6-data \
  --account-name criticalpathdataXXXX

Step 2 — Upload your P6 CSVs to Blob Storage

az storage blob upload-batch \
  --source ./data \
  --destination p6-data \
  --account-name criticalpathdataXXXX

Step 3 — Create Azure Static Web App

1. Go to Azure Portal → Static Web Apps → Create
2. Connect to your GitHub fork of this repo
3. Set build settings:
   • App location: frontend
   • API location: api
   • Output location: (leave blank)
4. Copy the deployment token

Step 4 — Add GitHub secrets

In your GitHub repo → Settings → Secrets → Actions, add:

AZURE_STATIC_WEB_APPS_API_TOKEN
AZURE_OPENAI_ENDPOINT
AZURE_OPENAI_KEY
AZURE_OPENAI_DEPLOYMENT
AZURE_STORAGE_CONNECTION_STRING
BLOB_CONTAINER_NAME                ← p6-data

Step 5 — Push and deploy

git push origin main

GitHub Actions will build and deploy automatically.

See DEPLOYMENT.md for advanced configuration options.

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Graph Engine Design

The core of this system is a directed acyclic graph (DAG) built from P6 predecessor relationships using NetworkX.

Critical Path Method (CPM):

• Forward pass computes Early Start / Early Finish for each node
• Backward pass computes Late Start / Late Finish
• Total float = Late Start − Early Start
• Critical path = all activities where float = 0

Cycle handling: If a cycle is detected in the schedule data (common with poorly exported P6 files), the engine falls back to P6's native driving_path_flag column when present — graceful degradation rather than a hard failure.

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Roadmap

• Critical path computation
• Float risk ranking (high + low float)
• Phase-specific float analysis
• Baseline slippage detection
• Budget analysis by activity and resource
• Date window queries (start/finish within range)
• Resource assignment queries
• Project switching in UI
• Baseline vs. actual variance chart
• Schedule health score dashboard
• Gantt chart visualization of critical path
• Multi-project portfolio view

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Author

Built and maintained by Priyank Rao — Data Scientist / ML Engineer
Portfolio · GitHub

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P6 project data is not included in this repository. Bring your own Primavera P6 CSV exports to run the system against your own schedules.