ADR-0001: Use ADR format for architectural decisions

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Status

Accepted

Context

Conjure involves numerous architectural decisions that affect the library's design, extensibility, and long-term maintainability. These decisions include:

  • How skills are loaded and parsed
  • Execution environment isolation strategies
  • API design philosophy
  • Security boundaries

Without documentation, the rationale behind these decisions is lost. Future contributors may:

  • Unknowingly revert to previously rejected approaches
  • Misunderstand the constraints that shaped the design
  • Waste effort re-evaluating settled decisions

Decision

We will use Architecture Decision Records (ADRs) to document significant architectural decisions.

Each ADR will:

  1. Be numbered sequentially (ADR-NNNN)
  2. Be stored in docs/adr/
  3. Follow a consistent format with Status, Context, Decision, and Consequences sections
  4. Be immutable once accepted (superseded rather than edited)

A decision is considered "architecturally significant" if it:

  • Affects the structure of the codebase
  • Constrains future development options
  • Has security implications
  • Involves non-obvious tradeoffs

Consequences

Positive

  • Decisions are preserved with their original context
  • New contributors can understand why things are the way they are
  • Forces explicit articulation of tradeoffs
  • Creates a historical record of the project's evolution

Negative

  • Additional documentation overhead
  • ADRs can become stale if not maintained
  • May slow down decision-making if over-applied

Neutral

  • ADRs are not a substitute for code comments or API documentation
  • The index must be kept up to date manually

References