Zoning and permit watch is a scheduled starter in the Athena Library, under Real estate: what changed in the municipalities you care about. Athena runs it on the schedule you pick and emails it to you as a spreadsheet, PowerPoint deck and Word document. The files are built in your own templates if you have them, otherwise in your brand. It needs no setup: nothing has to be connected.
Built for: Real estate
Contents
01How to automate a zoning and permit watch with AI
To automate a zoning and permit watch, open this prompt in Athena. It runs once, learns from your feedback, then runs on a schedule and delivers a report every time.
- Open the prompt in Athena. Use "Open in Athena", or copy the prompt into a new Athena chat.
- Let it run once. It asks for anything it can't work out.
- Tell it what to change. Say what to add, cut, or fix. Athena updates the scheduled agent's setup, and your template or brand if it's about the files, so every later run follows your feedback. It tells you what it changed.
- Pick a schedule. It keeps running, builds on the last run, and keeps taking feedback.
02What arrives every run?
Built in your Word, PowerPoint, and Excel templates if you have them, otherwise in your brand.
- A spreadsheet with one row per change, with these columns: date, municipality, type, what changed, effective date, our sites affected, source link. Each scheduled run adds a dated tab to the same spreadsheet.
- A PowerPoint deck: with the logo on the title slide, a one-slide summary, a slide per section with a chart wherever there are numbers, and a so-what slide.
- A Word document: with the logo in the header, the full brief, and every source cited.
- An email from Athena to your own address with the three files and a short summary. If Athena cannot send email in your workspace, it says so.
03How often does it run?
Every weekday at 7am, weekly on Mondays at 7am, or monthly on the 1st. When the first run finishes, Athena asks which schedule you want and which sections to keep, and confirms your time zone. A scheduled agent then runs the same brief, reads the latest dated tab before each run, and reports only what changed. It says plainly when nothing material changed, and says when a comparison is not available.
04The prompt
Copy the prompt into a new Athena chat and send it.
Watch zoning code changes, planning agendas, and permit portals for the municipalities I name. Ask me which and for the parcels or projects I care about. For the last 30 days, list what changed, the effective date, which of my sites it touches, and the source with retrieval date. Report only what is new. Deliver three files in my company's brand. If I have Word, PowerPoint, or Excel templates in Athena, ask once which to use and build every file from them, keeping their layouts, styles, and formulas. For the brand, use my company's design system if one exists. Otherwise find my company's website (search the web if you are not sure of the domain), run design_system_retriever on it to get the real logo, colors, and fonts, and save the result with create_design_system so every run matches. Use the real logo image; never redraw it or type the company name in its place. The files: (1) a spreadsheet with one row per change (date, municipality, type, what changed, effective date, our sites affected, source link); (2) a PowerPoint deck with the logo on the title slide, a one-slide summary, a slide per section with a chart wherever there are numbers, and a so-what slide; (3) a Word document with the logo in the header, the full brief, and every source cited. Brand colors and fonts throughout, one idea per slide, no walls of text. Finish with a short summary in chat that links all three. When each run finishes, this one included, email me the three files from Athena: send them to my own email address with the chat summary in the body. If Athena cannot send email in this workspace, say so instead. When you are done, ask me how often I want this: every weekday at 7am, weekly on Mondays at 7am, monthly on the 1st, or not now. Also ask which sections to keep and confirm my IANA time zone (for example America/New_York), and pass it explicitly when creating the schedule. If I choose a schedule, set up a scheduled agent that runs this same brief on it, keeps the spreadsheet asset ID and any template IDs in its instructions, reads the latest dated tab before each run, and reports only what changed since the last run. It says plainly when nothing material changed, and says comparison is unavailable if the prior tab cannot be read. Each run adds a dated tab to the same spreadsheet and makes a new dated deck and document. Whenever I give feedback on a run, in this chat or a later one, update the scheduled agent's instructions (and the template or design system when the feedback is about how the files look) so every later run follows it, then tell me exactly what you changed.
Opens a new Athena chat with this prompt ready to send. If you're not signed in, you'll sign in first and land in the same chat.
05Related starters
- Lease abstractA row per lease, every value cited to its page.
- Critical dates digestNotice deadlines and expirations, weekly.
- CAM and operating expense reconciliationWhat the lease says the tenant owes, against what was billed.
- Rent roll normalizerRent rolls from different owners, in one schema.
06Why run it in Athena
| A chat assistant | Athena | |
|---|---|---|
| What you get | Text in a chat | Real Excel, Word, and PowerPoint files in your templates |
| Working together | One person, one chat | Your team and the agent in the same file, live |
| Mistakes | Regenerate and start over | Every edit attributed; undo or roll back any change |
| Next run | Starts from scratch | Builds on the last run and on your feedback |
| Your data | Copy and paste | Documents, email, and warehouse, under each person's access |
| Where it runs | Their cloud | Yours, if you need it |
07Questions teams ask
What is Zoning and permit watch?
Zoning and permit watch is a scheduled starter that Athena runs on the schedule you pick and emails to you as a spreadsheet, PowerPoint deck and Word document. What changed in the municipalities you care about.
Can I improve it after the first run?
Yes. Tell it what to change after any run. Athena updates the scheduled agent's instructions, and your template or brand if the feedback is about the files, so every later run follows it.
Does it need any setup?
No. It needs nothing connected.
Can it use our templates?
Yes. If you have Word, PowerPoint or Excel templates in Athena, it asks once which to use and builds every file from them, keeping their layouts, styles and formulas.
How does it know what changed?
Each run adds a dated tab to the same spreadsheet. Before a run, the scheduled agent reads the latest tab and reports only what changed since then.
Does it send anything on its own?
No. It emails the files to your own address. Anything that drafts a message to someone else holds it for your approval.