ADR-0000 — Title

Context

The forces at work: what is true, what is constrained, what problem is being solved. Enough that someone who was not here can tell why a decision was needed at all.

If this is one sentence, check admission criterion 1 — you may be describing work rather than constraining it.

Decision

Stated in the present tense, as a rule: “X is Y”, not “we will make X be Y”.

Consequences

Good

• What this makes possible or cheap.

Costs and risks

• What it makes harder, and what could go wrong.

Both halves are required. A consequences section with no costs is advocacy, and the next reader will assume the costs were never considered.

Alternatives considered

<Alternative> — what it was, and the reason it lost.

This is the section future readers actually come for. “We considered other options” without naming them is the same as not having considered them.

Revisit triggers

Facts about the world that would reopen this — not a date. A record with no trigger is one nobody will know to revisit.

1. …

Admission check

Against the rule: (1) constrains future work ✅ · (2) a real alternative was rejected with a stated reason ✅ · (3) reversing later costs meaningfully more ✅ · (4) not owned by another document ✅ · (5) not an implementation detail ✅.