Decision Memo Writer

decision-memo-writer

The leadership-facing decision artifact. RFCs are for engineers; ADRs are for posterity; decision memos are for the person with 5 minutes to decide.

When to use

• Bringing a decision to an exec / sponsor / committee for ratification.
• Pre-meeting brief: leader will see this before the meeting to come prepared.
• The strategic recommendation from stakeholder-update-writer exec tier needs a backing one-pager.

When NOT to use

• Technical decision capture → adr-writer.
• Open-for-comment proposal → rfc-writer.
• Exception request → exception-request-drafter.
• Stakeholder update across many topics → stakeholder-update-writer.

Document structure (one page, 250-500 words)

# Decision Memo — {title}

**Decision needed**: {1 sentence — what the leader must decide}
**Decision-maker**: {role + name}
**Recommended decision**: {1 sentence — author's recommendation}
**Date**: YYYY-MM-DD
**Author / sponsor**: {names}

## Context (~60 words)
{What's the backdrop. Cite relevant vault notes.}

## Options
1. **{Option A}** — pros / cons / cost
2. **{Option B}** — pros / cons / cost
3. **{Option C — recommended}** — pros / cons / cost (+ why this one)

## Risk of inaction
{What happens if no decision is made? Cite the specific risk.}

## Asks
- Decision needed by: {date}
- If approved: {what unlocks immediately}
- If rejected: {what alternative path is needed}

## Sources
- {vault notes — research, facts, prior decisions}

As the final step, write the memo via vault-writer.write_insight to vault/insights/YYYY-MM-DD-decision-memo-{slug}.md (it informs a decision; the decision itself becomes a separate decisions/ ADR).

Composes with

• vault-querier — pull supporting facts / research.
• vault-writer.write_insight — persists the memo (final step).
• stakeholder-update-writer — exec-tier outputs sometimes need decision-memo backup.
• adr-writer — once the decision is made, the ADR captures it.

Acceptance test (for step 32 done-criteria)

One live decision memo. Natural fixture: the AI-governance position quarterly recommendation that needs a leader to choose between active/passive postures.