Feature build journals¶

Complicated features do not fail because nobody wrote code. They fail because the context gets scattered.

A feature starts with an idea, turns into a plan, accumulates edge cases, hits migrations, gets reviewed, changes shape, and eventually ships. Most of that thinking lives in chat, commit messages, and temporary notes.

OpenDocs is a good place to turn that working context into a readable project journal.

The problem¶

When a feature gets large, you usually need more than one document:

• product brief
• implementation plan
• database migration notes
• API design
• QA checklist
• launch notes
• rollback plan
• post-ship follow-up

Tags help with topics, but they are not enough when the docs all belong to the same body of work. A project gives the whole feature a container.

The OpenDocs workflow¶

Create a project for the feature:

opendocs project create "Billing v2" --slug billing-v2 --use

Publish the docs as the work develops:

opendocs publish ./docs/billing-v2 --tags billing,implementation

Update docs in place as decisions change:

opendocs update ./docs/billing-v2/migration-plan.md --post-id migration-plan

The URL stays stable. The content gets better.

A useful project structure¶

For a substantial feature, a project might include:

billing-v2/
  product-brief.md
  implementation-plan.md
  database-migration.md
  qa-checklist.md
  launch-notes.md

Each file becomes a polished document. The project page becomes the feature's working archive.

How teams use it¶

Product can read the brief without opening the repo.

Engineering can review the migration plan.

Support can use the launch notes.

Leadership can open one project URL and see the state of the work.

The docs can start rough. That is the point. OpenDocs makes it cheap to publish early and update as you learn.

Where agents fit¶

Coding agents are good at drafting first versions of these documents:

• "Summarize the files changed in this branch."
• "Write a migration risk note."
• "Turn this implementation plan into a QA checklist."
• "Create a handoff document for the next engineer."

The agent writes Markdown. OpenDocs turns it into something the team can actually read.

When to use this¶

Use a feature build journal when:

• more than one person needs the context
• the feature spans several days or weeks
• decisions are changing
• an agent is producing intermediate notes
• you need a record of why the final implementation looks the way it does

For tiny fixes, do not overdo it. For messy features, this becomes a relief.