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adr

What it means​

ADR stands for architecture decision record: a short, numbered note that records one decision, meaning its context, the choice and the reason, in one to three sentences. It's written once and never edited; if the decision changes later, a new ADR replaces it.

In this fork​

The domain-modeling skill offers an ADR, and never assumes one, only when a decision passes all three tests:

  • it's hard to reverse;
  • it would be surprising without context;
  • it's the result of a real trade-off.

Miss any one and there's no ADR. ADRs live in docs/adr/ as 0001-slug.md, 0002-slug.md, and so on, in the small ADR format.

An ADR is not the glossary. CONTEXT.md holds terms (what a thing is); an ADR holds one decision. The full comparison of the two is in domain-modeling's "Two artifacts, two bars".

See also​

  • Wrap: a session's permanent record. A wrap logs what happened in a session; an ADR records one decision, whichever sessions it took.