Adr Skill

ADR Skill

Philosophy

ADRs created with this skill are agent-first: they are written so that a coding agent can read one and implement the decision without further clarification. Humans review and approve, but the primary consumer is an agent working from the ADR.

This means:

• Constraints must be explicit and measurable, not vibes
• Decisions must be specific enough to act on ("use PostgreSQL 16 with pgvector" not "use a database")
• Consequences must map to concrete follow-up tasks
• Non-goals must be stated to prevent scope creep
• The ADR must be self-contained — no tribal knowledge assumptions

Three-Phase Workflow

Every ADR goes through three phases. Do not skip Phase 1.

Phase 1: Capture Intent (Socratic)

Before writing anything, interview the human to understand the decision space. Ask questions one at a time, building on previous answers. Do not dump a list of questions.

Core questions (ask in roughly this order, skip what's already clear from context):

1. What are you deciding? — Get a short, specific title. Push for a verb phrase ("Choose X", "Adopt Y", "Replace Z with W").
2. Why now? — What broke, what's changing, or what will break if you do nothing? This is the trigger.
3. What constraints exist? — Tech stack, timeline, budget, team size, existing code, compliance. Be concrete.
4. What does success look like? — Measurable outcomes. Push past "it works" to specifics (latency, throughput, DX, maintenance burden).
5. What options have you considered? — At least two. For each: what's the core tradeoff? If they only have one option, help them articulate why alternatives were rejected.
6. What's your current lean? — Capture gut intuition early. Often reveals unstated priorities.
7. Who needs to know or approve? — Decision-makers, consulted experts, informed stakeholders.
8. What would you tell a new engineer (or agent) implementing this? — This surfaces the practical context that often gets left out.

Adaptive follow-ups: Based on answers, probe deeper where the decision is fuzzy. Common follow-ups:

• "What's the worst-case outcome if this decision is wrong?"
• "What would make you revisit this in 6 months?"
• "Is there anything you're explicitly choosing NOT to do?"
• "What prior art or existing patterns in the codebase does this relate to?"

When to stop: You have enough when you can mentally draft every section of the ADR without making things up. If you're guessing at any section, ask another question.

Phase 2: Draft the ADR

1. Choose the ADR directory.

   • If one exists (adr/, docs/adr/, docs/decisions/, etc.), use it.
   • If none exists, create docs/decisions/ (MADR default) or adr/ (simpler repos).

2. Choose a filename strategy.

   • If existing ADRs use numeric prefixes (0001-...), continue that.
   • Otherwise use slug-only filenames (choose-database.md).

3. Choose a template.

   • Use assets/templates/adr-simple.md for straightforward decisions (one clear winner, minimal tradeoffs).
   • Use assets/templates/adr-madr.md when you need to document multiple options with structured pros/cons/drivers.
   • See references/template-variants.md for guidance.

4. Fill every section from Phase 1 answers. Do not leave placeholder text. Every section should contain real content or be removed (optional sections only).

5. Generate the file.

   • Preferred: run scripts/new_adr.js (handles directory, naming, and optional index updates).
   • If you can't run scripts, copy a template from assets/templates/ and fill it manually.

Phase 3: Review Against Checklist

After drafting, review the ADR against the agent-readiness checklist in references/review-checklist.md. Present findings to the human and iterate.

Key questions the review answers:

• Could an agent implement this decision from the ADR alone?
• Are there ambiguities that would cause an agent to guess or ask for clarification?
• Are consequences actionable (specific tasks, not vague aspirations)?
• Is the scope bounded (what's in AND what's out)?

Do not finalize until the ADR passes the checklist or the human explicitly accepts the gaps.

Other Operations

Update an Existing ADR

1. Identify the intent:

   • Accept / reject: change status, add any final context.
   • Deprecate: status → deprecated, explain replacement path.
   • Supersede: create a new ADR, link both ways (old → new, new → old).
   • Add learnings: append to ## More Information with a date stamp. Do not rewrite history.

2. Use scripts/set_adr_status.js for status changes (supports both YAML front matter and inline status).

Index

If the repo has an ADR index/log file (often README.md or index.md in the ADR dir), keep it updated.

Preferred: let scripts/new_adr.js --update-index do it. Otherwise:

• Add a bullet entry for the new ADR.
• Keep ordering consistent (numeric if numbered; date or alpha if slugs).

Bootstrap

When introducing ADRs to a repo that has none:

node /path/to/adr-skill/scripts/bootstrap_adr.js

This creates the directory, an index file, and the first ADR ("Adopt architecture decision records"). Use --json for machine-readable output. Use --dir to override the directory name.

Categories (Large Projects)

For repos with many ADRs, organize by subdirectory:

docs/decisions/
  backend/
    0001-use-postgres.md
  frontend/
    0001-use-react.md
  infrastructure/
    0001-use-terraform.md

Numbers are local to each category. Choose a categorization scheme early (by layer, by domain, by team) and document it in the index.

Resources

scripts/

• scripts/new_adr.js — create a new ADR file from a template, using repo conventions.
• scripts/set_adr_status.js — update an ADR status in-place (YAML front matter or inline). Use --json for machine output.
• scripts/bootstrap_adr.js — create ADR dir, README.md, and initial "Adopt ADRs" decision.

references/

• references/review-checklist.md — agent-readiness checklist for Phase 3 review.
• references/adr-conventions.md — directory, filename, status, and lifecycle conventions.
• references/template-variants.md — when to use simple vs MADR-style templates.
• references/examples.md — filled-out short and long ADR examples.

assets/

• assets/templates/adr-simple.md — lean template for straightforward decisions.
• assets/templates/adr-madr.md — MADR 4.0 template for decisions with multiple options and structured tradeoffs.
• assets/templates/adr-readme.md — default ADR index scaffold used by scripts/bootstrap_adr.js.

Script Usage

From the target repo root:

# Simple ADR
node /path/to/adr-skill/scripts/new_adr.js --title "Choose database" --status proposed

# MADR-style with options
node /path/to/adr-skill/scripts/new_adr.js --title "Choose database" --template madr --status proposed

# With index update
node /path/to/adr-skill/scripts/new_adr.js --title "Choose database" --status proposed --update-index

# Bootstrap a new repo
node /path/to/adr-skill/scripts/bootstrap_adr.js --dir docs/decisions

Notes:

• Scripts auto-detect ADR directory and filename strategy.
• Use --dir and --strategy to override.
• Use --json to emit machine-readable output.