adr-lifecycle

Run the significance gate first to confirm the choice is expensive to reverse, then pick a tier, take the next zero-padded four-digit number, answer the seven elicitation questions, and fill the house template. Finish by adding typed relationships and rebuilding the index.

A choice that is cheap to reverse and has no cross-cutting effect fails the significance gate and gets a lighter record instead: a one-line rationale in code, a design-doc paragraph, or a tracked item. Refusing to write an ADR is a valid outcome.

Write the replacement as proposed, review it fully, accept it, and only then flip the old record's status to superseded by ADR-NNNN. Never leave a window where neither record is in force, and never edit the old record beyond its status line.

No. After acceptance the only permitted edit is the status line, plus typo or broken-link fixes that change no claim. New evidence or changed constraints require a superseding record, which preserves what was known at decision time.

A proposed record is under review and constrains nothing; accepted means the five-part bar is met: evidence, named decisive criteria, human decider agreement, complete documentation, and finished review. Only accepted records act as constraints, and none authorize pushes or merges.

No. An ADR is advisory evidence only. It never authorizes a push, merge, publication, deployment, or queue mutation; each outward effect requires separate explicit human authorization.