decision-first-development-workflow

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name: "Decision-First Development Workflow" description: "This approach describes how to systematically capture architectural decisions throughout the development lifecycle, integrating decision rationale with artifacts to preserve "why" knowledge for fut..." version: "1.0.0" type: "approach" category: "documentation-pattern"

Decision-First Development Workflow

This approach describes how to systematically capture architectural decisions throughout the development lifecycle, integrating decision rationale with artifacts to preserve "why" knowledge for fut...

Instructions

This approach describes how to systematically capture architectural decisions throughout the development lifecycle, integrating decision rationale with artifacts to preserve "why" knowledge for future contributors and AI agents. It implements the traceable decision patterns established in ADR-017.

Principles

1. Decision Visibility
2. Flow State Respect
3. Bidirectional Linking
4. Progressive Fidelity
5. Agent Awareness

When to Use

• Making architectural choices that will affect multiple components
• Evaluating trade-offs between alternative implementations
• Establishing conventions or patterns for the codebase
• Working with AI agents on complex features requiring context
• Onboarding new contributors who need to understand rationale