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--- name: new-adr description: Author a new ADR — record a DECISION (what the system must do, or how it is built) in a documentation-led repo. Picks the next contiguous number, chooses the shape (capability vs technology), fills the template, sets status Proposed, regenerates INDEX, updates domain READMEs, handles supersede/deprecate linkage, commits. Use when the user says "add an ADR", "new ADR", "record a decision", "create an architecture decision record", or invokes /new-adr. NOT for queueing a unit of work against an existing decision (use /new-plan) and NOT for recording a reusable rule, practice, or naming/process standard (use /add-convention). --- # new-adr Author one new ADR, consistent with this repo's conventions. ## Step 0 — Preconditions and context 1. Confirm the repo is bootstrapped: `AGENTS.md`, `CONVENTIONS.md`, and an `adr/` directory with at least `adr/0000-template.md` must exist. If not, stop and offer to run the **bootstrap** skill first. 2. Read `CONVENTIONS.md` to learn this repo's choices: the **ADR shape scheme** — a single shape, or two shapes (capability and technology) declared by a `shape:` field in each ADR's metadata block; there is no number boundary to read — status lifecycle, language mandate (if any), whether `domains/` groupings exist (and, if so, which domain this ADR belongs to — ask if it isn't obvious), the multi-agent mode, and the **artefact root** (default: repository root) — resolve `adr/` and `INDEX.md` against it (`AGENTS.md`/`CLAUDE.md` stay at the repo root). **Legacy range encoding.** A repo scaffolded before the shape became a declared field encodes it in the number instead — §ADR Shapes records a cutoff, or `adr/` holds a template numbered other than `0000` (e.g. `adr/0100-template.md`); either signal alone identifies it. Say so, and offer the migration onto the declared field (the **audit** skill carries the procedure) before authoring. If the operator declines, author under the repo's own rules: read the cutoff and place this ADR on its side of it — capability below, technology at or above, next contiguous **within that block** — using the boundary-numbered template for a technology ADR, and write **no** `shape:` field, which that repo does not use. If the block this ADR belongs to has reached the cutoff, stop and say so: the range is full, and the remedy is the migration, never crossing the boundary. 3. Read `INDEX.md` and `ls adr/` to learn existing numbers and titles. Ignore every `adr/0000-*.md` file — the templates are not decisions and hold no number in the sequence. 4. If a `federation.md` exists, this repo is part of a multi-repo product. Note the **identity scheme** and the **home** it records — they govern numbering and cross-repo references below. ## Step 0.5 — Assessment (run first) Run the shared assessment protocol before authoring: - **Depth selector first.** Ask how deep this assessment should go: **express** — every choice takes its recommended default; only questions with no derivable default (the free-text essentials) are still asked; **guided** — only the questions marked high-impact below, plus the free-text essentials; **full** — every question below. If the repo's `CONVENTIONS.md` records an `Assessment depth:`, pre-select it as the recommended option — the selector always appears; a recorded depth is never applied silently. Otherwise recommend **full** when the request arrived with little or no context and **express** when it is already fully specified. At any question the operator may answer "defaults from here" or "go deeper"; honour the switch immediately. - Ask the questions below **one at a time**, each with a **recommended option** and a one-line reason; wait for each answer. - Use **structured selection** (single- or multiple-choice). If the host exposes a structured single-/multi-select question tool, use it and mark the recommended option; otherwise list options A/B/C in plain text and name the recommended one. Use **free text only** where an enumerable set is impossible (e.g. the title). - **The operator decides.** Never proceed past a question without an answer, and never guess scope when invoked with no context. Questions (skip any the request already answers): 1. **Shape** — capability or technology (only if the repo declares two shapes; single-shape repos skip this). The answer picks the template and is written into the ADR's `shape:` field. *Recommended: per the request's intent.* 2. **Supersede?** — none, or select the ADR(s) this replaces. *Recommended: none.* *(High-impact — asked in guided: supersession linkage is hard to reverse.)* 3. **Initial status** — Proposed or Accepted. *Recommended: Proposed.* **Reconstructing already-shipped work** (a development built ahead of the process) is the exception: author at `Implemented`, Revision History citing the implementing commits and noting it was recorded after the fact, and write a matching `plan/done` entry. 4. **Create a plan item now?** — yes / no. *Recommended: yes when Accepted.* 5. **Title** — free text (the one unavoidable open answer; asked at every depth). ## Step 1 — Determine shape and number - **Shape.** If the repo uses a single ADR shape, use `adr/0000-template.md` and write no `shape:` field. If it declares two shapes, **ask** capability or technology — decide from the user's intent (what the system must do → capability; how it is built → technology) and confirm with the user if ambiguous. Then use the matching template — `adr/0000-template.md` for capability, `adr/0000-template-technology.md` for technology — and **write the chosen value into the ADR's `shape:` field**. Both templates are numbered `0000` and are never themselves catalogue entries. - **Number.** Next contiguous integer after the highest existing ADR, zero-padded to 4 digits. No gaps, no reuse. **The shape does not affect the number** — capability and technology ADRs share one contiguous sequence, and neither `0000-` template counts towards it. **In a federation** (a `federation.md` exists), number contiguously **within this repo** — numbers are not unique across the federation. The ADR's federation identity is the recorded scheme applied to this number (default repo-prefixed slug `<repo-id>/NNNN-slug`). ## Step 2 — Gather content Ask for the pieces the chosen template needs, one prompt at a time: - Title (sentence case), Context. - Capability ADR: capability statement, user stories, **numbered, testable** acceptance criteria. - Technology ADR: decision, rationale (**name alternatives considered and give specific rejection reasons** — reject "simpler"/"idiomatic" as insufficient), consequences, acceptance criteria. Honour the language mandate if one is set. ## Step 3 — Supersede / deprecate (only if replacing an ADR) If this ADR replaces an existing one: - Set `supersedes:` on the new ADR and `superseded-by:` on the old. - Advance the old ADR's `status:` to `Superseded`, append a Revision History row noting the successor. - **Same-repo** links use relative paths (`adr/NNNN-*.md`). **In a federation**, a link to an ADR in another repo uses the logical identity (`<repo-id>/NNNN-slug`), resolved via the member index along `repo-id → Pointer → adr/NNNN-*.md` — not a relative path. - A pure deprecation (no successor) sets the target to `Deprecated` with a Revision History row — and is usually done directly, not via this skill. ## Step 4 — Write - Copy the chosen template, fill all placeholders. Status `Proposed`, today's date, owner = current agent/human. In a two-shape repo, set `shape:` to the shape chosen in Step 1; in a single-shape repo omit the field entirely. - Seed the Revision History with an `r1 — Initial draft` row. Leave the Approvals table empty (it populates on Accepted). - **Do not invent acceptance criteria or rationale to fill space.** If the user hasn't supplied enough to make a section meaningful, ask. ## Step 5 — Wire up - Regenerate `INDEX.md` from ADR metadata. In a two-shape repo the table carries a **Shape** column, filled from each ADR's `shape:` field (an absent field renders as `capability`); a single-shape repo has none. Neither `0000-` template is a catalogue entry, so neither appears. - If `domains/` exists, add the ADR to the owning domain's `README.md` ADR list. If you assign the ADR to a domain that doesn't exist yet, offer to create `domains/<slug>/README.md` (at the recorded artefact root) and add the ADR to it — this enables the domains layer. - Multi-agent mode 2: claim the file in `_agent/LOCKS.md` before editing, remove on commit. Mode 3: you are on a branch/worktree. ## Step 6 — Commit Conventional Commit, `Rationale:` footer (this touches an ADR). No `Co-Authored-By` trailer unless the repo's Git contract requires one. ## Step 7 — Offer the next step A new ADR is `Proposed`, not actionable yet. Offer to: - Walk it to `Accepted` (populate Approvals, change status, regen INDEX) when the user is ready; and - Create a `plan/todo/` item for it (hand off to the **new-plan** skill).