documentation-and-adrs

An Architecture Decision Record documents status, date, context, decision, alternatives, and consequences for technical choices. It is stored under docs/decisions to preserve context and traceability for future engineers.

Documenting API changes and feature shipping rationale is best handled by recording decisions using structured templates. This ensures public API changes and shipping context are consistent, discoverable, and durable for onboarding and automation.

You need to write an ADR when you must capture the reasoning and alternatives behind a technical choice, rather than just the outcome. READMEs and changelogs document what changed, while ADRs preserve why the decision was made to prevent repeated debates.

Yes, you can use this approach to onboard new team members and AI agents. It maintains consistent project docs, READMEs, and decision records so both humans and agents understand the existing architecture and historical context.

Inline documentation comments should focus on explaining the intent and specific gotchas of the code. They should avoid simply restating what the code already does, ensuring the documentation adds durable context for future readers.