Eidos or Confluence: where should requirements live?
Confluence is Atlassian’s team wiki and the usual home of product requirements in a Jira shop. Eidos keeps each part of the product in one markdown file beside the code, checked against a framework you choose. One is where the company reads. The other is where the definition stays true.
The short answer
Pick Confluence if everyone, not just engineers, reads and comments on the spec in a browser, and you turn requirements into Jira epics and stories from the page. Pick Eidos if the spec should be a file reviewed in the same merge request as the code, checked against your team’s framework, and kept on your own machines.
At a glance
Eidos and Confluence, side by side
| Question | Eidos | Confluence |
|---|---|---|
| Where a spec lives | A markdown file in your repository | A page in an Atlassian Cloud space |
| Checked against a declared shape | Yes, on your machine and in CI | No: the PRD template is a starting page |
| Versioned and reviewed with the code | Yes: git history, branches, and merge requests | Page history, with no branches |
| Read and commented on by the whole company | Free in the desktop app, with no browser view yet | Yes, in a browser, with page permissions |
| Linked to Jira | The Jira plugin pulls a board into the Backlog | Epics and stories made from the page |
| AI | Your own agent, which asks while you write | Rovo, with credits on every paid plan |
| Self-hosting | Local files, no server | Data Center goes read-only in March 2029 |
| Price | Free locally; online, $4.99 a month per editor past three | Free up to 10 users, then per user |
Where Confluence is the better choice
- Jira in the page: make epics and stories from selected text, and see every linked work item and sprint from the spec.
- The whole company can review a spec in a familiar editor, with inline comments, mentions, and permissions. In Eidos, reviewers use the free desktop app, since there’s no browser view yet.
- The PRD template carries guidance in every section, so an empty page still says what good looks like.
- Agents reach it at scale: a hosted MCP server and an agent-first CLI, with OAuth, scopes, and audit logs.
- Rovo comes with every paid seat, and in most Jira shops Confluence is already paid for.
Where Eidos wins
- More than a template: every spec is checked against the sections and fields your framework declares, on your machine and in every merge request. The check stays lenient until you turn strictness on.
- The spec is plain markdown, reviewed on a branch in the same merge request as the code. No Marketplace app is needed to get it out.
- One current file per part of the product, not a space of pages that age. Eidos doesn’t flag a stale blueprint yet.
- Eidos writes no prose and needs no credits. Your own agent reads the files, asks where you were vague, and pushes on scope. You do the writing.
- Local files with no server, and Eidos online only if you want it. Nothing has to move to someone else’s cloud, and there’s no end-of-life date.
- Plain markdown written to EIDOS.md, an open Apache-2.0 standard, in a free app.
Can you switch?
Bring your requirements over, or keep both
Export each PRD from Confluence as Markdown, with a Marketplace exporter or by copying the page, and install the software framework in your repository. Make each spec with New blueprint in the app or eidos new, which gives it an id and its fields, then paste the requirements under the template’s headings. The check lists what each one still lacks. Many teams keep Confluence as the page the company reads, linked to the spec in the repository.
- Plain markdown in the repository, reviewed like code
- The check names what each spec still lacks
- No Confluence importer or publisher yet
$ eidos install @BuildableWorks/software Blueprints --group payments --yes
✓ installed @BuildableWorks/software → Blueprints
collections: frames, specs; groups under specs: payments
$ eidos new specs "Refunds" --group payments
✓ specs/payments/refunds.md (specs, spec.full, id B-QQJ7)
$ eidos ci --write gitlab
✓ created .gitlab-ci.yml with the eidos-check jobWhat this page says of Confluence was checked against its own pages and docs in October 2026. Products change; if something here is out of date, tell us with Send Feedback, under Help in the app.
Compare
Other comparisons
- Workspace and wikivs NotionPick Notion when everyone needs to write in one shared workspace. Pick Eidos when the spec should be checked and live beside the code.
- Spec-driven developmentvs GitHub Spec KitPick Spec Kit to drive an agent from spec to code, change by change. Pick Eidos to keep a checked definition of the product as it stands.
Put one spec beside the code this week.
Download Eidos MD, open your repository, and write the next requirement as a blueprint. The wiki can keep the rest.
Free for macOS, Windows, and Linux. Your files stay plain text in a folder you own.