Adr Authoring

ADR Authoring

An ADR captures the reasoning behind a significant technical decision — the why, not just the what. Code shows what was built; the ADR explains why it was built this way and what alternatives were rejected. This is the highest-value documentation there is: a 10-minute ADR prevents a 2-hour debate about the same decision six months later, and it stops future engineers (and agents) from re-deciding something already settled.

ADRs are for decisions that are expensive to reverse — choosing a framework, library, or major dependency; designing a data model; selecting an auth strategy; picking an API architecture (REST vs. GraphQL vs. tRPC); or committing to a build tool, hosting platform, or real-time transport. If the choice is cheap to change or has no real alternatives, it probably doesn't warrant an ADR.

This is human-led authoring: the user owns the understanding and the decision; you assist. Grill the thinking to the ground, then draft. Follow the phases in order.

The exact output shape lives in references/adr-template.md — read it before drafting. If the working repo has its own templates/adr.md, prefer that copy so the ADR stays in sync with local conventions; otherwise use the bundled template.

1. Orient

Done when you have told the user the ADR number you will use and they have confirmed this is a decision already made.

• Read the template (see above) — that is the exact shape of the output.
• ADRs always live in docs/decisions/ in the repo root. One known directory, so the next reader and the next agent find them without searching; create it as you write the first record into it. If the repo already keeps ADRs somewhere else (docs/adr/, a project folder), keep working there and tell the user where they belong; move them only if the user says so. Scan for existing ADR-NN-*.md files and determine the next sequential number, zero-padded to two digits (e.g. ADR-04). Numbers are monotonic and never reused, even for superseded decisions. Tell the user the number you'll use.
• If a README.md (or equivalent) sits alongside the ADRs, read it for the project's conventions and any "likely decisions to capture" list.
• Check whether this decision touches an existing open question, dependency, or risk the project tracks — an ADR records a decision already made. If it is really still open and needs reviewer input, say so: it may belong in an RFC instead.

2. Grill relentlessly

Done when context, decision, at least two alternatives with the reason each lost, and consequences all have answers the user has confirmed.

Interview the user one question at a time, giving your recommended answer each time, and don't move on from a branch until it's resolved. If a grilling (or grill-me) skill is available, invoke it to run this; otherwise conduct the interview directly. Ground it in the Nygard ADR discipline (https://cognitect.com/blog/2011/11/15/documenting-architecture-decisions) and the community ADR hub (https://github.com/architecture-decision-record/architecture-decision-record). Pin down specifically:

• Context / forces in tension — the constraints, requirements, and competing forces. Keep these value-neutral: facts, not opinions. What is actually pushing on this decision? Which open question does it unblock?
• The decision itself — what exactly will be done, precise enough to act on.
• Alternatives — what else was on the table and the concrete reason each lost. If you can't name real alternatives, the decision may not be significant enough to warrant an ADR — say so.
• Consequences — the full picture: trade-offs being accepted, follow-on work, new risks, and the integration impact on downstream consumers of the system this decision touches.

If a question can be answered from the project's source materials or existing deliverables, go read them instead of asking.

3. Draft

Only once the user confirms the thinking is settled. Done when every template section is filled and the file carries no scaffolding.

• Write to docs/decisions/ADR-NN-<short-kebab-title>.md using the template's sections exactly: YAML frontmatter (date) plus Context, Decision, Alternatives considered, and Consequences. Make the <short-kebab-title> a present-tense imperative verb phrase — choose-realtime-transport, not realtime-transport-decision — so the filename reads as the decision itself.
• One decision per ADR. Each record captures a single architecture decision. If the grill surfaces a second decision riding along, split it into its own ADR (next number) and cross-reference — one ADR triggering follow-on ADRs is normal, not a smell.
• Link inline, so a reader can follow every claim. Anything a reader would otherwise go and search for becomes a link the first time it appears:
  • A sibling record — a relative link that resolves from this file: [ADR-03](ADR-03-adopt-expo-as-the-framework.md), [RFC-05](../requests-for-comments/RFC-05-api-error-resilience.md).
  • A technology, product, API, or standard the document names — its official documentation.
  • Code and config — a repo-relative path in backticks, or a link where the host renders one. Resolve every path you write: a link into a file that does not exist is worse than plain text. Link on first mention only, and where you don't have a URL, name the thing and leave it unlinked rather than guessing at one.
• Timestamp anything that will age. Costs, quotas, SLAs, pricing tiers, and version numbers drift; note the date a fact was true as of, so a future reader knows whether to re-check it rather than trust it blindly.
• Apply the Voice section below — this is prose authored on the user's behalf; it must read as theirs, not generic AI output.
• Write it as a conversation with a future developer: full sentences in paragraphs, active voice ("We will …"), not fragments. Keep it to one or two pages.
• Never rewrite or delete a settled ADR to change a past decision. If this decision reverses an earlier one, write it as a new ADR that references and supersedes the old one, and add a forward-pointing note (Superseded by ADR-NN) to the old ADR. Old ADRs stay in place — they capture historical context.
• This is a delivered document: no authoring scaffolding. Resolve or drop (illustrative) and > Expected here: prompts. An ID that names a file becomes a link to it; an ID that lives somewhere else, such as a RAID or ticket reference, stays as plain text.
• If drafting surfaces a gap the sources don't cover, log it wherever the project tracks open questions (append-only).
• Show the user the draft for review. Leave committing to them.

4. Verify

Done when every check below passes.

• Context is value-neutral — facts and forces, not opinions or the conclusion in disguise.
• The decision is actionable — someone could implement it from the ADR alone.
• One decision only — a second decision hiding inside gets split into its own record.
• At least two real alternatives are named, each with the concrete reason it lost. If you can't, flag that this may not merit an ADR.
• Consequences are honest — the trade-offs being accepted, not just the upsides, plus follow-on work, new risks, and integration impact on downstream consumers.
• Every link resolves — sibling records by relative path, external claims to their documentation, and no invented URLs.
• No red flags: no decision left without written rationale, no restating what the code does instead of why, no leftover scaffolding.

5. Point agents at it

Done when the repo's existing instruction file names this document with a read-trigger, carries the maintenance rules, and every path in it resolves — or when there is no such file and you have said so.

The document earns nothing if the next agent never opens it, so make the repo's agent instructions name it.

• Update the instruction file the repo already has. If CLAUDE.md is a symlink to AGENTS.md (test -L) or a short file importing it (@./AGENTS.md), write AGENTS.md only, and leave the symlink as it is.

• Where neither file exists, leave it that way and tell the user the document's path instead. Whether the repo wants an agent instruction file is their call, not a side effect of writing one document.

• Keep a ## Documentation section holding one table row per document that exists, each naming when to read it rather than restating its title:

  | Document          | Read it when                                                        |
  | ----------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------- |
  | `docs/decisions/` | you are about to re-decide something an `ADR-NN` may already settle |
  

• A row pointing at a directory relies on the filenames inside it. ADR-04-choose-realtime-transport.md tells an agent listing the directory whether this is the record it needs; ADR-04-notes.md makes it read all of them. The table gets it to the right directory, the filename gets it to the right file.

• Replace that section in place on a re-run. Two Documentation sections is a worse outcome than a stale one, and a row pointing at a file that no longer exists teaches agents to distrust the whole table.

• Carry the maintenance rules into the section. They are what keeps the set true: documentation stays accurate because the agent that breaks a document fixes it in the same change, not because somebody audits it later. Write them as their own short block under the table:

  Keep these documents true as you work:
  
  - **A document that contradicts the code, another document, or these instructions gets flagged, not quietly fixed.** Say it in your reply: name both sides, say which looks stale — usually the document, since code moves faster — and let the human choose which one changes.
  - **When your change makes a document wrong, update it in the same change.** A feature, service, or dependency you added that the architecture document does not show; a path you renamed, a command you changed, an environment you moved, a library you swapped. The document that names it — or should now name it — is part of the change, not follow-up work.
  - **Never rewrite a recorded decision or a closed entry.** A reversal is a new record that supersedes the old one; the old one stays, with a note pointing forward.
  - **Keep the table above accurate.** A new document gets a row, a deleted one loses its row, and a row whose file has moved gets the new path.
  

• AGENTS.md is tables and bullets, not prose. Keep the whole file under 100 lines.

Voice

Every sentence you write here is authored on the user's behalf, so it reads as theirs:

• Active voice, first person plural, contractions. Short-to-medium sentences, 2-4 sentence paragraphs.
• Plain English a non-native speaker follows on the first read. Everyday words: "use" over "utilize", "start" over "commence". Direct description over idiom and metaphor. Reach for a rarer word when it's a technical term or genuinely more precise, and define it on first use.
• Cover the why and the how, not only the what.
• Lead with the point. Concrete examples over abstract description.
• Keep it plain: no hype or superlatives, no filler openers, no stacked hedges, no clauses chained with dashes, no stacked emoji.
• Write for the reader who has to build against this. A sentence that wouldn't change what they build comes out.