Set up with an agent
One prompt that configures owndiff in your repository.
Install the GitHub App first (Quickstart). Then open your coding agent in the repository and paste this prompt:
Set up owndiff in this repository.
1. Read https://docs.owndiff.com/llms-full.txt. It is the source of truth
for owndiff.json and the .owndiff/ folder.
2. Explore the repository: any existing owndiff.json and .owndiff/, the
README, docs, ADRs, PRDs and specs, and the main product areas in the
code.
3. Write only what owndiff can't find by itself:
- owndiff.json, only if it is needed: `context` when docs live outside
the default paths, `ignore` for generated code, `areas` only when the
code structure doesn't show them.
- .owndiff/<topic>.md for business rules you found in code or docs that
are not written down anywhere else: prices, plan limits, roles,
legal requirements. One topic per file, short and in plain language.
- .owndiff/<flow>.md for the main user flows that no PRD or spec
describes: a user story with acceptance criteria, scoped with
`include` to the code of that flow.
- Don't copy existing docs into .owndiff/. owndiff reads them in place.
4. Add `check: true` only for rules whose breach should get its own check
run, and ask me before you do.
5. Open a pull request with the configuration. List every rule you wrote
down and the file or code you took it from.What the agent does
The agent writes as little as it can. owndiff already reads your README, docs/, ADRs and PRDs, so the useful work is the rules nobody wrote down: a free plan limit hard-coded in a constant, an invoice that must never change after it is issued, a role only admins may grant.
You review its pull request like any other. That pull request changes the rules owndiff reviews with, so owndiff marks it as a product decision: it is never Aligned until someone records the decision.
Why a prompt and not a button
owndiff is read-only on GitHub. It never writes to your repository, which keeps the app easy to approve in a security review. Your agent already has write access, works in your branch and opens a pull request your team reviews.
Keeping it current
Run the same prompt again when the product changes a lot, for example after a new pricing model or a new area. The agent reads the current .owndiff/ first and updates it instead of starting over.