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Architectural Decision Records

Source identity:

ddx:
  id: resource.adr-github-organization

Architectural Decision Records

Source

Summary

The ADR GitHub organization describes an architectural decision as a justified design choice that addresses architecturally significant requirements. An ADR captures one decision and its rationale, tradeoffs, and consequences. A project’s ADRs form a decision log that helps teams understand why the architecture changed over time.

Relevant Findings

  • ADRs should capture the reason for a chosen decision, not only the final choice.
  • A useful ADR focuses on one architecturally significant decision.
  • Tradeoffs and consequences are central; an ADR without them is just a note.
  • ADR collections create durable architectural knowledge across iterative work.

HELIX Usage

This resource informs the Architecture Decision Record artifact. HELIX uses it to keep ADRs compact, single-decision records that preserve rationale for agents and humans working from shared context.

Authority Boundary

This resource does not define HELIX’s artifact stack or lifecycle rules. HELIX keeps ADRs subordinate to architecture for structural coherence and treats accepted ADRs as write-once history except for status changes.