diff --git a/.github/.OwlBot.lock.yaml b/.github/.OwlBot.lock.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..ec24ba68
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/.OwlBot.lock.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+docker:
+  digest: sha256:db1616f2f70823d8381d859835229e04371d14f59ac78063c5af73c55c3fffbb
+  image: gcr.io/repo-automation-bots/owlbot-java:latest
diff --git a/synth.py b/.github/.OwlBot.yaml
similarity index 68%
rename from synth.py
rename to .github/.OwlBot.yaml
index 51063125..8c5f03b4 100644
--- a/synth.py
+++ b/.github/.OwlBot.yaml
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-# Copyright 2019 Google LLC
+# Copyright 2021 Google LLC
 #
 # Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
 # you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
@@ -12,13 +12,5 @@
 # See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 # limitations under the License.
 
-"""This script is used to synthesize generated parts of this library."""
-
-import synthtool.languages.java as java
-
-AUTOSYNTH_MULTIPLE_COMMITS = True
-
-java.common_templates(excludes=[
-    'README.md',
-    '.kokoro/build.sh',
-])
+docker:
+  image: "gcr.io/repo-automation-bots/owlbot-java:latest"
diff --git a/owlbot.py b/owlbot.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..739df3bc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/owlbot.py
@@ -0,0 +1,24 @@
+# Copyright 2021 Google LLC
+#
+# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+# You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+#     https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+# limitations under the License.
+
+import synthtool as s
+from synthtool.languages import java
+
+
+for library in s.get_staging_dirs():
+    # put any special-case replacements here
+    s.move(library)
+
+s.remove_staging_dirs()
+java.common_templates(excludes=["README.md", ".kokoro/build.sh"])