documentation-criteria

name	documentation-criteria
description	Determines which of PRD, ADR, UI Spec, Design Doc, and Work Plan a change requires, and where each is stored. Use when deciding documentation scope, or when creating or reviewing a technical document.

Documentation Creation Criteria

This file holds the routing decision: which documents a change requires and where they live. What to write inside one is defined by its template, linked from Storage Locations.

What Each Document Fixes

Each document fixes one class of decision that the repository alone cannot supply. An unfilled section becomes a guess made later by the consumer named below, with no record of what was assumed.

• PRD — Fixes the business outcome and the acceptance criteria later work traces to. Its AC IDs are the traceability keys that the Design Doc, UI Spec, and test selection reuse; without them each consumer re-derives requirements from prose and the link between a test and the value it protects is lost. Implementation details belong to the Design Doc, selection rationale to an ADR, phases and task breakdown to the Work Plan.

• ADR — Fixes one durable technical choice and the options it beat, so later work can tell a deliberate decision from an accident. Without it a future change either re-runs the same comparison or silently reverses it. End-to-end implementation design belongs to the Design Doc, schedule and repository tasks to the Work Plan.

• UI Spec — Fixes screen structure, transitions, component/state contracts, and visual acceptance before components exist, so decomposition is decided once instead of per-component during implementation. Create one when those decisions remain open; reuse an approved UI Spec or go straight to the Design Doc when one evident repository-supported pattern already determines them. Technical implementation and API contracts belong to the Design Doc.

• Design Doc — Fixes the complete implementation design for the confirmed scope: flows, contracts, change impact, and verification strategy. Task execution treats it as the sole design authority and holds it read-only, so a gap here is filled by an implementer's local invention that no review compares against an approved decision. Technology selection rationale belongs to an ADR, schedule and assignments to the Work Plan.