# Decision Records > Draft, promote, archive, and supersede ADR-style decision records (types are open: architecture, product, security, policy, legal, …) and keep INDEX.md and cross-links generated, via the bundled scripts/decisions.py tool. Use when creating or promoting decision drafts, superseding or archiving a decision, fixing a promotion breach, flattening the old per-type accepted/ layout, or running build, check, promote, rename-draft-id, migrate-layout, or install. - Skill: `skymavis/decision-records` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 9 files) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds add skymavis/decision-records` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/skymavis/decision-records/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Security - Author: skymavis (https://skillmd.com/u/skymavis) - Updated: 2026-09-09 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/skymavis/decision-records --- # Decision records This skill owns the registry tool `decisions.py`, symlinked into the repo at `scripts/decisions.py` (run `decisions.py install` to set up the symlink + a CI check). The tool finds the repo's `docs/` by walking up from the CWD, so run it from anywhere in the repo: ```sh python scripts/decisions.py build [--relink] # regenerate INDEX.md (+ refresh links) python scripts/decisions.py check # validate (CI-safe; exit 1 if stale) python scripts/decisions.py promote [--deref] [--allow-replace] # draft(s) -> accepted/ python scripts/decisions.py rename-draft-id # re-ID a draft python scripts/decisions.py migrate-layout # one-shot: old accepted// -> flat python scripts/decisions.py install [repo] # adopt in a repo: symlink + pre-commit ``` ## Layout Everything the convention owns lives under `docs/decisions/`: ``` docs/ decisions/ # the convention's namespace (the umbrella) INDEX.md # GENERATED registry over accepted/ + archived/ README.md # human guide to the convention (scaffolded by install) AGENTS.md # agent rules: decisions are binding here (scaffolded by install) accepted/ # ACCEPTED numbered records — flat; `type` lives in front-matter archived/ # RETIRED records (superseded | deprecated) — flat drafts/ # WIP candidates — flat, 4-UPPERCASE-letter IDs, NOT in INDEX threat-model.md # other repo docs stay siblings — still cross-reference decisions ``` | Stage | Dir | ID | Status | | :-------------- | :---------- | :------------------------------------- | :-------------------------- | | candidate (WIP) | `drafts/` | 4 UPPERCASE letters, mnemonic (`CONF`) | `draft` | | decision | `accepted/` | global counter (`0001`…) | `accepted` | | retired | `archived/` | (keeps its counter) | `superseded` / `deprecated` | **Types are open** — `type` is any lowercase slug (software: `architecture`, `product`, `security`; governance: `policy`, `legal`, `finance`, `people`, `compliance`, `operations`). It lives in front-matter only — every lifecycle dir is flat — and the set in use is whatever the accepted records carry; the INDEX groups by it. A repo still on the old `accepted//` layout runs `python scripts/decisions.py migrate-layout` once: filenames (the identity) survive the move, so the ending `build --relink` self-heals every reference, and `check` points here whenever it finds a nested record. There is no `proposed` status — "proposing" is the act of opening a PR that promotes a draft. Mint a draft ID yourself (a mnemonic of the topic); `check` enforces format + uniqueness. Cross-reference by writing the bare ID as inline code — `` `0006` `` (decision) or `` `CONF` `` (draft); never hand-author a path — `build --relink` generates and self-heals every link across every `docs/*.md` (records, drafts, and other docs like `threat-model.md`). **A collision with `origin/main` is warned about, not gated.** Uniqueness is checked against one tree, so two branches can each mint `0044` and both stay green until they meet. `check` therefore also reads the `origin/main` already on disk and prints a `WARN` line when an ID there names a different file, along with the next free counter. It never fetches, never fails the run, and says nothing at all when that ref is not present — a fresh clone or an offline machine is not a finding. **`promote` mints past what `origin/main` holds.** Minting is the other side of that: it is a write — the record is renamed, its H1 rewritten and every inbound link repathed — so `promote` reads the ref rather than reporting on it afterwards, and prints which counters it stepped over. The hole that leaves is not a gap: `check` reads a counter `origin/main` holds as held rather than missing, and the rebase closes the sequence. A number neither tree has still fails, and with no ref on disk both behave exactly as they did before. **A citation of a superseded record is warned about, not gated.** Supersession retires a record, but nothing used to re-read the docs that cite it: a rulebook resting on `0007` kept resting on it after `0019` replaced it. `check` (and `build`) print a `WARN` naming the successor for every such cite in a living doc. It never fails the run, because a mention can be deliberately historical; archived records are frozen history and cite what they like, and the record that supersedes an old one may of course name it. ## Authoring Copy `drafts/_template.md` — the only template. A record is born a draft, and `promote` is the only door into `accepted/`: it mints the counter, flips the status, and rewrites the H1, so there is nothing an accepted-record template would add except a way around sign-off. Write the ruling, not the debate: - **Cite, don't restate.** The full argument lives in the linked thread, memo, or log; the record carries the decision, the live rationale, and pointers under References. - **Delete a section with nothing to say.** A Rationale that repeats the Decision, an unargued alternatives table, a padded consequences list — deletion beats padding, and the template marks which sections may go. - **Every sentence earns its place.** A flat sentence that states the fact beats a paragraph that performs it; one flourish is a voice, a flourish per paragraph is a tell. - **One decision per record.** A record that keeps growing is usually several rulings sharing a file — split them. There is deliberately no length rule. A pure ruling often fits in a few dozen lines; a record that also carries specification — in some repos the accepted record IS the spec of what shipped — legitimately runs hundreds. Length is a symptom to weigh, not a number to police; what the bullets above remove is padding, which shows up at every length. ## Promoting drafts **Promotion requires explicit human sign-off.** Promoting is a finalizing, semi-irreversible act (accepted records are held firm — changing course requires supersession, never a rewrite; decider-approved maintenance edits such as clarity, staleness, and cross-record consistency are allowed). Author, edit, and validate drafts freely; but never run `promote` — or its downstream steps (replacing naming placeholders, resolving threads, regenerating `INDEX.md`) — without the user's explicit go-ahead in the current turn. Don't infer approval from an adjacent choice (a scope answer, a cleared checklist); when unsure, ask. **An accepted decision may never reference a draft.** `promote` enforces this: it refuses a set that would breach and prints exactly how to fix it (co-promote, `--deref`, or `--allow-replace`) with a copy-paste prompt. Before any promotion the tool refuses — or any supersession — read **[references/promotion.md](references/promotion.md)** for the mechanics. Promotion changes a record's ID *and* its directory, and `promote` carries both through the tree: the H1, every relative link (drafts/ and accepted/ are siblings), the mnemonic in prose, and any spelled-out path to the draft file. It stops at `docs/`, and it never edits code — a 4-letter mnemonic also reads as an identifier. Mentions outside `docs/` are **listed** after the run for you to work through by hand; leave any identifier that merely shares the name. `mdformat` reflows the rewritten paragraphs on commit. ## Adopting this in a repo Run this skill's `decisions.py install [repo]` from the target repo. (`repo` defaults to the current dir; install sets up *there* — it does not search upward.) It is idempotent: it fills in only what's missing and regenerates `INDEX.md`. What it does: - **Symlinks** `/scripts/decisions.py` to this skill's copy, and **gitignores** that path (creating `.gitignore` if absent) — the symlink is machine-specific, so each clone recreates it with `install` rather than committing it. - **Scaffolds** `docs/decisions/`: `accepted/`, `archived/`, `drafts/` with its template (the only one), a human `README.md`, and an agent-facing `AGENTS.md`. - **Generates** `INDEX.md` (a build artifact, not a starter). - **Wires the root entry points** — when the repo has no root `README.md` or `AGENTS.md` (a fresh or empty repo), creates each as a placeholder linking the scaffold so people and agents discover it. An existing file is left untouched (see below). - In a git repo, adds a `pre-commit` hook running `decisions.py check`; run that same command in CI. If the repo already has these entry points, install leaves them alone — wire the scaffold in yourself so people and agents discover it: - Link the scaffolded `docs/decisions/README.md` from the repo's **contributor-facing** docs — `CONTRIBUTING.md`, or the `README.md` only if it addresses contributors (skip a user-facing README) — and point contributors at `docs/decisions/INDEX.md` to browse the accepted decisions. - In the repo's root `AGENTS.md`/`CLAUDE.md`, link `docs/decisions/AGENTS.md` so agents pick up that decisions are binding here. Keep each link to a one-line note on what it is.