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Record Architecture Decisions

Status

Accepted

Context

We need to record the architectural decisions made on this project to ensure:

  1. We have a record of what decisions were made and why
  2. New team members can quickly understand past decisions
  3. We can revisit decisions when requirements or context changes

Architecture decisions include: - Technology choices (frameworks, libraries, tools) - Design patterns and approaches - Trade-offs between competing concerns - API and interface designs - Data structures and formats

Decision

We will use Architecture Decision Records, as described by Michael Nygard in this article.

Each ADR will be stored in the docs/adr directory as a Markdown file with a sequential number prefix (NNNN).

Consequences

  • Team members and future maintainers can understand why certain decisions were made
  • The process of creating ADRs forces us to think through decisions more carefully
  • We have a historical record that can be referenced when evaluating changes
  • There is a small overhead in documenting decisions

Alternatives Considered

  • Documenting decisions in a wiki (rejected because it would be separate from the code)
  • Not documenting decisions formally (rejected due to knowledge loss over time)
  • Using a more complex decision documentation format (rejected in favor of simplicity)