didericis
35f6584fb2
Per review on PR #97: an index that lists every ADR is a sync burden. The files in docs/decisions/ are the index. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
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Decision records
Short, durable records of decisions — one file per decision. This is a lightweight Architecture Decision Record practice: capture what was decided and why in a versioned file so the reasoning lives in the clone, not in a forge issue thread or a chat log that disappears when the provider does.
See docs/research/issue-tracking-vs-in-repo-decision-history.md for
the rationale behind keeping decision history in-repo.
When to write one
| Artifact | For |
|---|---|
PRD (docs/prds/) |
A feature: what to build, scope, success criteria. |
Research note (docs/research/) |
A landscape/tradeoff investigation. |
Decision record (docs/decisions/) |
A decision that isn't itself a feature — a policy, a convention, a "we will / won't do this," or a load-bearing choice made inside a larger PRD that deserves to be discoverable on its own. |
A decision that's fully specified by a PRD doesn't need duplicating here. Write a record when the decision would otherwise be buried in prose, lost in an issue thread, or have no in-repo home at all (small requests that don't merit a PRD; non-feature choices like merge strategy or a trust posture).
Format
One Markdown file per decision, numbered sequentially and zero-padded
(0001-…, 0002-…), matching the PRD numbering style. Keep it short —
the discipline is writing it down, not the ceremony.
# ADR 0000: <short imperative title>
- **Status:** Proposed | Accepted | Superseded by ADR NNNN
- **Date:** YYYY-MM-DD
- **Deciders:** <who>
## Context
What forced the decision; the constraints in play.
## Decision
What we decided, stated plainly.
## Consequences
What follows — the good, and the costs/trade-offs accepted.
## Links
PRDs, research notes, issues/PRs. Forge links are convenience
pointers; the reasoning above must stand without them.
The records are the index: ls docs/decisions/ or skim the titles.
No hand-maintained list to keep in sync.