Writing consistent Javadoc is tedious, and even AI coding assistants often skip or misfire on it. Autodoc automates the boring part: it scans your PRs, understands your code, and generates high-quality Javadoc so you don’t have to.
The philosophy: Generate 80% of the documentation (the obvious parts) automatically, and letting you fix it. That’s why it works at the PR level : a human always reviews and updates before merging.
It documents both what the code does AND how it does it. The “why” is for human and the “how” for LLM coding agents. They use these docs to work better and faster (this is documented behavior, not my invention).
Key Features
- ✨ Understands Your Code – Skips trivial getters and setters, focusing only on meaningful docs
- 🔄 PR-Native – Runs on pull requests, adds docs in a clean commit.
- 🎯 Team-Ready – Customize prompts for your standards.
- 🚀 Open Source – Install, use, and improve it on GitHub.
So how does it actually work?
How It Works
Open a PR, and Autodoc gets to work. It scans the changed Java files, adds contextual Javadoc where it’s missing, and pushes a separate commit with the docs. Reviewers see the docs right inside the PR and can refine them like any other code.
Before
public class PaymentProcessor {
public PaymentResult processRefund(String transactionId, BigDecimal amount,
RefundReason reason, boolean partial)
throws PaymentException {
Transaction original = transactionRepo.findById(transactionId);
if (original == null || original.getStatus() != SAfter
public class PaymentProcessor {
/**
* Processes a refund for a completed transaction through the payment gateway.
*
* Validates the original transaction exists and is in a refundable state before
* submitting the refund request. Supports both full and partial refunds with
* appropriate amount validation. All refund attempts are logged to the audit
* service, and customers receive confirmation notifications for successful refunds.
*
* @param transactionId the unique identifier of the original transaction to refund
* @param amount the refund amount, must match original for full refunds
* @param reason the business reason for initiating this refund
* @param partial {@code true} for partial refunds, {@code false} for full refunds
* @return the {@code PaymentResult} containing gateway response and refund details
* @throws PaymentException if the transaction is not found, not in COMPLETED status,
* or if amount validation fails for full refunds
*/
public PaymentResult processRefund(String transactionId, BigDecimal amount,
RefundReason reason, boolean partial)
throws PaymentException {
// ... rest of the code
}
}Why This Matters
- For AI Tools: LLMs can better understand your codebase.
- For Developers: Spend less time on boilerplate.
- For Teams: Consistent documentation without endless enforcement overhead.
Get Started
👉 Get started with Autodoc on GitHub
(Requires a valid Claude API account.)