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This guide demonstrates how to use the Ona agent to autonomously generate documentation for complex, legacy, or difficult-to-understand codebases. Ona can traverse entire codebases, analyze assembly code, extract meaningful insights, and create complete documentation sites without human intervention.
Caption: Video showing Ona understanding a complex, legacy codebase and documenting it. Using the Lunar 11 landing module as the example.

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Prerequisites (optional)

Giving Ona the ability to run any applications will produce better results. Configure your environment with Dev Container before launching an Ona conversation to create your documentation.
  • Give access to the codebase to be documented (example using Apollo 11)
  • Install any necessary build tools and dependencies
Example using Hugo and Jekyll 
{
  "features": {
    "ghcr.io/devcontainers/features/hugo:1": {
      "version": "latest"
    },
    "ghcr.io/devcontainers/features/ruby:1": {
      "version": "3.1"
    },
    "ghcr.io/devcontainers/features/node:1": {
      "version": "18"
    }
  },
  "postCreateCommand": "gem install jekyll bundler"
}

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Example Prompts

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Basic documentation

Please analyze this codebase and create comprehensive documentation. Focus on:
- System overview and architecture
- Key components and their interactions
- Setup and installation instructions
- Developer getting-started guide

Generate a documentation site that can be served locally for review.

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Advanced documentation

This codebase contains complex assembly language and legacy code. Please:
1. Traverse the entire codebase and identify all major components
2. Analyze the system architecture and data flow
3. Create detailed documentation including:
   - System requirements and constraints
   - Architectural overview with diagrams
   - Module-by-module breakdown
   - Developer guides for extending the code
4. Generate a complete documentation site using a static site generator
5. Create a pull request with the documentation changes