Use ADRs for Boundaries and Ownership
REVIEW-USE-ADRS-FOR-BOUNDARIES-AND-OWNERSHIP
Summary
Record durable ownership, API, storage, topology, runtime, or service-boundary decisions in ADRs. A decision record gives later contributors a stable tradeoff to affirm, revise, or replace.
Rule
Use ADRs for durable boundary and ownership decisions.
Why
Some decisions outlive the PR that introduces them: module ownership, public API boundaries, storage formats, source-control topology, runtime responsibility, and service or crate boundaries. An ADR gives those decisions a durable home so later contributors can understand the accepted tradeoff without rereading old review threads.
Helps
- Preserves architectural context, reduces repeated debate, and gives future changes a decision to affirm, revise, or replace.
Limits
Do not require ADRs for routine local edits. Use them when the decision changes ownership, compatibility, integration boundaries, or future design options.
Agent Instruction
Use ADRs for decisions that outlive a PR, such as ownership, API boundaries, storage formats,
runtime responsibility, and service or crate boundaries.Mechanisms
Supported by ADR templates, decision indexes, PR links to the accepted decision, and follow-up ADRs when the project deliberately reverses or narrows a previous choice.