# PromptOwl Documentation Welcome to the documentation for [**PromptOwl**](https://promptowl.ai) and **Context Nest** — the open protocol and hosted platform for giving AI agents structured, versioned, governed context. New here? Start with the **[Overview](https://nest.promptowl.ai/d/promptowl-documents/protocol/quickstart/overview)** (get a vault running in minutes) or **[What is PromptOwl?](https://nest.promptowl.ai/d/promptowl-documents/platform/what-is-promptowl)** for the platform overview. --- ## Context Nest — the protocol The open, file-based standard: markdown + frontmatter, a selector grammar, versioning, and MCP access. **Quickstart** - [Overview](https://nest.promptowl.ai/d/promptowl-documents/protocol/quickstart/overview) · [Installation](https://nest.promptowl.ai/d/promptowl-documents/protocol/quickstart/installation) · [Create a Vault](https://nest.promptowl.ai/d/promptowl-documents/protocol/quickstart/create-a-vault) · [Add Documents](https://nest.promptowl.ai/d/promptowl-documents/protocol/quickstart/add-documents) · [Query Context](https://nest.promptowl.ai/d/promptowl-documents/protocol/quickstart/query-context) **Core Concepts** - [Overview](https://nest.promptowl.ai/d/promptowl-documents/protocol/concepts/overview) · [Vault Structure](https://nest.promptowl.ai/d/promptowl-documents/protocol/concepts/vault-structure) · [Node Types](https://nest.promptowl.ai/d/promptowl-documents/protocol/concepts/node-types) · [Frontmatter](https://nest.promptowl.ai/d/promptowl-documents/protocol/concepts/frontmatter) · [Context Index](https://nest.promptowl.ai/d/promptowl-documents/protocol/concepts/context-index) · [Status Lifecycle](https://nest.promptowl.ai/d/promptowl-documents/protocol/concepts/status-lifecycle) **Working with Context** - Selectors — [Overview](https://nest.promptowl.ai/d/promptowl-documents/protocol/selectors/overview) · [Atoms](https://nest.promptowl.ai/d/promptowl-documents/protocol/selectors/atoms) · [Operators](https://nest.promptowl.ai/d/promptowl-documents/protocol/selectors/operators) · [Examples](https://nest.promptowl.ai/d/promptowl-documents/protocol/selectors/examples) - Source Nodes — [Overview](https://nest.promptowl.ai/d/promptowl-documents/protocol/source-nodes/overview) · [Writing Source Nodes](https://nest.promptowl.ai/d/promptowl-documents/protocol/source-nodes/writing-source-nodes) · [Source Frontmatter](https://nest.promptowl.ai/d/promptowl-documents/protocol/source-nodes/source-frontmatter) · [Dependencies & Ordering](https://nest.promptowl.ai/d/promptowl-documents/protocol/source-nodes/dependencies-ordering) - Context Packs — [Overview](https://nest.promptowl.ai/d/promptowl-documents/protocol/context-packs/overview) · [Pack Format](https://nest.promptowl.ai/d/promptowl-documents/protocol/context-packs/pack-format) · [Cloud Packs](https://nest.promptowl.ai/d/promptowl-documents/protocol/context-packs/cloud-packs) - Addressing — [Overview](https://nest.promptowl.ai/d/promptowl-documents/protocol/addressing/overview) · [URI Format](https://nest.promptowl.ai/d/promptowl-documents/protocol/addressing/uri-format) · [Resolution](https://nest.promptowl.ai/d/promptowl-documents/protocol/addressing/resolution) · [Federation](https://nest.promptowl.ai/d/promptowl-documents/protocol/addressing/federation) - Injection — [Overview](https://nest.promptowl.ai/d/promptowl-documents/protocol/injection/overview) · [Tracing](https://nest.promptowl.ai/d/promptowl-documents/protocol/injection/tracing) - Versioning — [Overview](https://nest.promptowl.ai/d/promptowl-documents/protocol/versioning/overview) · [Checkpoints](https://nest.promptowl.ai/d/promptowl-documents/protocol/versioning/checkpoints) · [Integrity Verification](https://nest.promptowl.ai/d/promptowl-documents/protocol/versioning/integrity-verification) · [Storage Model](https://nest.promptowl.ai/d/promptowl-documents/protocol/versioning/storage-model) **Distillation & Skills** - [Distillation](https://nest.promptowl.ai/d/promptowl-documents/protocol/distillation/distillation) — turn a codebase, docs tree, or vault into a nest - [Vault-Hosted Skills](https://nest.promptowl.ai/d/promptowl-documents/protocol/skills/vault-hosted-skills) — `type: skill` nodes agents can run **Tooling** - [CLI Reference](https://nest.promptowl.ai/d/promptowl-documents/protocol/cli-reference) — all `ctx` commands - [MCP Server](https://nest.promptowl.ai/d/promptowl-documents/protocol/mcp-server) — the `context_*` tools agents call - [Configuration](https://nest.promptowl.ai/d/promptowl-documents/protocol/configuration) · [Vault Registry & Multi-Vault](https://nest.promptowl.ai/d/promptowl-documents/protocol/vault-registry/vault-registry-multi-vault) **Hosting & API** - [Self-Hosting (Community Edition)](https://nest.promptowl.ai/d/promptowl-documents/protocol/self-hosting-community-edition) - [REST API Reference](https://nest.promptowl.ai/d/promptowl-documents/protocol/rest-api-reference) · [Authentication & API Keys](https://nest.promptowl.ai/d/promptowl-documents/protocol/authentication-api-keys) - [Remote & Governed Nests](https://nest.promptowl.ai/d/promptowl-documents/protocol/remote-nests/remote-governed-nests) **Reference** - [Specification](https://nest.promptowl.ai/d/promptowl-documents/protocol/specification) · [Compatibility](https://nest.promptowl.ai/d/promptowl-documents/protocol/compatibility) · [Validation](https://nest.promptowl.ai/d/promptowl-documents/protocol/validation) --- ## PromptOwl Platform Build, test, and deploy AI agents with context engineering, RAG, and multi-agent workflows. - [What is PromptOwl?](https://nest.promptowl.ai/d/promptowl-documents/platform/what-is-promptowl) — platform overview, agent types, features - **Hosted Nest** - [Hosted Nest](https://nest.promptowl.ai/d/promptowl-documents/platform/hosted-nest/hosted-nest) · [Connect an Agent (MCP)](https://nest.promptowl.ai/d/promptowl-documents/platform/hosted-nest/connect-an-agent-mcp) - [Folders](https://nest.promptowl.ai/d/promptowl-documents/platform/folders/folders) · [Publishing a Nest](https://nest.promptowl.ai/d/promptowl-documents/platform/publishing/publishing-a-nest) · [Governance & Stewardship](https://nest.promptowl.ai/d/promptowl-documents/platform/governance/governance-stewardship) - [Connectors](https://nest.promptowl.ai/d/promptowl-documents/platform/connectors/connectors) · [Supported Frameworks](https://nest.promptowl.ai/d/promptowl-documents/platform/connectors/supported-frameworks) · [Workflows (Beta)](https://nest.promptowl.ai/d/promptowl-documents/platform/workflows/workflows-beta) - [Plugins](https://nest.promptowl.ai/d/promptowl-documents/platform/plugins/plugins) · [Google Drive](https://nest.promptowl.ai/d/promptowl-documents/platform/plugins/google-drive) · [Building a Plugin](https://nest.promptowl.ai/d/promptowl-documents/platform/plugins/building-a-plugin) — bring outside sources in, raw or summarized, and search them live **Enterprise Guides** - [Overview](https://nest.promptowl.ai/d/promptowl-documents/platform/enterprise/overview) — a step-by-step guide to the platform (users, prompts, documents, RAG/agents, MCP, white-label, analytics, API publishing, and more) **Tutorials** - [Overview](https://nest.promptowl.ai/d/promptowl-documents/platform/tutorials/overview) · [Build an AI Support Chatbot](https://nest.promptowl.ai/d/promptowl-documents/platform/tutorials/build-an-ai-support-chatbot) · [Choosing Your AI Model](https://nest.promptowl.ai/d/promptowl-documents/platform/tutorials/choosing-your-ai-model) · [Prompt Engineering Best Practices](https://nest.promptowl.ai/d/promptowl-documents/platform/tutorials/prompt-engineering-best-practices) · [Version Control & Testing](https://nest.promptowl.ai/d/promptowl-documents/platform/tutorials/version-control-testing) --- *Documentation for [promptowl.ai](https://promptowl.ai) · Support: hoot@promptowl.ai*