Context

adr-kit context

Use $ARGUMENTS as the task topic. If empty, use the current user request or ask for one short topic when the request does not identify one.

You are running /adr-kit:context. Purpose: surface the ADRs that constrain the task at hand before writing code, so you implement within existing decisions instead of rediscovering or contradicting them. This is read-only — it never edits ADRs or code, so it is safe to call from parallel subagents.

Procedure

1. Take the topic from the argument. If none was given, ask the user for a short topic or task description (one phrase is enough).

2. Treat schema-v2 docs/adr/ADR-INDEX.json as the generated local query database. Never treat it as the decision authority or edit it by hand; source Markdown remains authoritative. Run the shared deterministic query engine from the project root and keep the default limit of 5:

   python <adr-kit-plugin-path>/bin/adr-context --format json --limit 5 "<topic>"
   

   • Use --adr-dir <path> if the project keeps ADRs somewhere other than docs/adr/.
   • Use --min-score <0-1> to tighten or loosen the relevance cutoff (default 0.1).
   • Include known --paths, --components, --symbols, or --topics. Filter with --status or --authority; use --history only when the task needs Rejected, Superseded, or Deprecated rationale.
   • Keep governing Accepted and advisory Proposed results separate.
   • If the JSON graph is missing or stale, report the fallback and python bin/adr-index docs/adr as the repair command. Use --strict-index when fallback would be unsafe.

3. If the result is an empty list ([]): tell the user plainly — "No ADRs match ''; all existing ADRs may apply, or none constrain this work." Do not invent relevance. Stop here.

4. Otherwise, for each returned ADR, Read the file and present it as readable context, not just a filename:

   • ADR-NNN — <title> (relevance: <score>)
   • returned status and format;
   • returned decision summary, authority, role, and matched signals;
   • declared related ADR ids when they explain the match;
   • file path, then Read that source ADR before stating a binding constraint.

   Order by relevance (highest first), most relevant ADR last in your message so it stays closest to the work that follows.

5. Briefly state the net constraint: in one or two sentences, what these decisions require or forbid for the task. Then proceed with (or hand back to) the implementation.

Boundaries

• Read-only. Never modify ADRs, code, or status during a context load.
• Report relevance honestly — a low score means "weakly related", not "must comply". Do not inflate scores to seem thorough.
• The ranker is a heuristic. If the user mentions a decision you do not see in the results, widen with a different topic or lower --min-score rather than assuming no ADR exists.
• Query the index first and open only returned sources; do not scan every ADR merely to discover relevance.
• Loading context is not approval to violate a decision. If the task conflicts with an Accepted ADR, surface the conflict and use /adr-kit:judge or /adr-kit:adr to resolve it.